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Product Diversification in the U.S. Pulp and Paper Industry: The Case of International Paper, 1898–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Thomas Heinrich
Thomas Heinrich
Affiliation:
THOMAS HEINRICH is assistant professor of business and industrial history atBaruch College, New York.
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Abstract

During the years 1918 to 1941, International Paper (IP) launched a massive product diversification effort. Engineered by three successive presidents, diversification turned the company from a newsprint producer based in the northeastern United States into an international manufacturer of southern kraft grades, Canadian newsprint, hydroelectric power, and specialty papers. With the exception of kraft paperboard and converted products, however, the new product lines failed to provide IP with a firm foothold in markets for consumer nondurables, where nimbler competitors thrived even during the 1930s. IP and firms in other “maturing industries” that clung to traditional products and stagnant markets contributed to the length and severity of the Great Depression.

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Articles
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Business History Review , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2001 , pp. 467 - 505
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2011

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