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Green Innovation Systems in Swedish Industry, 1960–1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2012

Ann-Kristin Bergquist  and
Kristina Söderholm
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Abstract

Organizational networks had a strong influence on the diffusion of green knowledge within the Swedish pulp-and-paper industry from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. The environmental adaptations made by this industrial sector were not merely the result of a corporate initiative or of the response by firms or industries to environmental regulation. An examination of the innovation-system approach that was used to further the industry's environmental goals reveals that the knowledge and technology development underpinning the project depended on a network of diverse actors. Within this network, the semi-governmental Institute for Water and Air Protection, working with a consulting company, was a critical generator and intermediary of knowledge. Thus, the success of the project was largely due to the Institute's balanced relations with government and industry.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 85 , Issue 4 , Winter 2011 , pp. 677 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2011

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References

1 We define the concept “green knowledge” as the knowledge needed to achieve deep emission reductions in Swedish heavy industry in the 1960s to the 1980s, with focus on the Swedish paper and pulp industry. It is assumed that knowledge is built up (and required) in the individual firm as well as in the related organizations and institutions that affect and assist the company in this knowledge accumulation process. These include, above all, other industrial enterprises, suppliers, consultants, industry associations, research institutions and public institutions, including environmental policy and regulation. A central assumption in this context is that the green knowledge was built up in the interaction between these institutions.

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8 Ibid.

9 The Royal Majesty's Bill (Kungl. Maj:ts proposition), no. 154, 1965.

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25 Bessant, John and Rush, Howard, “Building Bridges for Innovation: The Role of Consultants in Technology Transfer,” Research Policy 24 (1995): 97–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 See also Schein, Edgar H., Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development (Reading, Mass., 1969)Google Scholar.

27 “Many user firms lack the resources or experience to understand and prioritize their problems in such a way that external resources and opportunities can be effectively utilized. Consultants can provide a valuable input to this first stage of innovation, by creating a strategic framework for change; they can also move from identifying needs in this fashion to suggesting means whereby the identified problems can be solved,” Bessant and Rush, “Building Bridges for Innovation,” 102.

28 The literature on the social constructionist approach to technology (SCOT) literature explains how this occurs. This literature typically focuses on individual consumers' appropriation of technology (see Oudshoorn, Nelly and Pinch, Trevor, eds., How Users Matter: The Co-construction of Users and Technology [Cambridge, Mass., 2003]Google Scholar). On how firms as users can influence and get influenced by a technology, see Yates, Joanne, Structuring the Information Age: Life Insurance and Technology in the Twentieth Century (Baltimore, 2005)Google Scholar.

29 Söderholm, Kristina, “Environmental Awakening in the Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry: Pollution Resistance and Firm Responses in the Early Twentieth Century,” Business Strategy and the Environment 18, no. 1 (2009): 32–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Bergquist and Söderholm, “R&D Collaboration and Environmental Adaptation.”

31 Söderholm, “Environmental Awakening in the Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry.”

32 Lundgren, Lars J., “Från Miljöproblem till Miljövård: Ett genombrott med fördröjning,” Deadalus, Tekniska Museets Årsbok (1999)Google Scholar.

33 The 1942 Reform of the Water Act introduced a concession system, where those who wanted to release pollutants into water could apply to the Water Court for permission for such activities (some industries were obliged to, such as chemical pulp mills, sugar mills, and textile factories). The list of activities that required pre-investigation was extended by the Preliminary Examination Announcements of both 1946 and 1956. Also, the Water Conservation Committee was appointed in 1953, whose work resulted in a new regulatory law in 1956, meaning that the central water assessment now came to be administered by the State Water Inspection board instead of by the Fishing Authority. With the Health Care Act of 1958, local health boards were to ensure that necessary and reasonable measures were taken for the containment of water and air pollution, noise and other disturbances. See Darpö, Jan, Vem har ansvaret? Rättsläget idag och förslag på framtiden: Eefterbehandling och sanering, SNV (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) Report no. 4354 (Stockholm, 1994)Google Scholar; Hydén, Rättens Samhälleliga Funktioner.

34 Bergquist and Söderholm, “R&D Collaboration and Environmental Adaptation.”

35 Ibid.

36 SSVL, Reports, 1970–2001, available on CD-ROM at the Swedish Forest Industries, StockholmGoogle Scholar.

37 See Table 3 in Söderholm, Kristina and Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, “Firm Collaboration and Environmental Adaptation: The Case of the Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry, 1900–1990,” in Scandinavian Economic History Review (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

38 Ibid.

39 Skogsindustriernas miljödatabas (Forest industries' environmental database) (http://miljodatabas.skogsindustrierna.org/si/main/main.aspx?l1=home).

