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Four generic FM “trails” to the future are explored. These trails follow the four types of resource that are basic to the FM function; the financial resource trail (business), the human resource trail (people), the physical resource trail (property) and the knowledge resource trail (information). These trail are considered in turn with speculations on the opportunities and risks that each competing future might hold. The paper concludes with nine strategic positions from which a rich, robust and diverse variety of viable futures for FM can be developed.

The purpose of this paper is to address the theoretical gap between design thinking (DT) and management. DT is a strategic concept in the current business world whereas the discussion of it is still insufficient. Ambidexterity could be a promising concept to explain the benefits of DT in the realm of management and strategy.

This paper conducts a thorough literature review and theoretical analysis, and offers propositions that engage the outcome of DT and the ambidextrous learning and innovation.

The author suggests the connection between DT and ambidexterity. By thoroughly discussing the effect of the traits of DT on ambidexterity, the author proposes that DT can facilitate ambidextrous learning, and ambidextrous learning could mediate the relationships between DT and ambidextrous innovation.

This paper offers a preliminary ground for the operationalization of it. Besides, ambidexterity could provide a lens to discuss DT with other strategic concept. Furthermore, the discussion extends understanding of the pursuit of individual ambidexterity.

This paper provides a clearer reason for managers to adopt DT. Furthermore, it might facilitate the management education in management schools to incorporate DT as a section topic, and subsequently propagate education of DT in management schools.

The paper offers a theoretical platform for the study of DT in the field of management and strategy, which was rare before. The integration of DT and ambidexterity offers a decision support to the managers. Furthermore, it serves as a new approach to obtain ambidexterity in organization, which addresses the call of the research on the micro-foundations of management.

Lean Thinking is an operation management discipline which aims to identify, map and analyse the activities forming a process to detect “value waste” and outline the most effective flow of activities to execute in sequence. Process mapping is often developed in lean projects through the use of the Value Stream Map (VSM). Like many other management tools, the VSM adopts a static and non-systemic perspective in the representation of an organizational process. This may result in the implementation of Lean projects inconsistent with the overall organizational long-term strategy, thus leading to dysfunctional performance. In order to overcome this limit, the paper suggests combining VSM with System Dynamics (SD) modelling.

The paper is based on a review of the literature on VSM. This review is matched with an analysis of SD modelling principles aimed at explaining the practical and theoretical contribution of this approach to operation and strategic management practices. An illustrative case study is then provided to explore the practical implications of the proposed approach.

Our results show that SD modelling provides robust methodological support to VSM and Lean Thinking due to its inner characteristics, namely: simulation, systemic view, explicit link between system structure and behaviour and effective visual representation.

This research proposes a novel approach to design VSMs aimed at fostering a strategic perspective in Lean Thinking applications. Such an approach connects two fields of research and practice – i.e. VSM and SD modelling – which have traditionally been kept separated or, at least, partially combined for specific organizational sub-systems, thereby neglecting a broader strategic view of the entire process system.

This article proposes a conceptual basis upon which to address strategic design as business intellectual capital.

A literature review was carried out on the subjects of strategic design and intellectual capital.

A conceptual basis is derived from the theoretical proposal that strategic design is an intangible, critical factor, which favors organizational competitiveness, when it impacts the betterment of organizational and intellectual capital processes.

On the level of business practice, this article submits a broadened view of design, which may be applied to organizational strategic processes and which transcends its emphasis in the production of goods or services.

In previous literature, strategic design has not been addressed as intellectual capital, which supports the resolution of strategic problems.

This study aims to provide insights into glocalisation of international channels of distribution. The study also seeks to identify the key principles and patterns of glocalisation in general.

The authors utilise the single case study approach to study glocalisation in international channels of distribution by conducting in‐depth interviews with the firm's senior executives.

Results reveal that the firm employs glocal channels of distribution strategies. The study specifically identifies two types of glocalisation: inter‐decision and intra‐decision, and it is found that the firm follows a combination of both. The findings also suggest that the decision on how to glocalise channel strategies is based upon the firm's global practices as well as several local conditions specific to individual markets.

The study concludes that there is no uniform formula to pursue glocalisation. Firms may choose to pursue inter‐decision or intra‐decision glocalisation, or a combination of both. However, the decision should be based on a careful assessment of the firm's global philosophy, the channel decision involved, and ground realities in each market.

The study shows how glocalisation can be applied to international channel strategies. The study fills the gap in prior literature by throwing light on the lesser understood “global dimension” of a glocal strategy. The study may be the first to identify different types of glocal strategies and thus offers relevant insights into the concept of glocalisation. The study also adds to the limited knowledge on practicable application of glocalisation among both academics and practitioners.

