Sabine Pitteloud

2020 Charlotte, North Carolina

Abstract: This presentation focuses on informal meetings initiated by the Swiss Union of Commerce and Industry in Interlaken in 1978, which regrouped the Industrial Federations of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. Its purpose is to contribute to the existing literature on the varieties of capitalism, which seeks to analyze and compare different regimes of industrial relations, inter-firm relations, as well as government-business relations. Historians and Swiss historians as well, often refer to typologies created by political scientists such as Peter Katzenstein or, more recently, Peter A. Hall & David Soskice in order to characterize and compare the capitalist systems of different countries. The following presentation, instead of trying to classify the Swiss capitalist system using ad-hoc categories, analyzes the representations and categorizations of the historical actors. It shows how the Swiss Union of Commerce and Industry chose to create a selective community of business association leaders sharing similar views on economic and social issues. The presentation also highlights the nature of the interpersonal relations cultivated by these members of the European business elite and the challenges they faced in cooperating in order to meet their common objectives.

2021 Hopin Virtual Events Platform

Abstract: During the last decade, we have witnessed increased public concern about vehicle emissions and growing frustration with political inaction and businesses’ preference for the status quo. This paper offers a historical perspective on this debate by shedding light on the political struggle that occurred around the implementation of new regulations reducing air pollution caused by motor vehicles in Switzerland in the 1970s. Relying on archival material of the Swiss Union of Commerce and Industry and of the Federal Archives, the analysis shows a complex pattern of business influences, coming both from Swiss organized business and from their European counterparts, such as the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie. The paper, therefore, contributes to the renewed interest of business historians in analysing how business representatives dealt with what they perceived as “political risks”. It seeks to provide concrete qualitative empirical evidence about how they proceeded to achieve their goals and to illustrate the varieties of channel of influence that were at play (business-government relations, bilateral and multilateral negotiations, transnational ties within the business community). It also discusses the role of organized business as “political inhibitors”, by showing that the business community experienced diverging interests regarding the new policy and that this case cannot be analysed through a simplistic opposition between the business community and environmental policy makers.

2022 Mexico City

Abstract: From a historical perspective, shareholder activism took many forms and shareholders’ claims were not limited to higher dividends. During the 1970s, some shareholders embraced the goals of activist groups, labor unions and developing countries. This contribution seeks to shed light on such dynamics and focuses on religious shareholders at Nestlé, one of the biggest multinationals in the food-processing industry. By triangulating archival material produced by activists as well as corporate board members, the analysis provides insights into the origins and motivations of a group of religious shareholders, as well as the strategies Nestlé’s leading figures developed in response to such activism. This group of religious shareholders, called CANES (Convention d’actionnaires Nestlé), was led by members of Catholic and Protestant families who had inherited Nestlé shares and who wished to see Nestlé’s strategy being more in harmony with religious and ethical guidelines. According to this group, the firm should donate a portion of its profits to charities and implement economic strategies that would help develop Third World countries. CANES activists used shareholder meetings as a platform to attract the attention of Nestlé’s board and the press. Nestlé’s attitude was rather hostile, even though its mangers did sometimes agree to meet with CANES activists. Instead of addressing CANES’ particular demands, however, Nestlé chose to engage in a broader dialogue with representatives of the main churches in Switzerland, and internationally. The purpose of these meetings was to increase mutual understanding, but also to depoliticize the churches. CANES was finally dissolved at the end of the 1980s, but its legacy still lives on in foundations such as Ethos and Actares which promote socially responsible investment (SRI).

2023 Detroit, MI, United States

Abstract: By Sabine Pitteloud University of Geneva and Pierre-Yves Donzé, University of Osaka Drug pricing and sales regulation is a highly political issue. The drugs market functioning has indeed little to do with free market mechanisms, as governments determine which products can be sold and under which conditions they will be reimbursed by social security agencies. Drawing on corporate, government and trade association archives, this contribution investigates how Swiss multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the pharmaceutical industry (Ciba-Geigy, Sandoz, Hoffmann-La Roche) navigated governments’ interventions in Europe and particularly in France, to preserve their profitability. In the 1970s context of economic turmoil and crisis of the welfare state, the French government used its discretionary power to favour pharmaceutical companies producing and conducting research on French soil and to arbitrate between private companies’ profits and the growing financial difficulties of the French social security system. Our analysis shows how non-market strategies, including diplomatic talks, were crucial for Swiss firms to cope with rising inflation, the freeze of drugs’ prices and increased customs controls targeting multinationals' transfer prices. The creation of the Single Market would ultimately offer the prospect of getting rid of such national discretionary power by harmonising drug regulations and prioritising market logic over neomercantilist approaches.

2025 Atlanta, Georgia

Abstract: This paper investigates unintended consequences of US FDI in Switzerland: the increased competition that US firms generated within the national labor market and the challenge their hiring practices constituted for the institutional settings in which labor relations were embedded. As we shall see, at a time when the Swiss economy was booming and the unemployment rate was close to zero, the side effect of the arrival of US multinationals, triggered by fiscal incentives, was that it dramatically contributed to depleting the job market, especially with respect to engineers and qualified administrative staff. Moreover, Swiss labor relations were embedded in specific institutional arrangements, marked by business-labor negotiations, the importance of skilled labor, and reliance on a foreign workforce to fulfill labor demand in the less competitive sectors of the economy. To provide insights on the tensions US FDI generated, this paper relies on historical sources from the Swiss Federal Archives and from the Swiss Federation of Commerce and Industry, which was a peak business association that mainly represented the interests of the Swiss export industry. Additionally, documents from the Swiss Federal Archives proved useful in understanding the Swiss central administration’s approach and the extent to which it diverged from the fiscal attraction strategies of the Swiss cantons than is much better acknowledged in the existing literature.

2026 London

Abstract: Aluminium is frequently characterised as the “green metal”. It is the most recyclable of all industrial materials, and it can be recycled over and over again, with very little loss of its properties. In the words of European Aluminium, the industry organization of European aluminium producers, aluminium is a sustainable material and “a unique metal driving the green transition.” However, the production of aluminium in itself does not come without negative local environmental impacts. This was evident already from the birth of the modern aluminium industry in the last decade of the 19th century. The aluminium smelting process led to significant emissions of fluoride waste. As a consequence, immediately after the first aluminium smelters started operating, nearby vegetation was damaged. Soon it became apparent that the emissions also negatively impacted the health of the workers in the smelters. Thus, from the start of the industry, the question of how to deal with the harmful effects of aluminium smelting on local environments became an important political, technological, and societal issue. The aim of this paper is to analyse how three different aluminium producing countries in Europe dealt with this issue. Switzerland and the UK were pioneers in the industry and had operating smelters from the late 1880s/early 1890s, while the first smelter in Norway started operating in 1908. Throughout the 20th century, they continued to be significant aluminium producing countries. How did these different states tackle industrial pollution from the aluminium industry, and how did the environmental policies change over time? Based on original source material from all three countries, both from industry and government sources, the issue is analysed through a comparative and international framework.