Materializing the Societal Effect: Organizational Forms and Changing Patterns of Dominance in the Paper Industry

Abstract

This paper reports an empirical study on the co-evolution of competitive conditions dominating firms and organizational forms in the paper industry¹. It has two main theoretical implications. First, with respect to research on national business systems and the societal effect, we suggest that the country of origin imprints firms especially by allowing them to develop distinctive organizational forms. Second, we show that the competitive conditions, dominant forms and dominant firms remain in constant flux even in mature industries. There is, therefore, a need for co-evolutionary research to continue to combine long-term perspectives and intensive research designs in the study of specific industries.