The Growth and Agglomeration of the Danish Furniture Industry - The Role of Design, Post-War Markets, IKEA-sourcing and Proximity-Induced Firm Learning

Abstract

Comparison of time series data for developed European furniture industries shows that only in the 1950s did the Danish furniture industry experience extraordinary growth. The plausible causes of that growth are state-subsidised export marketing of Danish design in the US and post-War exploitation of recovering European markets in the 1950s. Thereafter typically high European growth rates for furniture rather than proximity-induced firm learning explain the development of the Danish furniture agglomeration. Despite evidence of IKEA’s development of Danish furniture suppliers there is no evidence that IKEA-sourcing strategy had a unique influence on the growth of the Danish industry or the particle board furniture sub-segment. The Danish economic specialisation in furniture today appears to be the result of unique events in the 1950s and not thereafter.