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This paper aims to improve understanding of how to manage global network operations from an engineering perspective.

This research adopted a theory building approach based on case studies. Grounded in the existing literature, the theoretical framework was refined and enriched through nine in‐depth case studies in the industry sectors of aerospace, automotives, defence and electrics and electronics.

This paper demonstrates the main value creation mechanisms of global network operations along the engineering value chain. Typical organisational features to support the value creation mechanisms are captured, and the key issues in engineering network design and operations are presented with an overall framework.

Evidenced by a series of pilot applications, outputs of this research can help companies to improve the performance of their current engineering networks and design new engineering networks to better support their global businesses and customers in a systematic way.

Issues about the design and operations of global engineering networks (GEN) are poorly understood in the existing literature in contrast to their apparent importance in value creation and realisation. To address this knowledge gap, this paper introduces the concept of engineering value chain to highlight the potential of a value chain approach to the exploration of engineering activities in a complex business context. At the same time, it develops an overall framework for managing GEN along the engineering value chain. This improves our understanding of engineering in industrial value chains and extends the theoretical understanding of GEN through integrating the engineering network theories and the value chain concepts.

Companies are increasingly engaged with global engineering networks through offshoring of product development activities from R&D to production. This creates many new challenges as operations get physically and culturally decoupled. The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of how to effectively manage engineering offshoring activities in a context of global engineering networks. The main research question, therefore, is: “Can offshoring of engineering tasks be explained and managed using the concept of Global Engineering Networks (GEN)?” Effective approaches to handling the associated risks of engineering offshoring will be a key area of the investigation.

The research approach is based on the engineering design research methodology developed by Blessing and Chakrabarti, including a descriptive phase and a prescriptive phase. Four case studies of large multinational corporations in Denmark were carried out. Data gathering was mainly documentary studies and interviews. The main data analysis approaches were coding (Strauss and Corbin) and pattern‐matching (Yin). The dataset was analysed using the GEN framework suggested by Zhang et al. and Zhang and Gregory.

Engineering offshoring presents companies with challenges related to communication and knowledge sharing which is addressed through formal and informal mechanisms as well as a more streamlined operation. However, this did not remove the challenges. The GEN framework suggests a systematic approach to understanding global engineering networks through investigating their contextual features, critical capabilities to compete in a particular contextual circumstance, and configuration characteristics to deliver the capabilities. Using the GEN framework, the challenges faced by companies and the risks associated with their engineering offshoring activities can be explained as a mismatch between the required capabilities and the companies' ability to deliver these capabilities.

This paper provides new theoretical insight into both engineering offshoring and GEN theories by extending the GEN framework to address complications within engineering offshoring. This strengthens both academic fields, and will be able to help engineering managers to develop appropriate engineering network configurations for offshore engineering operations.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrating framework for the configuration and performance of global engineering networks (GEN).

The reported study is based on a comprehensive literature review and refined by the practice of three global leading companies along key industry sectors.

This framework presents the key patterns of GEN from an evolution perspective and demonstrates the influence of the major driving forces.

In addition, this study also identifies research opportunities in two areas: further testing the theory of GEN with a broader range of industry sectors, and expanding the study to inter‐firm engineering activities. The further study is planned accordingly.

The paper offers a systematic view of GEN and can help companies in the design and operation.

Strategic trends towards service operations have been widely reported in the recent literature, but organisational capabilities to support such service-centred strategies are less well understood. The purpose of this paper is to identify key organisational issues in managing complex engineering service operations throughout the lifecycle.

Using instruments developed from the product lifecycle management technologies and the network configuration concept, key organisational issues for engineering service operations were identified through case studies focusing on complex engineering products and services systems across a variety of industrial sectors.

The case studies demonstrated different organisational features and strategic priorities of engineering service operations along the whole lifecycle. A generic trend has been observed for engineering systems to move from being design, development and manufacturing focused to embracing support and end-of-life recycling matters.

This paper provides an overall framework for integrating key organisational issues in engineering service operations. It contributes to the service literature by highlighting the need of developing appropriate organisational capabilities to support service-centred strategies with engineering cases. It also provides guidance for companies to manage their engineering network operations throughout the whole lifecycle of complex products and services systems.

Product development in most industries is often done today in a global engineering network (GEN). More recently, there has been a clear shift to using development resources from the so‐called “emerging countries” (ECs) that have growing domestic market, highly skilled workforce, and low labor cost base. The integration of resources from ECs, whether from the company's own businesses there or from external suppliers, poses a new challenge for collaborative work in a GEN. This paper aims to describe these challenges. Further, the process of transition to the use of resources from ECs is fraught with business risks. Further, seeks to discuss these risks and how they can be mitigated and to propose a model, derived from practice, to manage the transition process. The model comprises a set of foundation elements and location‐dependent transformation processes.

