Environmentalism and restructuring of the global pulp and paper industry

A case study of the global pulp and paper industry is used to examine the i mplications of environmentalism for corporate strategy in the restructuring process. Previous economic analyses concerned with the dispersion of pollu tion-intensive industries from countries with strict environmental regulati ons to developing countries with weak environmental legislation, the so-cal led pollution havens, have shown that there is little or no significant cau sal relationships between the costs of regulation and the observed dispersi on. Competing hypotheses of the environment-competitiveness linkage suggest instead that demand, resource endowment, and cheaper labour and constructi on costs for highly capital intensive industries are more persuasive factor s in explaining the dispersion of dirty industries. In this study environme ntalism is defined to encompass norm-quantifiable variables involving stake holder pressures from both consumers and governments, Environmentalism is s hown to have significant implications for changes in spatial patterns of pr oduction in the pulp and paper industry and for an emerging pattern of inte rnational trade in wastepaper which has been recovered under the guise of e nvironmentalism.