Proactive planning strategies for “slow-onset” disruptions that affect humanitarian supply chains (SC) developed to address chronic pressing societal problems, can have a significant impact on boosting the operational and financial performance of these chains. The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology that quantifies the impact of a risk mitigation strategy widely employed in commercial SCs, namely emergency sourcing (ES), on the performance of humanitarian SCs taking into account backorders’ clearance time, unsatisfied demand, and cost.

Discrete event simulation is employed in order to evaluate alternative ES strategies based on a total cost criterion, which incorporates inventory-related costs, as well as premium contract costs paid for emergency replenishment. Backorders’ clearance time and time-to-recovery are also employed as a design parameters.

The results document the significant impact of disruptions on expected total cost, and the beneficial role of ES in hedging against disruptions. To that end, the proposed methodology determines the optimal emergency contracted capacity for a given premium, or alternatively the maximum premium cost value that ensures the feasibility of the implemented ES strategy in the long-run, along with the associated cost and time savings, and reduction of the unsatisfied demand.

The fundamental objective is to provide a decision-making support methodology for deciding on whether to implement an ES strategy or not in humanitarian SCs, and the level of the optimal contracted reserved capacity. The results could be of great value to aid providers, policy-makers, and regulators.

Traditional perspectives of manufacturing strategy tend to focus internal transforming activities, including how transformed resources are handled and the relations with other value‐creating operations inside and outside the firm. Manufacturing management evolved as a discipline with little clear alignments with business strategy and firm positioning. Even manufacturing strategy is often delimited to the boundaries of the firm and its dyad relations to collaborating actors such as suppliers and distributors. This paper aims at exploring and demonstrating what a network perspective can add to the understanding of manufacturing management and strategy.

The research design is built on principal reasoning of future manufacturing strategy. Articles and conference papers together with over 25 years of field studies constitute the empirical base. An industry was chosen to demonstrate the application of the research framework of horizontal and vertical technologies.

The analysis indicates that manufacturing occurs within open‐production systems here called extraprises as an extension to enterprises with their inside the firm focus. Taking a network perspective, it is suggested that a conceptual framework of horizontal and vertical technologies offers a fruitful conceptualization to identify the content and meaning of future manufacturing strategy.

The network theory conceptualization takes the view of manufacturing systems a further step beyond systems theory and contributes a richer framework for manufacturing strategy research.

It is argued that future directions of manufacturing strategy will gain from taking a network perspective using network theory with its foundations in actors, resources, and activities.

We discuss the impact of complexity science on the design and management of health care organizations over the past decade. We provide an overview of complexity science issues and their impact on thinking about health care systems, particularly with the rising importance of information systems. We also present a complexity science perspective on current issues in today’s health care organizations and suggest ways that this perspective might help in approaching these issues.

We review selected research, focusing on work in which we participated, to identify specific examples of applications of complexity science. We then take a look at information systems in health care organizations from a complexity viewpoint.

Complexity science is a fundamentally different way of understanding nature and has influenced the thinking of scholars and practitioners as they have attempted to understand health care organizations. Many scholars study health care organizations as complex adaptive systems and through this perspective develop new management strategies. Most important, perhaps, is the understanding that attention to relationships and interdependencies is critical for developing effective management strategies.

Increased understanding of complexity science can enhance the ability of researchers and practitioners to develop new ways of understanding and improving health care organizations.

This analysis opens new vistas for scholars and practitioners attempting to understand health care organizations as complex adaptive systems. The analysis holds value for those already familiar with this approach as well as those who may not be as familiar.

Several countries have carried out air quality monitoring in professional workplaces where chemicals are used. Health-care spaces have been less investigated. This paper aims to define a protocol, as developed by a research group, for inpatient rooms to understand the state of the art and to suggest design and management strategies for improving process quality.

Starting from the ISO-16000 standard and guidelines for monitoring activities, a protocol is defined for a one year investigation, with passive samplers. Through data analysis of the investigations and analysis of the cleaning and finishing products, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and maintenance activities, etc., it is possible to highlight the potential influences of chemical pollution.

A methodology is defined for understanding the chemical pollution and the possible factors related to construction materials, cleaning products and maintenance activities.

The paper analyzes only a limited number of case studies because the monitoring activity is still in progress.

The investigation offers a starting point for a wide tool for the definition of design, maintenance and management strategies in health-care facilities.

The research project, aimed at improving the knowledge of indoor air quality (IAQ) in inpatient rooms, is a starting point for a supporting tool for future regulations concerning health-care facilities.

IAQ is an issue on which many governments are focusing. Several health-care researchers have reported studies that aim at improving users’ health. Most investigations are about biological and physical risks, but chemical risks have been less studied. The paper suggests some design and management strategies for inpatient room.