The purpose of this study is to complement and elaborate theories of stability and change in the field of strategic management. From theextensive description and analysis of the Swedish pulp and paper industry development, the industrial wisdom is identified. This wisdom, as expressed in the debate among industry experts, is described in terms of issues, labels and solutions which together reflect both situational beliefs and more deeply seated institution& beliefs.

The industrial wisdom changes incrementally as situational beliefs change. However, periods of deep change also occur in which one or some institutional beliefs are in the process of change. The understanding of the nature of deep change is enhanced by the distinction of structures in three dimensions; infrastructures, relational structures and beliefs structures. The pace and nature of change varies according to the inherent changeability in these three struttural dimensions.

The relationship between the industrial wisdom and strategy formation processes can be typologised into three approaches. The adaptive appxwxh describes a formation process in which top executives tend to follow industry-wide issues, labels and solutions. The stretching approach describes a process in which top executives engage to change industry wide opinions in one or several issues. Hence, pursuing the stretching approach, new industrial wisdom is in some respects emerging. The challenging approach, finally, in a more fundamental way oppose situational beliefs which eventually leads to changes in some of the institutional beliefs taken for granted by most industry experts.

The result of this study is the emerging language described in the above, which aims at providing researchers as well as practitioners with new insights - which (hopefully) will enable them to better understand social change processes. Finally, in the quest for contextual management, a speculative attempt is made to apply the emerging language to managerial practice.