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This paper aims to explore how the ownership transfer from a highly industrialised country to less industrialised countries influences consumers’ brand perceptions.

Three acquisition cases of premium car brands (Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo) are investigated using qualitative data from online brand communities.

When country of ownership (COOW) for brands changes, it leads to different effects on consumers’ brand perception. Consumers are disoriented as to which cue to apply when evaluating the brand. They also see that brand values, and how these are communicated, are in conflict, as are sustainability images.

This paper focuses on the perspective of brand community members in Europe and the USA and studies only the car industry and acquisitions by two countries (China and India) using data from the time of ownership transfers. The authors discuss theoretical implications and suggest further research to gain more insights and address limitations.

Following a transfer of ownership, communication campaigns are required for addressing the original brand’s heritage and promoting the new brand owner’s image. Managers need to take advantage of loyal brand fans by turning them into brand ambassadors, spreading information to convince consumers that are more sceptical.

This study fills the knowledge gap regarding change of COOW to developing countries as new owners, and its consequences for consumer perception. The authors also introduce an innovative type of data collection through brand communities, which is less commonly used in international marketing research.

This article discusses how information technology and human resource oriented management tools can be integrated using their respective strengths to enable knowledge production. Two companies’ KM strategies encompassing a strong IT‐component in combination with organisation, training and office design are analysed. Their experience shows that joining information technology with the human resource oriented tools is a necessary precondition for success in KM‐efforts. Second, in the large company, there is still a relative overemphasis on “circumstantial” frames for knowledge production and too little focus on dynamics in knowledge producing processes. In contrast, the medium sized company is experimenting with soft tools used directly in the processes of the customer‐oriented projects.

Digital practices of facility management (FM) are undergoing transformation. Several Nordic countries have ambitious hospital-building projects, driven by large public clients with long-term experience of operating complex building campuses. There is thus an opportunity for creating state-of-the-art digital FM. This paper aims to investigate the role of digital FM in new hospital projects in Scandinavia.

Based on a literature review, a framework of understanding of digital FM in hospital operation is established. Two longitudinal cases are presented and analysed, one for a greenfield hospital and the other for an extension of an existing hospital.

The literature highlights the importance of integration between technical digitalization, competences, organization and management of digital FM. The projects are in different phases and represent quite advanced preparations for digital FM. State-of-the-art computer-aided FM systems are prepared before operation. External consultants are involved, posing a dilemma of in-house/outsourced human resources in the future digital FM operation.

Two case studies provide insights, but they have limited generalizability.

The study underscores the importance of preparation of management, organization and competences for digitalization.

Documented research on building information modelling (BIM) integrations in FM is still scarce. This article adds to the few empirical studies in the area. The findings illustrate that real estate administrators investing in FM software for new hospital buildings face challenges of aligning BIM models from design and construction to the FM system.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a combined social constructivist, internal and external conceptualisation of the process of realising offshore wind farms, and to investigate costs, time, delays and operational performance results of offshore wind farm power plant projects in Denmark and Sweden with a view to possible strategic misrepresentation.

Desk study of a sample of seven Danish and Swedish offshore wind farms using triangulation of publicly available material.

Some of the wind farm projects are successful and some less successful. In the latter group, budget and time overruns and under-performance are found. The paper discusses specific elements of possible strategic misrepresentation but finds a contradictory pattern. Also competences developed on the basis of experience do not produce clear results, since more recent wind farm performance is poorer than earlier.

If desk research were combined with other methods, it would be possible to detect projects ' internal phenomena better.

There is a need to improve the efficiency of the wind farm building process and to improve the quality of offshore wind turbines, their foundations and cabling.

Renewable energy power plants comprise an important societal investment, yet their costs and possible cost reductions are poorly understood.

