Abstract

Variables selection and questionnaire design

The questionnaire shown in the attachment was generated in English and then translated into Chinese and Japanese, and the translation was verified by several native-tongue translators in the targeted language. According to the literature review, hypotheses have been promoted, and the variables in this research are quantifiable and measurable (Table 1).

Table 1. Hypothesis.

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Attitudes cannot be easily defined. It is an expression of feelings about the objects and also describes the consumer’s confidence in the various attributes and benefits of such objects (Fishbein et al. 1980). Consumer attitudes vary from person to person due to some internal factors like different psychological and emotional reactions and external factors like family preference and social as well as cultural status. Generally, socio-demographic characteristics have effects on consumers’ attitudes to products. (Katt and Meixner 2020).

Attitudes towards timber-frame houses will be directly influenced by consumers’ beliefs and demographics. In this study, socio-demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, and occupation have been selected as variables. Moreover, consumers’ beliefs and experiences also have vital effects on consumer-driven business strategies. (Aboulnaga and Elsharkawy 2022). Environmental awareness is an important driver for the development of innovative forest-based products (Sandra and Alessandro 2021). Additionally, current purchases and knowledge also have vital effects on the consumers’ willingness of future purchases (Wang et al. 2017, Jung et al. 2020).

The current purchase patterns, knowledge, and consumers’ environmental awareness are all important factors that will influence consumers’ attitudes toward timber-frame houses. Therefore, factors are determined by the paths shown in Figure 1, which leads to the formation of overall attitude toward timber-frame houses, including factors such as customers’ knowledge and information, current house purchase patterns, beliefs about timber-frame houses, environmental awareness, personal background such as demographics and socio-economic factors. This model is an extension of the multi-attribute and mediation models of Moon, Ajzen, and Fishbein (Moon and Balasubramanian 2004).

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Based on the factors proposed for determining consumer attitudes, the questionnaire has been divided into three sections: the first section is demographic information, including gender, age, location, and occupation. The second part of the questionnaire directs the respondents to check their attitudes towards timber-frame houses. Three detailed questions are designed to get their personal experience with timber-frame houses.

Moreover, there are two tables designed in this part. The first table is to check consumers’ current purchase patterns to evaluate which aspects are decisive for the choice of a certain building construction mode. The second table was designed to show the attitudes towards timber as a construction material. Several typical attributes, including the most essential characteristics of the timber, such as cost, fire resistance, cozy living, acoustic insulation, health, security, aesthetics, modernity, and so on, could be chosen to measure the attitudes, as shown in Figure 2.

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In this part, two 4-point scales are used: they are 1 (agreeing fully), 2 (agreeing somewhat), 3 (disagreeing somewhat), and 4 (fully disagreeing); or 1 (very important), 2 (important), 3 (unimportant), and 4 (not important at all). The third part of the questionnaire was designed to check consumers’ environmental awareness, their belief about the future construction materials, and their interest in timber-frame houses.

Data collection and handling

In order to obtain objective and comprehensive data in this study, a questionnaire was designed and used to collect data, which is the most popular and oldest form of survey data collection. Before the questionnaire was distributed, it was pretested with a small number of people before mass distribution. The pilot test was designed and sent to four professors who come from two universities and have wide experience with public surveys. Additionally, the pilot test was also sent to 20 individuals to check that the questionnaire was accurate, descriptive, and understandable. Based on their input, the questionnaire was further revised to make sure that there were no reading problems, and that it was understandable and reasonable for respondents.

We determined that the respondents in this study should be over 18 years old. That’s because citizens over 18 years old in China are more mature, and socially defined as adults who have the right to vote and to be elected (Kozlovská 2020). Besides their age, we determined that respondents should own houses or would buy houses in the near future. Prior to data analysis, questionnaires with invalid responses, missing data, and outliers were removed. The inclusion criteria were individuals who (1) were at least 18 years old, (2) able to read and complete the questionnaire independently, and (3) voluntarily agreed to participate in the survey. To prevent missing data, if the participant began to fill out the questionnaire but did not complete it, we considered it invalid. Respondents had to finish all questions to be able to submit their survey. There was no time limit for completing it.

The data were collected from April to May 2020 in China by a Chinese data collection website named Jin Shu Ju. The online anonymous questionnaire was distributed using the “snowball method” (Jacobsen 2005) via a link embedded in several social networks such as WeChat, a Chinese public communication app, and an email or message sent to friends, family, and work colleagues to enable participants to answer and submit at their convenience and to maintain their anonymity. Based on our research status and the previous comparative research literature (Bonnel 2003, Dyson et al. 2021, Piccitto et al 2022, Bosshard et al. 2023). This study uses data from two commonly used data collection methods in China and Japan respectively. The data collection in Japan was conducted from November and December 2020 in Kitakyushu, Japan; the questionnaire was given to the respondents face-to-face. During this period, there were several festival events, which attracted a variety of residents. We chose to distribute our questionnaire near train stations, bus stops, and the events’ locations, which could ensure the number of participants and their diversity. The questionnaires were distributed to participants with a paid postal envelope and a restaurant voucher, which increased the response rate (Frederiks et al. 2020).

