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The purpose of this paper is to identify links between the components involved in ecodesign orientations (EDOs) and the integration of ecological criteria into Scandinavian wooden furniture industries. The purpose of identifying these links is to recognize possibilities and gaps in wooden furniture product development and branding opportunities to deepen customer engagement with the Scandinavian country-of-origin (COO) brand.

The application of ecodesign in Scandinavian wooden furniture industries was studied using survey data gathered from Nordic wood furniture designers. Factor analysis was used to identify the general types of Scandinavian design styles (SDSs) and EDOs implemented in the Scandinavian wooden furniture industry. The SDS and EDO impacts on the integration of ecological design criteria were modelled using logistic regression analysis.

The integration of ecological criteria by Nordic designers influences both the perspectives on material and process optimization and the end use of wooden furniture as well as the recycling of these products. In contrast, our results showed no statistical evidence of connections between different SDS types and the integration of ecological criteria in design. Recognition of special needs of customers valuing both high Scandinavian design and EDO could provide strategic opportunities for wooden furniture industries to recognize new global market potential and enhance their competitiveness.

Developing business opportunities for wooden furniture marketed under the Scandinavian COO brand, and forming a better understanding of customer expectations on the ecological information related to different wooden furniture SDS types, is needed. This would support developing new ecodesign strategies across the whole industry and enhancing value proposition of Scandinavian wooden furniture within different customer groups.

Research findings on the intersection of industrial brand design and ecodesign are still scarce, especially with a special focus on strategic management and sustainability marketing of companies. The results of our study provide entirely new insights on the topic especially in the context of Scandinavian wooden furniture industry.

This paper presents some aspects of branding the Scandinavian snow tourism product. The authors argue that the Scandinavian suppliers to the non‐Nordic market need a stronger image and more distinct differentiation, and that a Scandinavian umbrella brand might be helpful to serve the purpose of increasing the combined market share of Scandinavian suppliers in non‐Nordic markets. In support of their views empirical observations are presented which confirm the rational for a Scandinavian umbrella brand and a potential for differentiation not yet utilised. Branding is discussed within the context of a strategic alliance between Scandinavian suppliers. These suppliers are conceptualised as a strategic group. The conceptual and managerial complexity of branding a product associated with three different countries is noted. The paper concludes by indicating areas for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze important parts of the contemporary development of project research and to outline plausible and desirable directions for the future.

This is accomplished through a review of the “Scandinavian School of Project Management” and “Rethinking Project Management,” which is complemented with a set of questions distributed to 27 active researchers within the project research field from around the world.

Through the analysis the authors show how the two streams have more similarities than differences, despite the fact that they have been initiated in very different contexty 8ts and ways. The authors could also conclude that the “Scandinavian School” appears stronger on the international scene than in the Nordic countries, and that general perception of what the “school” stands for has changed and been blurred with time. Based on the analysis the authors also proposed the need for a broad, more coherent research effort in terms of a multi-perspective research program on projects and temporary organizations. The essence of this would be: an action research profile to improve practice and foresee the future; a combined research focus on institutional change and project practice to ensure both theoretical and empirical progress; and a strong global perspective to further enrich both theory and practice.

This research has obvious limitations in terms of empirical scope and response selection. The questionnaire results should therefore be interpreted with care.

The value of this research lies in its reflective nature and the proposed trajectory of the project research domain.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review Scandinavian research on tweens as consumers from the years 1990‐2007.

In total, 35 studies were examined. Bronfenbrenner's bio‐ecological perspective was used to depict what parts of children's lives had been investigated. The theory highlights different contexts and analytical levels in children's environments that may influence their consumer behavior.

Scandinavian research has mainly focused on the individual child as a consumer and on interpersonal relations. The societal transformations that gradually changes the Scandinavian countries seem to have been less investigated. In addition, there is a lack of Scandinavian consumer research on interaction between different contexts, such as parents and school, which may influence children's consumer behavior.

This article has not critically reviewed each specific investigation in the field, but focused on the spread of aggregated Scandinavian research on tweens as consumers.

A more composite picture of consumption patterns among Scandinavian tweens is provided, which may be used as a guideline for educators, marketers and other professionals that interact with this age group.

Few attempts have been made to obtain a composite picture of Scandinavian consumer research on tweens. This question is of particular importance in times when the discourse of children's role in consumer society is changing, in order to understand the implications for future theoretical and empirical development in this dynamic field.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse three Scandinavian iSchools in Denmark, Norway and Sweden with regard to their intentions of becoming iSchools and curriculum content in relation to these intentions. By doing so, a picture will be given of the international expansion of the iSchool concept in terms of organisational symbolism and practical educational content. In order to underline the approaches of the Scandinavian schools, comparisons are made to three American iSchools.

The study is framed through theory on organisational symbolism and the intentions of the iSchool movement as formulated in its vision statements. Empirically, the study consists of two parts: close readings of three documents outlining the considerations of three Scandinavian LIS schools before applying for the iSchool status, and statistical analysis of 427 syllabi from master level courses at three Scandinavian and three American iSchools.

All three Scandinavian schools, analysed, have recently become iSchools, and though some differences are visible, it is hard to distinguish anything in their syllabi as carriers of what can be described as an iSchool identity. In considering iSchool identity, it instead benefits on a symbolic level that are most prominent, such as branding, social visibility and the possible attraction of new student groups. The traditionally strong relation to national library sectors are emphasised as important to maintain, specifically in Norway and Sweden.