This article analyses enterprise resource planning (ERP) as a tool for realising business process reengineering (BPR) in manufacturing. It combines theories from organisational sociology and management with technology‐analysis. Change is viewed as involving choice and coalition building. The case studies cover 30 implementations of ERP with different types of change. Two cases of the variant labelled “BPR followed by ERP” are focused on. The change proceeds as a co‐operation between enterprises, consultants and IT‐suppliers. In the first case, a superficial management change programme of BPR and ERP emerges into a more elaborate change program, which was then relatively successfully realised. The other case is a multi‐front exercise for the management coalition. The BPR strategy was poorly supported, and restated the long term split between manufacturing and sales. The two cases exhibit different experiences, but they underpin that process integration cannot be taken for granted when implementing BPR and ERP.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) technologies can, despite their apparent flexibility, act as a rather obdurate tool for management’s political programmes. To understand this, a combined organisational politics and sociology of technology approach is adopted, viewing technology as a political programme for change. A total of 30 manufacturing case studies grouped around three ERP vendors and systems, show that using technology is not only an issue controlled by an enterprise’s actors. IT suppliers and management consultants and others form communities, which promote certain political programmes. These cases demonstrate that enterprise configurations of ERP do share commonalities, whereas two longitudinal case studies are used to discuss unique enterprise politics. While some features of the systems/political programmes were frozen, others were fluid, and could be configured in micro political processes. Thus hardness is contextual. The political role of technology is not just a case of flexibility or hardness, but a complicated pattern of negotiability, resources, social and geographical distance.

The purpose of this paper is to study how operations strategy (OS) innovation occurs in a project-centred production and organisation.

A longitudinal case study encompassing the processes at the headquarters of the company and in two projects using lean.

The operation strategy development commences at a middle level in the organisation, is underpinned and embedded in production projects and only after several years becomes embedded in the corporate operation strategy. Projects use lean principles in a differentiated manner.

A qualitative case study provides insight into only a single occasion of change in OS. More case studies would probably reveal several paths of OS development. OS development need to be handled as emergent, political and with contributions from several managers and management levels, bridging the vertical divides between projects and headquarter.

A conscious and systematic vertical integration and interaction is crucial in project-based companies doing operation strategy development, something critically difficult at building contractors.

The present study contributes to the small body of studies of OS development processes, by providing insight in how project-based companies renew their operation strategy.

Presents the aims and needs of research in facilities management (FM) at the Section of Planning and Management of Building Processes at BYG(DTU. As the building stock in Denmark is rapidly increasing, socio‐demographic development implies profound changes in both the needs of inhabitants and the way that buildings are used, combined with an increased consciousness of sustainability. Buildings should be seen as long‐term “investments” while also keeping in mind the construction sector's need for increased productivity, long‐term product quality and enhanced value. This is the background for developing a research position. Identifies “the Scandinavian way” as using FM on a multi‐actor level, rather than just to serve the interests of a single organisation. The aim is to focus on small and medium‐sized enterprises, non‐profit associations and tenants, as well as the bodies administrating infrastructure within the mainstream FM field. There is an urgent need to address how society can best manage the growing (and decaying) building stock, to develop life‐cycle‐rooted infrastructure and building design, and finally allow buildings to be appropriated by their current and future users.

Information and communication technologies have the capacity to transform organisations into networks of spaces, where information and even physical flows are delocalized to a greater degree than previously. This capacity occurs as a managerial opportunity and is the point of departure for mobilizing critical theory’s analysis of technology. Through seven cases, it is demonstrated that the virtualization of manufacturing networks is still modest, but in progress. It is explored how collective actors tackle this and whether they are carriers of subversive rationalities.

The purpose of this article is to generate theory on how functional integration and conflict interrelate by studying the interface between production and purchasing.

An interpretive single case research methodology is adopted. The authors rely on in-depth interviewing of managers in the production and purchasing functions of a construction company, as well as by its suppliers.

Given low functional integration, antagonistic reasoning within each function and resultant conflicting behaviors are allowed to develop in a negative cycle, escalating the conflict between purchasing and production. This process leads to the creation of two opposing functional sourcing models that serve as blueprints for behavior.

The single case methodology was chosen to maximize depth and detail and form an ideal foundation for theory building. Future qualitative and quantitative studies should inquire further into the studied phenomenon to increase analytical and statistical generalizability of the proposed model.

The findings can help managers understand how poor integration between functions can develop into cross-functional conflict. Facing a conflicting functional relationship, managers must resort to conflict resolution methods, instead of attempting to integrate, as several integrative devices are not appropriate in conflicting interfaces.

The proposed model contributes by connecting the constructs of integration, group reasoning, and conflict, thereby generating knowledge on conflict development processes in cross-functional interfaces. Furthermore, the article contributes by uncovering the difficulties associated with implementing spend consolidation, a prevailing sourcing strategy.