As a result, a total of 287 Chinese responses were received after the follow-up mailing, and from the data collection website; the response rate was approximately 65 percent.

In Japan, 236 completed questionnaires were collected, and the response rate was approximately 80 percent. Both the response rates can be considered satisfactory compared to other studies based on a questionnaire survey administered to a sample of consumers (Sandra and Alessandro 2021). Prior to analysis, the collected responses were transformed via Excel into an SPSS readable form. Analyses were conducted through SPSS (Ver. 22) statistical software. Common correlations, factor analytic stability of the dimensional, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing of the resulting differences were applied.

Descriptive analysis results

The demographic properties of the two countries’ respondents differ in many ways, whereas some similarities have been found in the results. The results of the demographic distribution of China and Japan are shown in Table 2. Chinese respondents included a higher percentage of females than Japanese respondents. For the age distribution, both the majority of Chinese and Japanese respondents were between 18 and 40, while for the age over 60, Japanese respondents were more numerous. Population aging is an urgent problem faced by many countries in the world, and in Japan, the proportion of elderly people in Japan is estimated over 26 percent, which is a larger number than in any other country in the world (Liu et al. 2016). The age distribution of this investigation also reflects the current Japanese population situation. Compared with Chinese consumers, Japanese consumers for housing purchase are older.

Table 2. Demographic information.

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Analysis of the different assessments and attitudes toward timber-frame houses between China and Japan

Similarities and differences were found after the analysis of answers from both Chinese and Japanese respondents. Actually, a buying decision is a multi-dimensional process with many different factors affecting it. Here in this paper, just some factors that are characteristic of timber-frame houses were picked out. After doing the comparison, Table 3 shows that the top three factors that Chinese respondents pay more attention to are health, cozy living, and security, while cozy living, fire resistance, and acoustic insulation are the top three important factors that Japanese respondents pay more attention to. The least attention shown by Chinese respondents is the short construction period, aesthetics, and easy personal contribution, and Japanese respondents’ pay least attention to easy personal contribution, short construction period, and environmentally friendly materials. Moreover, the Chinese and Japanese respondents have the same attitudes towards maintenance and energy saving, while there is a big difference in costs.

Table 3. Chinese and Japanese respondents’ assessment on purchasing building construction model.

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Following the analyses of house purchase patterns, a list of attributes embracing the most essentially perceived characteristics of timber-frame houses was compiled in order to measure the attitudes of consumers towards timber as a construction material. The respondents were asked to which extent they considered that timber held these attributes. They had the choice among agreeing fully, agreeing somewhat, disagreeing somewhat, and fully disagreeing.

After the analysis of both Chinese and Japanese surveys, Table 4 shows the result: (1) Nature, health, and high cost are the top three attributes of timber as construction materials that Chinese respondents hold positive attitudes on, and ventilation, health and cozy living are the top three attributes that Japanese respondents’ hold positive attitudes on. (2) More Chinese respondents hold doubts about ventilation, environmentally friendly materials, and cozy living. And more Japanese respondents hold doubts about nature, environmentally friendly materials, durability and acoustic insulation. (3) From Chinese respondents the assertions about timber’s durability, acoustic insulation and fire resistance are strongly rejected, while for Japanese respondents are high cost, fire resistance, and modernity are three attributes strongly rejected.

Table 4. Chinese and Japanese respondents’ assessment on timber used as a construction material.

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The use of timber as a construction material is highly valued by consumers, since it is specifically considered to be healthy and provide optimum of living comfort as well as being generally estimated to be a suitable construction material (Blackwell et al. 2006). Therefore, it can be summarized that health and nature are the widely accepted attributes by both Chinese and Japanese respondents. However, for the environmentally friendly materials, respondents from both countries showed their doubts. For the high cost, consumers show a big difference: Chinese consumers agree that timber frame houses are high cost, while the Japanese show less agreement. Four attributes—fire resistance, acoustic insulation, durability, and modernity—are strongly rejected by both Chinese and Japanese respondents.

