Nordic Capitalisms and Globalization
Firm-level study of how Nordic companies reorganised for global production.
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Peer Hull Kristensen and Kari Lilja edited this comparative study of how firms and institutions in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden adapted to globalisation. The contributors are organisational and institutional researchers, and the volume belongs to the varieties of capitalism literature.
The question the book asks is whether the Nordic model, with its coordinated wage bargaining, high union density, active labour market policy and extensive welfare provision, survived the internationalisation of the firms it grew around. The contributors examine multinational companies headquartered in the region, the changes in their governance and ownership as foreign institutional investors acquired stakes, and the way national institutions were reworked rather than abandoned. The general finding is adaptation rather than convergence: the countries retained distinctive institutional arrangements while their firms became internationally organised.
The reference has not verified this volume chapter by chapter, and this entry reflects its established scope and position in the literature rather than a close reading of its arguments.
Key takeaways 5
- Nordic economies adapted their institutions to internationalised firms rather than converging on an Anglo-American model.
- Coordinated wage bargaining survived internationalisation because employers valued the predictability it produced.
- Foreign institutional ownership of Nordic multinationals changed corporate governance without dismantling national labour institutions.
- Active labour market policy allows firms to restructure quickly because the cost of dismissal is borne collectively rather than by the employer.
- The contributors treat national institutional arrangements as resources firms use competitively rather than as constraints they escape.
Who should read it
Researchers and analysts of comparative capitalism examining how coordinated economies handled internationalisation, with the caveat that this entry is not verified in detail.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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