The Causes of Deindustrialization: The Migration of the Cotton Textile Industry from New England to the South

Numerous historians of deindustrialization argue that industrieswent into decline because established manufacturers moved productionto cheaper locales to escape unions and high wages. A differentpattern of decline occurred in the New England cotton textileindustry, where downsizing began in the 1920s. Rather than fleeingtheir home area to build facilities elsewhere, most New Englandmanufacturers were driven out of business by lower-cost competitorsin the American South. Southerners founded, managed, and financeda heavy majority of the textile companies in their region. Althoughsome New England firms did set up Southern plants, this wasa defensive reaction to changing market realities. New competitorshave brought about deindustrialization in other core U.S. industries.Recognizing this trend is important for a full understandingof the political economy of modern capitalism.     

A framework of disruptive sustainable innovation: an example of the Finnish food system

Disruptive innovations are perceived necessary for accelerating sustainability transitions. However, it is not always clear what exactly is meant by it, what is to be disrupted, and by whom. Socio-technical transition research on pays too much attention at the technological niche-innovations in the production, and overlooks business model innovation and user practices in the consumption, whilst management literature on disruptive innovation falls short in the scale and scope of disruption in terms of systemic outcome. Thus, the first aim of the paper is to synthesise the extant literature and put forward a general practice-based view on disruptive sustainable innovation. The second aim of the paper is to use empirical data to elaborate the theoretical framework in the Finnish food system context. Four firm-level cases provide empirical scrutiny to each type of disruptive sustainable innovation in the food system and shed light on the interlinked practices of producer-entrepreneurs and citizen-consumers.     

Consumer observations on channel choices—Competitive strategies in Finnish grocery retailing

This article aims at providing consumers’ observations on their choices between various grocery retailing channels. The theoretical roots are based on Porter's competitive strategies and their further developed variations, but also the retailing research concerning competition and consumer perspective will be discussed. The results of the study confirm that consumers have one primary store, which is often a hypermarket or a supermarket. In addition, they prefer to shop in several supplementary stores located close to their homes. The empirical study also reveals that all retail channels have both weaknesses and strengths from the consumers’ viewpoint.