In order to check the relationship between age, gender, and occupation with their attitudes on the timber used as construction material, a t test independent samples test and 1-way ANOVA were adopted to do the analysis. According to the analysis results shown in Table 5, it was found that six factors receive significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) in China, which are fire resistance, cozy living, acoustic insulation, environmental protection, health, and durability; respondents between ages 41 and 50 show the highest agreement on timber-frame houses or the use of timber as construction materials, while the younger respondents show lower agreement and doubt on these factors. Hence, Hypotheses 5 and 6 are supported. The younger respondents saw timber construction as “old-fashioned” and “low quality” (Su et al. 2012). Young consumers between 18 to 30 years of age are the main consumers with a high probability of becoming future home buyers. Therefore, improving young consumers’ perception of using wood as construction material should be paid more attention in future marketing promotion.

Table 5. T-test independent samples test and One way ANOVA to summarize the different attitudes for the evaluation of timber frame houses.

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Different from China, in Japan, three factors—energy saving, easy personal contribution, and cost—were figured out to have a significant difference and the age distribution was much scattered. Hypotheses 1 and 2 are supported among Japanese consumers, but cannot be supported in Chinese consumers. For different genders, it is found that there is no difference on their attitudes in China, while in Japanese female consumers show more agreement on using timber as constructure materials. Among the different occupations, Chinese civil servants show more agreement on the characteristics of cozy living, acoustic insulation, and durability, and the self-employed show agreement on timber-frame houses for their modernity. In Japan, five factors figured: they are security, health, environmental protection, maintenance, and energy saving; the occupational differences are also different from Chinese consumers. Students show more agreement on security, housewives think that timber houses are healthy, civil servants agree on the characteristics of environmental protection and maintenance, and the self-employed show more agreement on energy saving. This difference supports Hypotheses 7 and 8.

Comparison of knowledge of, belief in, and interest in timber-frame houses

Individual factors, also called internal factors, refer to the consumers’ psychological processes that affect consumer behavior. Personal influences involve consumer demographics, personality, lifestyle, motivation, knowledge, intention, beliefs, and feelings (Wu 2003). Personal living experiences, as one way to get knowledge, belief and interest, and whether the respondents have the experience of living in a timber-frame house were asked. The analysis result shows that the living experience is similar for both Chinese and Japanese respondents: 53.8 percent of Chinese respondents and 56.6 percent of Japanese respondents have experience lived in timber-frame houses before, shown in Figure 3. There were no big differences in the personal living experience and no difference was detected in consumers’ attitudes towards timber-frame houses. Hence, Hypotheses 3 and 4 cannot be supported.

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Timber, as a recyclable construction material, will play an important role in reducing the pollution from the construction field. A question asked interviewees about whether they know about low-carbon society or climate change, Figure 4. The aim of this question is to attempt to figure out whether there is a relationship between environmental awareness and attitudes toward timber-frame houses. A 1-way ANOVA was used to check the relationship between environmental awareness and attributes toward timber-frame houses; the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level (P ≤ 0.05). After analysis, it was found that environmental awareness does not have a close relationship with people’s attitudes toward timber-frame houses. For Chinese respondents, cozy living and health are the two attributes that have differences for differing environmental awareness. For Japanese respondents, the results show that just cozy living is different among the respondents’ own different environmental awareness (P ≤ 0.05). Consumers with higher environmental consciousness, on the one hand, tend to support timber as construction material to reduce the carbon emission caused by architecture; on the other hand, lots of people are aware that trees are essential for maintaining equilibrium within the natural environment and worry about environmental problems such as deforestation. Indeed, trees can act as a net consumer of CO₂, or carbon sink, during their growing time (Brienen et al. 2020). However, once trees become mature, they absorb far less carbon, so reasonable harvesting is necessary. If the wood is managed properly as in planted forests, it could be associated with a good image of a sustainable material.

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Figure 5 shows that both Chinese and Japanese respondents have high interest in timber-frame houses. According to the content design of the questionnaire, the question “Are you interested in timber-frame houses?” means “Do you want to know information about timber frame houses in the future?” For further analysis, a 1-way ANOVA was used to check the relationship between consumers’ interest and their purchase patterns as well as their evaluations of the attributes of timber-frame houses. The analysis result shows that P ≤ 0.05, which means there are relationships between the consumers’ interests and their purchase patterns, as well as their evaluations. Therefore, for the long term of promoting timber-frame houses, it is necessary to improve young consumers’ consciousness and interests through education and media promotion.

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What are the attitudes of Chinese and Japanese consumers towards timber as a construction material?

