Privatisation of the IT sector in Sweden

The argument put forward in this research is that in so far as ownership and competition are important in privatisation, they impact on performance through an internal adjustment process. A more gradual, processual and institutional view on privatisation is introduced where ownership does matter but only as one of the ingredients in the process of organisational change. Consequently, an institutional framework is brought forth for the study of the process of privatisation where four stages are delineated as a way of conceptually analysing the changes which an organisation undergoes as it proceeds towards privatisation. Furthermore, three distinct processes (regulatory, normative and cognitive) have been recognised to drive forward and consolidate the changes, which ultimately lead to the full institutionalisation of the process of privatisation for a concerned enterprise. A specific sector of the Swedish economy, information technology (IT) sector, was selected for the purpose of this research.