Institutional changes in the Swedish meat industry
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain institutional changes in the Swedish meat industry after major external events.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis based on secondary data sources and interviews with people involved when the dominant meat co-operative in Sweden underwent major changes.
Findings
The decline in the Swedish meat industry is interpreted using the theory of institutional change presented by Aoki (2007, 2011). The country’s former national agricultural policy created a specific set of norms and values. Co-operatives were considered to be indispensable. The co-operative sector was large and hierarchically organised. Therefore, external signals did not create sufficient endogenous processes within the co-operatives. Co-operative adaptation to rising competitive pressure took place only reluctantly and belatedly. Hence many farmer-members defected and the major co-operative faced finally insurmountable problems. A strong ideological conviction caused the once dominant co-operative to collapse and much of the Swedish meat industry to disappear.
Originality/value
This study shows that strong ideology (here a conviction about the advantages of politically governed co-operatives) can hamper endogenous processes within an organisation. Management may ignore outside influences, to the extent that even a large industry is impaired. Other large, hierarchically structured and top-governed organisations with a strong ideology may behave in a similar way.
Keywords
Citation
Nilsson, J. and Lind, L.W. (2015), "Institutional changes in the Swedish meat industry", British Food Journal, Vol. 117 No. 10, pp. 2501-2514. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2014-0378
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited