This paper investigates how business and innovation strategies explain companies' responses to transformational pressures in a mature industry. The analytical framework combines two perspectives on business and innovation strategies: competitive position and resource position. Based on an embedded case study of eight companies in the Swedish pulp and paper industry, the paper contributes to previous innovation literature by connecting companies' innovation responses to their business and innovation strategies. Most notably, it reveals a new type of ambidextrous innovation strategy, i.e. “market-driven exploitation”, and shows that the responses by incumbent companies in the pulp and paper industry are the result of deliberate and justifiable strategic choices rather than path dependency and inertia. The study also confirms the value of integrating the two perspectives on strategy. On the one hand, the explanations provided by each perspective overlap with the other, so that they together provide a more nuanced understanding of the companies’ choices and activities. On the other hand, the perspectives complement each other, so that one perspective explains observations that cannot be explained by the other. The results of the paper inform both managers and policy makers about the trade-offs involved in changing a strategic direction while retaining core capabilities.

本文研究了商业和创新策略如何解释公司对成熟行业转型压力的反应。分析框架结合了业务和创新战略的两种观点：竞争地位和资源地位。基于对瑞典纸浆和造纸行业八家公司的嵌入式案例研究，本文通过将公司的创新对策与其业务和创新策略联系起来，为以前的创新文献做出了贡献。最值得注意的是，它揭示了一种新型的灵巧的创新策略，即“市场驱动的开发”，并表明制浆和造纸行业的现有公司的回应是经过深思熟虑和合理的战略选择的结果，而不是路径依赖和惯性的结果。 。该研究还证实了将两种观点整合到战略中的价值。一方面，每种观点提供的解释彼此重叠，因此它们一起提供了对公司选择和活动的更细致的理解。另一方面，这些视角是相辅相成的，因此一个视角解释了另一视角无法解释的观察结果。本文的结果告知管理者和决策者有关在保留核心能力的同时改变战略方向的权衡取舍。这些视角是相辅相成的，因此一个视角解释了另一视角无法解释的观察结果。本文的结果告知管理者和决策者有关在保留核心能力的同时改变战略方向的权衡取舍。这些视角是相辅相成的，因此一个视角解释了另一视角无法解释的观察结果。本文的结果告知管理者和决策者有关在保留核心能力的同时改变战略方向的权衡取舍。