Monopolists for Competition? Incumbent Action by Telecom Operators and Financial Exchanges 1980–1990

Achieving and maintaining a monopolist position is often assumed to be among the objectives of a firm. However, there are instances where it is better to operate in a competitive market than remain a monopolist. Monopolistic firms may, therefore, push for deregulation - at least on their terms. We introduce the concept of monopolists for competition to analyse two such companies, Swedish telecom operator Televerket and the Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE). Thus, the paper contributes to the literature on incumbent action and corporate political activity (CPA) by state-owned/state-controlled companies, a field that has received little interest in business history research. We find that the personal political skills of the companies' managers played a crucial role in the deregulatory process, as institutional obstacles prevented them from using many standard CPA tools. Fear of being perceived as monopolistic also restricted them from leveraging their market positions when controlling the evolving market structures.