Managing Technological Development

What happens when one of the world's largest buyers of catalogue paper, IKEA, realises that the paper it uses contradicts the demands of prominent environmental groups? How do the producers of catalogue paper react when IKEA demands an environmentally friendly 'green' catalogue paper, requiring the development of new production processes for an entirely new product? In this book, the story of how IKEA and its paper producers struggled to solve the problem of creating environmentally friendly paper constitutes the foundation of a discussion of technological development. Through a detailed analysis of the case-study, the authors demonstrate the necessity of including social, technological and economical factors when dealing with such issues. Focusing on the interactive aspects of commercial and technological development, they examine how new solutions are developed and shaped in relation to the different companies and organizations involved. They investigate resources in terms of how they are related and built into other resources through historical and contemporary interaction processes. Their overall emphasis is on dealing with the issue of how different, closely and distantly related companies and organizations are affected when resources are developed. This book will provide invaluable case-study information and essential discussion for scholars interested in the management of technological development and development in interaction. It will also be valuable reading for high-level students and researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in management science and economics, environmental politics and in the paper and pulp industry.