Orchestrating a new industrial field. The case of the Finnish wood-based bioeconomy

Abstract: The article’s focus is on how companies and institutions interact and
cooperate in order to develop the wood-based bioeconomy field. Based on a
case study of the Finnish forest sector, the paper shows that shifting to
sustainability requires processes of co-creation. As radical innovation requires
complementary competences, companies have had to cooperate with a large
number of actors. By interacting with multiple actors at multiple levels, both
companies and institutions have engaged in new types of activities that have led
to a change in their respective roles. By taking on responsibility for developing
the new industrial field, both companies and institutions act as orchestrators for
mobilising a large number of public and private actors. Subsequently, the paper
argues that this interaction has produced a new type of complementarity
between companies and institutions facilitating the development of the new
industrial field.