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The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for understanding how problem formulation, information search and division of work in new product development (NPD) activities is shaped by mind sets vested in organizations with diverging positions in the value chain and correspondingly situated knowledge contexts. The authors aim to focus on how this influences the marketability of new product ideas.

The empirical data are derived from exploratory observation studies of NPD meetings and interviews of involved managers and specialists in three business dyads. The cases involve ingredient and meat suppliers, retail chains and marketing agencies located in Denmark.

The authors show that the scope and organization of NPD activities indeed are shaped by the combinations of situated knowledge contexts involved. An important intervening variable however concerns the atmosphere of the relationship, involving emotions and attitudes of the actors involved from foregone exchange situations.

For managers of NPD activities, the relationship between the knowledge contexts involved, the concept development outcomes and the marketability of new product ideas are important factors to take into consideration in organizing supplier or buyer involvement in NPD.

The value of the paper is primarily related to its empirical contexts and the findings.

Despite growing interest in clusters role for the global competitiveness of firms, there has been little research into how globalization affects cluster‐based firms' (CBFs) use of local knowledge resources and the combination of local and global knowledge used. Using the cluster's knowledge base as a mediating variable, the purpose of this paper is to examine how globalization affected the studied firms' use of local cluster‐based knowledge, integration of local and global knowledge, and networking capabilities.

Qualitative case studies of nine firms in three clusters strongly affected by increasing global division of labour.

The paper suggests that globalization has affected how firms use local resources and combine local and global knowledge. Unexpectedly, clustered firms with explicit procedures and established global fora for exchanging knowledge were highly active in local knowledge use, whereas CBFs characterized by a more implicit knowledge base did not use localized knowledge.

The study is exploratory and covers three clusters in one small and open developed economy. Further corroboration through replicated studies and possibly triangulation with quantitative studies would further develop the understanding on how globalization impacts on the internal organization of CBFs.

For policy makers, cluster policies should be reconsidered if the role of clusters differs from what has been expected so far. From being self‐contained systems which only links to the outside world in the extremities of the local value chain, cluster activities now unfolds in complex production networks around the world, entailing the development and/or integration of clusters in both developing and developed countries.

Several studies have examined the changing role of clusters in the evolving global division of labour. However, research is lacking that addresses the challenges of transformation from the level of the CBF and how these may be affected by cluster evolution. The paper takes a micro‐oriented perspective and focus on clusters in Denmark, a small and mature economy.

External inputs are critical for organisational creativity. In order to bridge different thought worlds and cross-organisational barriers, managers must initiate and motivate boundary spanning processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary spanners manage creativity projects across organisational boundaries.

The authors link to previous literature and present findings from a comparative case study of managerial practices for managing creativity projects. Data were collected through interviews, secondary materials, site visits and observation.

Three meta-practices used by managers to manage boundary-spanning creative projects are presented: defining the creative space, making space for creativity and acting in the creative space. These practices are detailed in seven case studies of creative projects.

The analysis focuses on boundary spanning as a management process rather than a capability for organisations to self-organise. It extends the “boundary spanning as practice” literature by focusing on boundary spanning as a managerial practice and brings the problems related to resource mobilisation across both organisational and departmental boundaries to the fore.

Understanding the managerial dilemma faced by creativity managers is a first step to finding solutions. The discussed practices may inspire managers both in resolving creativity management problems and through self-reflection.

The authors contribute to research on boundary spanning practices by linking to creativity research, and bridge to research on management and governance in distributed and less-defined organisations.

To construct a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of the digitalisation of transactions on the organisation of export intermediation.

This is a conceptual/research paper with a number of illustrative examples – primarily from SMEs.

In the paper, a range of internet‐enabled forms of export intermediation are derived, offsetting the conventional trade‐off between resource commitment and marketing control.

The paper holds a number of relevant insights for export managers seeking to integrate the possibilities of the digital revolution in the organisation of their export marketing activities. These include reshuffling of export marketing tasks among the actors in the marketing channel and new forms of activity specialisation among actors.

Using the theoretical framework of Alderson in combination with transaction cost theorizing. The paper provides a novel theoretical approach for understanding the evolution of marketing institutions in the export marketing field.

This chapter analyses the recovery of the Danish economy from the crisis of the 1980s, its elevation to a bit of an ‘economic miracle’ or at least an ‘employment miracle’ from 1995 to 2005 and its subsequent decline during the financial crisis, which revealed more long-standing problems that precluded a quick recovery. The solution of Denmark's structural balance of payment problems in the early 1990s paved the way for long-term prosperity, and Denmark managed the challenges of globalisation and deindustrialisation almost without social costs. However, an accumulation of short-term policy failures and credit liberalisation facilitated a credit and housing bubble, a consumption-driven boom and declining competitiveness. In broad terms, the explanation is political; this includes not only vote- and office-seeking strategies of the incumbent government but also ideational factors such as agenda setting of economic policy. Somewhat unnoticed – partly because of preoccupation with long-term challenges of ageing and shortage of labour – productivity and economic growth rates had slowed down over several years. The Danish decline in GDP 2008–2009 was larger than in the 1930s, and after the bubble burst, there were few drivers of economic growth. Households consolidated and were reluctant to consume; public consumption had to be cut as well; exports increased rather slowly; and in this climate, there was little room for private investments. Financially, the Danish economy remained healthy, though. Current accounts revealed record-high surpluses after the financial crisis; state debt remained moderate, and if one were to include the enormous retained taxes in private pension funds, net state debt would de facto be positive. Still, around 2010–2011 there were few short-term drivers of economic growth, and rather unexpectedly, it turned out that unemployment problems were likely to prevail for several years.