40 See Lundqvist, The Hare and the Tortoise.

41 Swedish National Code SFS 1969: 387.

42 Jänicke, Martin, “Conditions for Environmental Policy Success: An International Comparison,” The Environmentalist 12, no. 1 (1992): 47–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Lundqvist, The Hare and the Tortoise.

44 Lundqvist, Lennart, Förvaltningen i det politiska systemet (Lund, 1971)Google Scholar.

45 Reinstaller, Andreas, “The Technological Transition to Chlorine Free Pulp Bleaching Technologies: Lessons for Transition Policies,” Journal of Cleaner Production 16, no. 1 (2008): 133–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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47 The Royal Majesty's Bill (Kungl. Maj:ts proposition), no. 154, 1965Google Scholar; “Skrivelse från Sveriges Industriförbund till regeringen 9 september 1964,” Immissionssakkunniga vol. 1, National Archives, Stockholm, SwedenGoogle Scholar.

48 See, for instance, IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1980/81, archive of Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), StockholmGoogle Scholar.

49 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, 1986/87, archive of IVL, StockholmGoogle Scholar; interview with Stig Freyshuss, president of the Water Laboratory of the Forest Industry in 1958 to 1964 and of IVL in 1966 to 1982, Stockholm, 8 Oct. 2009.

50 Interview with Arne Jernelöv, research leader at IVL in the 1970s, Stockholm, 19 May 2010; IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1967/68, 1975/76, 1976/77, and 1981/82, archive of IVL, Stockholm; IVL styrelseprotokoll 20 Sept. 1973 and 3 Oct. 1974, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

51 See the IVL Web site, www.ivl.se, accessed March 2011.

52 Bergquist and Söderholm, “Miljöforskning i Statens och Industrins Tjänst.”

53 Ibid.

54 Interview with Arne Jernelöv, Stockholm, 2010.

55 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966/67, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

56 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, 1986/87, archive of IVL, Stockholm; interview with Arne Jernelöv; interview with Stig Freyschuss.

57 As entrepreneurial activities suggested by Hekkert et al., “A New Approach for Analysing Technological Change.”

58 Ibid.

59 See Bessant and Rush, “Building Bridges for Innovation.”

60 Interview with Arne Jernelöv; interview with Stig Freyschuss.

61 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, 1986/87, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

62 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966/67, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

63 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, 1986/87, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

64 During the same period, the total turnover increased from 44 employees and 2.4 million SEK in 1970 to over 150 employees and 30 million SEK in 1979 (about 16 million USD in today's money). In current prices, the activity of IVL grew by an average of 30 and 45 percent annually during the 1960s and the 1970s, respectively. See Bergquist and Söderholm, “Miljöforskning i Statens och Industrins Tjänst.”

65 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

66 Interview with Arne Jernelöv.

67 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1980/81.

68 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80.

69 See IVL styrelseprotokoll 1 Sept. 1966, 24 Jan. 1967, and 17 Sept. 1971, archive of IVL, Stockholm; IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

70 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, 1986/87, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

71 Ibid.

72 Bergquist, Guld och Gröna Skogar?

73 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1975/76 and 1978/79, archive of IVL, Stockholm.

74 IVL Konferensen 1975, IVL-publikation, 1976, StockholmGoogle Scholar.

75 IVL styrelseprotokoll 31 Jan. 1975, archive of IVL, StockholmGoogle Scholar.

76 Interview with Arne Jernelöv; interview with Stig Freyschuss; interview with Björn Lundberg, president of IVL in the 1980s and 1990s, Sollentuna, 11 May 2009.

77 Bergquist and Söderholm, “R&D Collaboration and Environmental Adaptation.”

78 Interview anonymous Franchise board official with experiences of pulp and paper licensing processes of the late 1980s and onwards, Stockholm, 8 June 2010.

79 Interview with Arne Jernelöv; interview with Stig Freyschuss; interview with Björn Lundberg.

80 It was taken over by another large consulting company, ÅF-Energi-Konsult-AB (IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1980/81, archive of IVL, Stockholm).

81 IVL verksamhetsberättelse 1966–1979/80, archive of IVL, Stockholm; interview with Arne Jernelöv; interview with Stig Freyschuss.

82 Interview with Arne Jernelöv.

83 Interview with Arne Jernelöv.

84 Interview with Björn Lundberg.