Entrepreneurial initiatives as threats : how seasoned industry actors hinder regional restructuring

• The aim of this paper was to further understanding of regional restructuring and revitalisation by illustrating how opportunities for regional renewal may be reduced by rigid threat responses by a region’s established actors within declining industries. In an inductive case study of new biorefinery industry initiatives in a region where traditional forestry industries were in decline, we outline how new industry players that created new ways of using existing resources sparked rigid threat responses among established actors. When seasoned industry actors framed new industry initiatives as threats, they responded by (a) reducing new industry actors’ possibilities for new business development, (b) engaging in entrenched resistance, (c) creating collaborative illusions, and (d) undermining the fundamentals of the new industry. Our study contributes to literature by applying the threat-rigidity thesis on a regional level and by illustrating that conflicting behaviours between new and established industry actors can make restructuring and revitalisation problematic.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

regional renewal

localised resources

industry emergence efforts

legitmacy

regional entrepreneurship

Business studies

Företagsekonomi

företagsekonomi

Business Studies

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