Search results

As part of the AstraZeneca R&D transformation the Lund research site with 900 employees has been closed and the research activities moved to a different geographical location in Mölndal, Sweden. The change period lasted for 22 months starting in March 2010 with the end result that 200 employees moved to Mölndal, 100 retired, 600 had to find new opportunities, and the Lund research facility was sold and transferred to a non‐profit life science foundation. This case report will present and discuss the learning from moving a research area to a different geographical location and closing a research site.

This case study will describe challenges associated with an extensive change journey, the measures that were undertaken by the leadership team, and the results of a staff survey evaluating the success of delivered objectives.

A major learning from this change process was the importance of an empowered local cross‐functional leadership team that can drive and execute major global changes at the local level. Key success factors were transparent face‐to‐face communication and engagement and motivation of employees to deliver challenging objectives. A staff exit survey showed that >90 percent of the employees felt they had been treated with respect. They left the Lund research site feeling proud of having worked for AstraZeneca and for leaving the site in a responsible way.

This case study describes how a difficult change management assignment can become a success story.

The aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of luxury consumption by comparing the meanings and the attributes of counterfeit branded products and luxury goods.

This study is an interpretative qualitative research in which the meanings and essence of luxury and counterfeit goods are uncovered by written stories. The photo‐ethnographical method was used to generate the stories.

Consumers regard both luxury goods and counterfeits as being at different levels and of different quality ranging from poor to excellent. Counterfeits possess mainly social meanings, whereas authentic luxury goods may also operate on a personal level. However, consumers do not perceive luxury and counterfeit branded products as counterparts; counterfeits can be regarded as the embodiment of luxury, whereas non‐brand products are rather the opposite. Moreover, the existence of authenticity is perceived to be a vital connective and distinctive factor among luxury and counterfeit branded products.

The research aspires to shed light on the essence of counterfeit and luxury goods by comparing them in an effort to gain better understanding of the luxury phenomenon as a whole.