From flagship to stigma: The failure of Finnish state-owned company Valco as an industrial policy turning point
研究了芬兰国有企业Valco从旗舰项目到失败污名的过程，分析其失败原因、公众形象构建，以及如何成为产业政策转折点，对理解国有制局限和政策变革有启示。
This paper examines the Finnish state-owned company Valco (Citation1976–1980), launched as the flagship of an initiative to promote the electronics industry. From the outset, Valco faced major challenges and ultimately failed, becoming both a symbol of the limits of state ownership and a catalyst for change in industrial policy. The study argues that Valco’s most enduring legacy lay not in its operations but in its reputation: genuine difficulties gave rise to a negative image that evolved into a lasting stigma. It analyses the rationale for Valco’s creation, the causes of its failure, and the public construction of its image. The paper makes three contributions. First, it offers deeper insight into the characteristics and constraints of state ownership as an industrial policy instrument. Second, it shows how failure can be repurposed rhetorically to legitimise policy change. Third, it reveals how Valco’s stigma obscured its effects on ownership governance and technological expertise in Finland.