Product development teams in three businesses were studied – an automotive supplier, a manufacturer of made‐to‐order electrical equipment and a developer of automation software – over three years. These businesses were in the process of relocating some development activities to ECs. Two of the teams were assisted in this transition and the third observed and the model presented is an outcome of this involvement.

Successfully starting a global development team strategy requires clarity and transparency of strategy, good communication, proper organization of effort and focus on product and process standardization. Further, a set of change management processes needs to be launched at participating locations for competence build‐up and team building.

This model can be used by organizations setting up such EC‐IC teams to avoid the possibility of failure of such critical collaborative efforts.

There is considerable literature on distributed product development and virtual teams. The coverage includes management challenges, technology enablers and organizational and multi‐cultural challenges. However, the specific challenge of teams comprising membership from advanced and ECs is not covered. Further, while the literature deals with the operation of such teams it does not cover the sensitive transition or start‐up phase. This paper deals with this issue.

The principal objective of this paper is to relate functional nodes of production and innovation in global operations networks. The authors aim to capture the implications of changing strategic roles and locations of manufacturing for innovation capabilities.

The authors draw on the operations networks literature and use mixed methods of enquiry, including case studies, workshops and survey techniques. Part of the empirical base of the study is a series of workshops and an examination of 14 Danish companies that have experienced radical changes in their operations configurations. To provide a more complete view of these developments, the authors complement the qualitative methodology with a survey of an overall sample of 675 Danish and 410 Swedish companies.

On the basis of the findings from the survey, the series of workshops and case studies of Danish companies presented in this paper, the authors find that although the potential benefits of global dispersion of manufacturing are vast, the realisation of these potentials depends on how successful companies are with linking the new strategic roles and locations of manufacturing with innovation at their home base. The paper identifies and discusses groups of capabilities important to this link.

Three propositions are developed to advance the understanding of the role of cross-functional coordination and alignment, as well as their significance in the strategic initiatives of global dispersion of operations. The findings assist global companies in organising cross-functional coordination and interrelated functional nodes of production and innovation in global operations networks.

Not only routine transactional tasks but also more knowledge-intensive proprietary tasks cross both national and organisational borders. The challenge of coordination in these emerging configurations is imperative which has not been adequately addressed so far. By using mixed methods of inquiry, this paper provides a more complete view of the phenomenon and presents the main dilemmas underlying it.

Megaprojects present an intricated pattern of leadership activities, which evolve over their planning and delivery and comprises several stakeholders. A framework is useful to navigate this complexity; it allows to identify and cluster the key elements. This paper aims to introduce a novel framework based on boundary spanners to describe the structural pattern of shared leadership in megaprojects.

A systematic literature review about boundary spanning and shared leadership is used to identify and cluster the key elements of shared leadership in megaprojects. The systematic literature review provides a rich theoretical background to develop the novel shared leadership framework based on boundary spanners.

There are three key dimensions characterizing shared leadership topology in megaprojects: stakeholders, boundary spanning leadership roles and project phases. The novel framework shows how project leadership dynamically transfers among different stakeholders, showing the importance of shared leadership as a leadership paradigm in megaprojects.

The novel framework epitomizes shared leadership in megaprojects by exploring its antecedents with social network metrics. This paper stresses that shared leadership is the envisaged form of leadership in megaprojects. By modeling complex project leadership in a simple, yet effective way, the framework fosters critical thinking for future research. The modeling introduced by this framework would also benefit practitioners in charge of megaprojects.

The paper moves the project leadership research to the network-level by taking boundary spanners as shared leadership roles in megaprojects. It shows how shared leadership is a valuable management tool for planning and delivery megaprojects.

The purpose of this paper is to shortly overview the research in international operations management (OM), to provide background to the papers published in this special section.

As a literature review, the paper investigates the past, present, and future of international OM. It is not a systematic review; the paper just highlights the most important international operational management research networks, streams and concepts in the field.

The paper finds that there is a time lag in the field of international OM compared to other research areas within international business and management. It provides some ideas for the future to be researched.

The paper gives a focused review on international research networks which has not been done before. It also identifies two different streams of researches in international OM: the stream investigating OM differences among geographical areas, and the stream dealing with issues of international manufacturing networks.

I would like to limit my discussion to the experiences and strategies Honda has employed to evolve from our roots as a local company in Japan, with a global viewpoint — into what we are today, a global company with a local viewpoint.