Technological development gives Swedish forest companies and forest owners’ associations opportunities to maintain competitiveness in the highly cost-sensitive market for forest products. Development efforts are typically performed through unstructured decision processes. However, an organization’s success is a product of its decisions, so the quality of these decisions is crucial. The main objectives of this thesis were therefore to describe and critically analyze strategic decision-making about forest technology. Study I investigated how and with what support forest companies and a forest owners’ association make decisions about forest technology. It was concluded that these organizations value collaborations with manufacturers and researchers, that economic criteria were most important in the decision-making process, and that large risks are preferably managed in a stepwise fashion. Study II reviewed the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods in forest operations and it was shown that the methods were used at various temporal scales, most commonly when making strategic decisions. Study III developed and compared two modelling approaches for machine system analysis and concluded that they produced similar results despite having different levels of detail and demanding different competences. Study IV used the previously developed modelling approaches to compare the performance of established and new machine systems in Swedish final fellings, revealing an opportunity to reduce costs by adopting the new machine system. A conceptual flowchart for strategic decision making on forest technology development was created to improve the quality and efficiency of the decision-making process
