ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how all the external changes and local responses influenced development at the Kristiansand subsidiary, that is, outside 'push factors' and internal 'pull factors' if we use Julian Birkinshaw and Neil Hood's terminology. The nickel industry had fragmented and previous market power was irrevocably lost. The crises in the nickel industry reflected a basic transformation in Western economies. The Toronto head office therefore implemented the so-called Result-Development-Project (RDP). RDP's purpose was to mobilize creativity and knowledge. The new chlorine-leaching (CL) process could be adapted to treating nickel matte with different chemical composition without causing significant technical problems. The toll contracts with International Nickel Company (INCO) show that the refinery must have been pretty competitive in this field. The history of the Kristiansand refinery offers an intriguing example of how subsidiaries develop within multinational companies. Toll refining also gave important scale economies and made it possible to install new equipment.
