Business Associations and Institutional Development of Swedish Post-War Export Advertising

The study highlights the importance of business associations in institutional development in a political economy. Utilizing Streeck & Schmitter’s concept of two logics of collective action, in which interest group action is explained by internal relations (logic of membership) as well as external relations (logic of influence), the paper analyzes the Swedish Advertisers’ Association role in the institutional development of Swedish export advertising during 1955-1972. Using qualitative analysis of associational material to trace institutional development, the paper demonstrates that thanks to the logic of membership, expressed in bottom-up member engagement, the association’s leadership together with members established new institutional resources and services for export advertising during the second half of the 1950s. Among the initiatives were educational efforts, knowledge-exchange forums, national trademarks, and registries with information of foreign ad markets. As the competitiveness of Swedish exports was of national interest, the services attracted external actors, as the government, state agencies and other business associations. Here the logic of influence, conveyed in increasing contacts between the association’s leadership and external representatives, embedded its institutions in a wider network of stakeholders in export promotion. This process was facilitated by the post-war dominance of corporatism, which emphasized cooperation between collective actors. The contributions of the association grew in size and importance until the formation of the Swedish Export Council in 1972, that redrew the institutional landscape of export promotion by forming a more centralized form of cooperation between the government and the export business community.