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The purpose of this paper is to study LEGO sets as a potential alternative asset class. An exhaustive sample of 10,588 sets is used to generate inferences regarding long-term LEGO performance, its diversification benefits and return determinants.

LEGO set performance is studied in terms of equal- and value-weighted portfolios, sorts based on set characteristics and cross-sectional regressions.

Over 1966–2018, LEGO value-weighted index accounted for survivorship bias enjoys 1.20% inflation-adjusted return per annum, well below 5.54% for equities. However, the defensive properties of LEGO are considerable, as including 5%–25% of LEGO in a diversified portfolio is beneficial for investors with varying levels of risk aversion. LEGO secondary market is relatively internationalised, with investors from larger economies, countries with higher per capita incomes and less income inequality are shown to trade LEGO more actively.

LEGO investors derive non-pecuniary utility that is separable from their risk-return profile. LEGO is not exposed to any of the Fama-French factors, however, set-specific size and value effects are also well-pronounced on the LEGO market, with smaller sets and sets with lower price-to-piece ratio exhibiting higher yields. Older sets are also enjoying higher returns, demonstrating a liquidity effect.

This is the first study to investigate the investment properties of LEGO as an alternative asset class from micro- and macro-financial perspectives that overcomes many survivorship bias limitations prevalent in earlier research. LEGO trading is shown to be an important source of valuable data to enable original robustness checks for prominent theoretical concepts from asset pricing and behavioural finance literature.

This paper investigates the link between Intellectual Capital (IC) and Open Innovation (OI). Scholars worldwide consider the topics as standing alone and so they give scarce attention to the possible link between them. Managerial experiences (and few theoretical contributions), instead, hypothesize a significant role that IC can play over OI processes in order make them successful.

The methodology of a single case study is used to investigate the link between IC and OI. In particular, an OI process managed by a global company, LEGO, and named Mindstorms is rebuilt and analysed herein.

Intermediate results achieved by LEGO through its OI process were unsuccessful since the company had not developed its own IC (made up of relational, human and structural capital). The subsequent development of IC, instead, has driven to successful results. This suggests that if companies do not develop their IC before launching OI processes, then these processes might be not successful.

One limitation is the use of a single case study. Despite this, the present article is a warning for all the companies: before launching OI processes they need to develop their IC.

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is one of the first works that deepens the investigation of the link between IC and OI. Very often, scholars investigating IC shyly refer to OI, without mentioning it, while the scholars investigating OI allude to IC, without citing it. In this study, IC and OI are investigated together.

In February 2015, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of the LEGO Group, invited the national and international press to a financial briefing at the company's headquarters in Billund (Denmark). 2014 had been an exceptional year of growth for the LEGO group. Nevertheless, most of the journalists present in the room were surprised when the Danish CEO suddenly began to dance in front of the audience while singing ‘Everything is awesome’ from the LEGO Movie. Why did he do it? Was it out of spontaneous joy? Or was there a strategy behind his actions? And what were the reactions of the media and LEGO employees? What can a CEO who is dancing and singing for a few seconds or minutes in front of a group of journalists tell us about leadership roles and leadership communication? The aim of this chapter is to provide plausible answers to these questions. We combine theory of dancing with three different approaches to the study of leadership: (1) a strategic approach: the CEO as a Performer, (2) a positive organizational scholarship approach: the CEO as a Chief Happiness Officer and (3) a critical approach: the CEO as a Seducer. At the end of the chapter, we discuss how this small case study can contribute to a broader understanding of strategic communication that includes a dramaturgical and multimodal perspective.

Changes in societal preferences can have a significant impact on the business strategy of companies. This paper aims to illustrate the utility of strategic alliances in channelizing societal preferences.

LEGO and its many strategic alliances are carefully examined to illustrate the need for considering strategic alliances from a societal preference perspective. LEGO’s strategic alliances are juxtaposed with two major societal trends of the past few decades, environmental movement and multiple efforts toward greater inclusivity.

The following important lessons are elaborated for helping business organizations pursuing strategic alliances: long-term orientation should not become an excuse for complacency, need for alignment of organizations within the strategic alliance, strategic alliances should be viewed as a bidirectional channel for influence and attending to internal transformations is crucial for success.

This paper deviates from the traditional treatment of strategic alliances as a business arrangement that only drives financial performance but instead provides insights into how strategic alliances can be connected to changing societal preferences. It also challenges the received wisdom in the academic literature on strategic alliance, which is dominated by some very restrictive theoretical perspectives.

Using the example of LEGO Friends, we investigate the discourses that develop when second-order consumers attribute moral weight to the production and marketing of toys perceived to sharpen and enforce gender norms.

We analyze reactions to LEGO Friends through a discourse analysis of online data collected from English-language blogs and news sites. The data is coded iteratively within the two primary categories of gender and the market.

We argue that children’s toys have reemerged as a moral battlefield where consumers stake out positions on the feminization and sexualization of young girls, forcing companies to take strong ideological stances while competing for market share. We show that in the debate over LEGO Friends, consumers’ discursive constructions of moral play were embedded in a heteronormative middle-class ideal that discourages expressions of stereotypical femininity.

Our data is limited to a number of online forums blogs and web sites. We do not claim to have exhaustively catalogued the reactions to LEGO Friends, but merely to have explored discursive positions staked by consumers in the unfolding debate.