The study is done on iSchools in Denmark, Norway and Sweden with empirical comparison to three American schools. These comparisons face the challenge of meeting the educational system and programme structure of each individual country. Despite this, findings prove possible to use as ground for conclusions, although empirical generalisations concerning, for instance, other countries must be made with caution.

This study highlights the practical challenges met in international expansion of the iSchool movement, both on a practical and symbolic level. Both the iSchool Caucus and individual schools considering becoming iSchools may use these findings as a point of reference in development and decision making.

This is an original piece of research from which the results may contribute to the international development of the iSchool movement, and extend the theoretical understanding of the iSchool movement as an educational and organisational construct.

The Scandinavian states are universally seen as very well-functioning bureaucracies with some of the lowest levels of corruption in the world. In scholarly debates on state building, Francis Fukuyama has used the Scandinavian countries and the phrase ‘getting to Denmark’ as a metaphor for the apparent mystery of how states can come to be governed by well-developed bureaucracies and highly functioning state institutions. This chapter presents a study of state institutions and bureaucracy in Denmark–Norway and Sweden over a 250-year period from the mid-seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century. The study demonstrates how bureaucracies conforming to Weber’s later model were gradually established in the Scandinavian monarchies in this period. The chapter also presents the results of three empirical studies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which indicate how the level of corruption in the state administration had been limited by the middle of the nineteenth century. In Denmark, the institutional framework set up after the establishment of the absolute monarchy in 1660, along with continuing reforms to improve the administration in the period of absolutism between 1660 and 1849, came to form an important basis for an administrative culture based on the rule of law. In Sweden the rule shifted between absolutism and constitutionalism, but both the Danish–Norwegian and the Swedish monarchies saw the establishment of strong and comprehensive state hierarchies with a king at the top level who set out to guarantee the rule of law and attempted to be merciful to his subjects. Lutheranism played a decisive and durable role as moral backbone in Scandinavian societies and in the establishment of a shared political culture. These elements, in combination with the establishment of Weberian-type bureaucracy, had, by the end of the nineteenth century, worked to limit corruption in the state administration of the Scandinavian countries.

This study aims to examine the diffusion and implementation of trust-based management (TBM) in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). TBM is a novel “anti-New Public Management (NPM)” innovation within the realm of New Public Governance (NPG), which asserts that leadership and control in public sector organizations should be practiced and designed based on the assumption that civil servants and employees in general are trustworthy. The research questions are as follows: How has TBM been diffused and implemented in Scandinavia? To what extent can the institutional logics framework increase understanding of similarities and differences between the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)?

The authors designed and submitted surveys to the municipal directors of the three Scandinavian municipal populations, thereby producing a unique cross-country dataset on TBM diffusion and implementation in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden).

The authors' study shows that TBM has diffused widely among Scandinavian municipalities and has developed into a municipal-level concept across policy fields and sectors. While Denmark stands out as an earlier and more decisive TBM reformer, the results show that similarities in the diffusion and implementation of TBM in Scandinavian countries are more apparent than the differences.

This study contributes to the public management literature and research on anti-NPM and NPG concepts by being the first wide-scale empirical study of TBM diffusion and implementation in the Scandinavian municipal sectors.

Looking at the Scandinavian information systems development (ISD) approach in contrast to more traditional ISD approaches, this paper reflects on experiences of the roles of the participants in an ISD process. The study aims to demonstrate how the theoretical knowledge of academic researchers together with the pragmatic approach of practitioners can be integrated in the ISD process – particularly in a new and more refined way, through a heightened awareness of the different roles.

Based on case study methodology, the study focuses on the roles of human resource academics and human resource practitioners in an ISD process developing an intra‐ and inter‐organizational web‐based knowledge‐sharing portal.

The study demonstrates that in order to secure the success of the ISD process, new roles must be performed and properly orchestrated. Also, the study demonstrates how a constant crosschecking of “real‐world” experiences against “the laboratory” in the ISD process can benefit the participating partners, the process, and the end‐product.

Based on a single‐case study, the context and process imposed constraints. The findings are context specific with implications for the application of findings to other ISD processes.

The study highlights the human tasks in a particular ISD process and explains how insights from the Scandinavian and more traditional ISD approaches can be used to enhance the role identification and consequently help address the mediator problem. The study suggests that researchers act as mediators through the fulfillment of the roles, which naturally stem from the Scandinavian approach and the traditional software engineering approach to ISD.

The purpose of this paper is to unravel and assess current nearshoring practices and their outlook in the Baltic region.

The authors draw on the offshoring and outsourcing literature and use mixed methods of enquiry, including case studies, survey techniques and secondary statistical data. Part of the empirical base of the study is an examination of three Scandinavian firms that offshore their operations to vendors in the Baltics. To provide a more complete view of the practices and processes of offshoring in the region, the authors complement the case studies of Swedish and Danish manufacturers with a survey of 55 Lithuanian vendors and other statistical data.

The paper outlines the main drivers of nearshoring for Scandinavian manufacturing firms. Based on in‐depth insights into nearshoring initiatives, the authors elucidate how the initiatives evolved and what factors affected them. The survey results reveal the perspective of Lithuanian vendors regarding their relationships with Scandinavian partners. These findings are used in assessing the future prospects of nearshoring in the Baltic region.

The study relates the key attributes of Scandinavian companies' nearshoring practices to the perspectives of Lithuanian vendors. While the authors' discussion concentrates on how companies organise their operations in an increasingly global context, it also points to broader policymaking implications for the Baltic region.

The paper addresses the topic of nearshoring, which has thus far received limited attention in the management literature. By incorporating both the perspectives of offshoring and vendor companies, the paper provides a more complete view on the phenomenon and presents the main dilemmas underpinning it.