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.

Published in

British Food Journal
2015, volume: 117, number: 10, pages: 2501-2514

SLU Authors

• Nilsson, Jerker

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Westerlund Lind, Lena

  • Ministry of Rural Affairs

UKÄ Subject classification

Business Administration

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2014-0378

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/69555