Due to the mature market for timber-frame houses and the higher market proportion, it is assumed that Japanese consumers have higher levels of knowledge, experience, interest and agreement about whether timber can be widely used in construction versus Chinese consumers, whereas the research results indicate that Chinese and Japanese consumers have almost the same experience. This may be because timber-frame houses are still fresh and notable in China, and it is impressive and memorable once consumers have experience (Luo et al. 2018). From the statistical results, compared with Japanese consumers, the Chinese are more familiar with low-carbon society or climate change, while the Japanese show higher interests in timber-frame houses. In recent years, many Chinese cities have made efforts to construct a low-carbon city and a low-carbon society (Su et al. 2003). Thus, Chinese consumers get a lot of information about this. As mentioned above, timber-frame houses in Japan account for a much higher proportion, and the detached single-family house is common, from 41.3 percent in big cities to 54.8 percent in smaller cities (Wu 2003). However, the living situation in China is significantly different; the commonest residence form is a multi-floor apartment built with concrete and steel structures. Thus, when mentioned purchasing houses or attitudes toward timber-frame houses, the Japanese show higher interests, while the Chinese thought that owning a timber-frame house would be a distant possibility.

Chinese experts considered the price and the reputation of the residential area as the two most important criteria for the public when deciding to purchase a house (En et al. 2023). However, this research indicates that Chinese consumers consider health, cozy living, and security to be the top three criteria when deciding to purchase a house. In addition, Japanese consumers pay more attentions to cozy living, fire resistance, and acoustic insulation. This may be due to different cultural backgrounds and status quo in respective marketplaces: in Japan, timber-frame houses are very common, and the negative attitudes of being easily flammable and having low fire performance come to be long-term solidified perceptions, thus features that the Japanese pay much more attention to. The concern for acoustic insulation is influenced by Japanese culture: do not disturb others. It is common to find out that Japanese people are used to keeping voices low in lots of occasions compared with other countries. Thus they take acoustic insulation as one of the important factors for housing purchases. Actually, the previous experiment shows that the actual air sound insulation of timber-building partition walls and floor slabs is 50 dB and 52 dB, which basically equal to the level of sound insulation performance of concrete buildings (Martins et al. 2015).

For knowledge and agreements regarding timber used as a construction material, both Chinese and Japanese consumers have the same attitude on the attributes of health, nature, environmental protection, durability, acoustic insulation, and fire resistance, while for the attributes of high cost, modernity and ventilation, they showed significant differences. Compared with the Japanese, the Chinese stated that timber-frame houses have a high cost. As mentioned above, timber-frame houses are not common and still new in the architectural market. Timber is mostly used in villas and some public architecture, which will give common consumers the impression that timber-frame houses have high cost, and it is also one of the reasons why timber-frame houses have low market acceptance in China. Unlike the Japanese, Chinese consumers show higher agreement on the characteristics of modernity, whereas the Japanese show the lowest agreement on this among the 10 typical characteristics of timber-framed houses. One possible reason is that timber-frame houses are at their introductory stage in China; what consumers look at are the modern and new, well-bsuilt architecture. However, after decades of development, the number of timber-frame houses in Japan are relatively high, 56.9 percent in 2018 (Statistics Bureau 2022). In Japanese respondents, the impression is that timber-frame houses no longer stand for modernity, but are outdated.

Therefore, in order to improve the acceptance of timber-frame houses in current market environment, the misunderstandings about timber-frame houses summarized above should be changed; the knowledge, properties, and benefits need to be promoted by education and media promotion. Among these two countries, China should make much more effort for educating consumers, because the Chinese market is still in the introductory stage. For a long-term promotion of timber-frame houses, it is necessary to do education and media promotion among young consumers, who will be potential house purchasers in the near future.

What are the underlying driving forces relating to changing consumers’ attitudes?

Driving forces: standards and design codes.—

Standards and design codes are necessary to guarantee the desired safety and performance of structures and are one of the most important driving forces for promoting timber-frame houses. Concerning timber structures, the development of the standards and design codes between China and Japan are significantly different, as shown in Figure 6. Along with the improvement of relevant standards and design codes, timber used as a construction material will be promoted rapidly, and consumers’ attitudes will be changed with the development of timber-frame house standards and codes.

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Figure 6 illustrates the historical overview of the laws and regulations on timber-frame houses in Japan and China; it shows that Japan has a longer history of timber-frame house development, especially in the 1980s. The development of laws and regulations in China is relatively late, mainly after 2000, but it has been accelerated in recent years. Additionally, in 2017, there was a series of new regulations or standards implemented in China, such as the Technical Standard for Assembled Timber Buildings in January 2017 formulated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, which regulates the design, production, construction, and acceptance standards of assembled wood buildings; the “Design Standards for Wood Structures” was also formulated in November 2017 to regulate the grading of wood materials and strength levels, supplement the design regulations for square log structures and combined wood structures, and improve the design regulations for glued wood structures and light wood structures. In October 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development formulated the Technical Standards for Multi-High-Rise Timber Buildings to clarify the concepts related to multi-high-rise timber buildings and to develop as well as improve the design, fabrication, installation, and maintenance procedures.