In this post, I’d like to give a short introduction of Gnosjö, one of the best known industrial districts in Sweden. The Gnosjö region consists of the four municipalities Gislaved, Gnosjö, Vaggeryd and Värnamo in the Jönköping County in southern Sweden.
In the old days, almost all families here had different companies and there are still many family companies here. According to my friends, who have lived there for several years, many people have come to settle here because of the jobs. During a period with high unemployment in Sweden a few years back, it was found out that one particular area - the region around Gnosjö in Småland - was least affected by the unemployment (Paludan, 2007)
Gnosjö is most widely known for its small businesses and successful entrepreneurship. The small municipality Gnosjö has approximately 350 manufacturing firms and around 10,000 inhabitants, which makes the density of companies to one of the highest in Sweden. The companies in this city have total sales of approx. 6 billion SEK (approximately $ 1 billion). This success has formed an increased awareness in Gnosjö (Pesämaa, Klaesson & Haahti, 2008)
Gnosjö is famous for “The Spirit of Gnosjö”, which means that the people here are very enterprising. Nowadays, the characteristic ingredient of the Spirit of Gnosjö - the unique tradition of co-operation - is still essential (www.gnosjo.se). The spirit of Gnosjö is portrayed in the media in terms of the positive consequences for the region such as large numbers of new companies, high profit levels and low unemployment rates (Sjöstrand, 2008). It reflects the professional skills, hard work, economic practice, humbleness, respect, network, cooperation, entrepreneurship, no hierarchy with powerful people, short distances geographically and mentally, flexibility, artfulness and thinking holistically (Pesämaa, Klaesson & Haahti, 2008).
Lastly, I'd like to recommend “The Spirit of Gnosjö – The Grand Narrative and Beyond” by Caroline Wigren to those who want to know more about Gnosjö and The Spirit of Gnosjö. It received a lot of attention in Sweden, and won her the award for young Swedish researchers in entrepreneurship (JIBS’s website).
References
Paludan, J. (2007). Changing forms of work in the global competition. Retrieved 2008-12-06 from http://www.cifs.dk/scripts/artikel.asp?lng=2&id=1519
Pesämaa, O., Klaesson, J. and Haahti, A. (2008). Board network characteristics and company performance in Sweden: The case of Gnosjö companies and their board members in southern Sweden. Rencontres de St-Gall 2008
Sjöstrand, G. (2008). Industrial districts thrive on gift economies. Retrieved 2008-12-06 from http://www.samfak.gu.se/Faculty+of+Social+science/News_and_events/News/News_Detail/?contentId=813285
The Municipality of Gnosjö's official website www.gnosjo.se
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