310capital were not present. In both successful cases, the factors that needed to be in place for the change agents to succeed can be likened to a perfect storm, with the key factor being their “political skill” (Fligstein, 2001) in evading concurrent regulatory conditions (Elert & Henrekson, 2016) through nonmarket strategies rather than only their ability to run a successful business (Hadani et al., 2017). Based on the cases, reducing the sheer amount of nonmarket strategies needed from actors who are supposed to be focused on creating value through entrepreneurial efforts is certainly something that should be a key focus of a successful innovation policy for mature economies. In the 1980s, the Swedish economy went through a phase of increasing alignment with the British and American models of free-market capitalism at the expense of its Public-Steering and Private-Performing Sectors: Success and Failures in the. . .

311Table 1 Outline of the three processes Telecommunications Financial exchanges Planning monopoly Process Entrant mobile telecom- Entrant options exchange None munications provider challenging the stock challenging state exchange monopoly in a monopoly. regulatory process. Main Digital technology, a pos- Digital technology, a pos- Digital technology, a driver itive zeitgeist, and a itive zeitgeist, and a positive zeitgeist, but no resourceful entrant that resourceful entrant with resourceful entrant or the financial backing of was part of old industrial incumbent in the sector corporation/group the Wallenberg family and willing to engage in Kinnevik. (Institutional-) industrial group. institutional entrepreneur Jan Stenbäck (Institutional-) entrepreentrepreneurship. challenging old policies neur Olof Stenhammar where possible. and OM challenging old policies in regulatory process. Main Entrenched monopolist De jure and de facto Municipalities, incumresistance that was also a governmonopolist with political bent private actors ment agency with politiinterests represented in the (including cooperacal interests represented in board. tives), and special interthe board. est groups. Main Entrant Comviq challeng- Entrant OM challenging None. forum ing the incumbent through the old regulation by influencing the policy non-market activities and institutional process. entrepreneurship. Incumbent Rhetoric in favor of more Passive in the regulatory Keeping the municipal position competition, but trying to process. Due to diverse planning monopoly and hinder Comvik in interests in the board, only marginally practice. partly in favor of removreforming the PBL. ing its own monopoly. Outcome Privatization of monop- Privatization of monop- Municipal planning oly; opening up of the oly; opening up of the monopoly still intact and market. market. PBL changing marginally since 1947.

traditional Nordic capitalism (Sjögren, 2008). In both successful cases, the background of the entrepreneurs allowed them to create a strong connection between this general liberal zeitgeist and their particular business models, something which affected the respective policy processes. It was the translations of these ideas that came to affect how the new market conditions would be outlined and pave the way for the privatization of the (then former) state monopolies in both industries. Common in these two cases was also the support garnered from resourceful actors within the sector, which helped in both the market and the nonmarket arenas. At the same time, free-market ideas had begun to take hold in both incumbent monopolies, leading to a passivity in terms of corporate political activities, but also a gradual adaption by the organizations in order to survive in a potentially deregulated market. In terms of positive impact for the industries as a whole, this gradual adaption and K. A. M. Eriksson and R. Nykvist

312lack of resistance toward subsequent reforms were very important. Perhaps most illuminating of this fact was how the background of the CEO of the stock exchange helped him realign the incumbent monopoly as a hybrid organization talking to both the political sphere and the common good of society as well as its actual stakeholders trading at the exchange. In both the telecommunications and the financial sectors, these actors were