This research shows that companies can benefit from addressing second-order consumers’ negotiations of brand meanings in their marketing research and campaigns, and thus avoid becoming the next target of a moral panic.

Our paper addresses brand meaning negotiations by second-order consumers, in this case buyers of children’s toys.

In the past decade, scholars across social sciences shifted their attention towards creative and dynamic research methods. Despite the growing popularity of LEGO^® Serious Play^® method across social sciences, few studies applied the method in tourism and hospitality research. This method represents a powerful tool which uses a toy to solve problems, explore ideas and achieve objectives in business, research and community work. This paper aims to provide insights into qualitative multi-method approach incorporating LEGO^® Serious Play^® to gain a deeper understanding of hosts-guest experiences in volunteer tourism exchange programme.

The empirical material mentioned in the paper is based on an interpretive study investigating hosts-guest experiences on organic farms. The study used a multi-method approach, and the data were collected through unstructured interviews, observation, reflexive notes and LEGO^® Serious Play^® workshops with 32 participants in total.

The paper highlights the benefits and limitations of the qualitative multi-method study, specifically focusing on LEGO^® Serious Play^® as a novel approach for tourism and hospitality research.

This study contributes to making the current body of knowledge on qualitative multi-method methodologies and creative visual methodologies in the field of tourism and hospitality. As such, the paper provides an overview of the LEGO^® Serious Play^® method. Specifically, this exploratory paper brings attention to how and to what end existing LEGO^® Serious Play^® has been modified and adopted in this multi-method study. Furthermore, the paper highlights the future use to benefit the tourism and hospitality academics and industry professionals.

In December 2011 the Lego Group (TLG) announced the launch of Lego Friends, the company’s sixth attempt to market a product to girls. Lego Friends, which was supported by a $40 million global marketing campaign, was designed to introduce the fun of building with Lego bricks to girls, who represented less than 10 percent of Lego’s audience.

The company’s poorly executed brand extensions and move from free-form building sets to story-driven kits had nearly cost it its independence in 2004, so the launch of Lego Friends was strategically important. However, within hours of the product’s appearance it was heavily criticized for reinforcing gender stereotypes and damaging the valuable Lego brand.

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO since 2004, had saved TLG and ushered in an era of sales growth with a series of successful strategic initiatives. Would Lego Friends be another addition to TLG’s graveyard of failed products for girls, or would it prove popular and finally enable the company to double its sales and profits by reaching this segment?

After analyzing the case, students should be able to:

• Understand the connection between a firm’s assets and its activities

• Identify new resources and capabilities required for a change in strategic focus

• Recognize the consequences of poorly matched assets and market opportunities

Understand the connection between a firm’s assets and its activities

Identify new resources and capabilities required for a change in strategic focus

Recognize the consequences of poorly matched assets and market opportunities

Introduces LEGO’s Bionicle toy: it was aimed at boys aged 7‐12 and was developed as part of a new ongoing epic story, with the emphasis on this “movie” aspect rather than on the constructional aspects of the toy: constructional toys are a shrinking market because boys no longer want to take the time to complete them. Relates the Bionicle concept to LEGO’s previous successful toys Slizer and RoboRiders, and to its existing success in buying into stories like Star Wars. Describes how LEGO worked closely with Advance to develop the story and to market the concept in advance of the product; this was very successful. Moves on to the next step, which was to market the “movie” by a wide range of media, such as posters and cinema advertisements, plus media that could carry the parts of the story itself – a website, a CD‐ROM and comics; this carefully designed mosaic of media was accompanied by compelling graphics, phasing the story to maintain involvement, and getting the children to pass on the story parts to each other (i.e. peer‐to‐peer marketing). Concludes with how the campaign has benefited the overall perception of LEGO and led to a wider product range.

One problem that many organisations face today in the global economy is that too few ideas are turned into innovations. The purpose of this paper is to show how innovations in organisations may be obtained by means of creative energy fields.

The design employed in the research represents a holistic, change oriented approach to innovation, and the methodology is conceptual where an analytical model is used.

The paper provides arguments that organisations need to develop creative energy fields in order to enhance their innovative capacity and performance. In the paper the construct creative energy field is conceptualised as “a spot in an organisation where a Group of creative individuals collaborate and work together in order to bring to surface new ideas which may fuel innovation processes and Development in organisations”. The paper shows that creative energy fields are influenced by five distinct components; those of making a clear purpose, planning after the results have become apparant, an organisation’s rule breakers, drawing a map that changes the landscape, and igniting the flame of innovation. Furthermore, the findings encompass three conditions which need to be present in an organisation in order to make creative energy fields work.

The carried out focuses on the individual organisation which aims to enhance innovation performance.

In relation to practical implications, the paper shows, in particular, how an organisation may move into areas of innovation by means of a Lego system of organising.

To the authors’ knowledge, the creation and use of a novel construct, that of creative energy fields, represents newness and originality in innovation research at the level of the individual enterprise. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the extant management knowledge of innovation by showing how a Lego system of organising may foster innovation at the enterprise level.

Looking for a textbook approach to managing your brand? Sadly, there is no such thing. However, there are many sources from which to draw insights into successful brand management. Lego, McDonald’s and JCB provide three interesting examples.