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This paper aims to analyse waiting‐time guarantees in the three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and to assess whether their current policy designs have strengthened the role of patients in their healthcare systems.

The paper compares official documents and legislation in the three countries. The main findings are that waiting‐time guarantees have generally empowered patients in the Scandinavian health systems. This empowerment is stronger in Denmark and Norway, where formal waiting‐time guarantee rules are applied, than in Sweden, where the guarantee is based on the “softer” regulatory instrument of agreements. While patients are formally empowered in all three countries, and care providers are gradually adjusting to this situation, it is also clear that the practical conditions for empowering patients are not fully in place. The issue of information dissemination is particularly important.

Assessments are based on current regulatory configurations in the three countries, where the process of adapting and implementing the policies is ongoing. These assessments are based on a comparative analysis of the institutional designs. There is no detailed information on how patients use the waiting‐time guarantee.

It is important to consider carefully the information that patients have available in exercising their right to choose healthcare as well as the incentives for providing such information to them.

This is the first systematic comparison of waiting‐time guarantees in the three countries. It is a starting‐point for further research on the introduction of waiting‐time guarantees in public health systems.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and explain what organizes the marketing of retail sustainability.

Theoretically, this paper takes a marketing-as-practice approach and makes use of practice theory to conceptualize the marketing of sustainability. Methodologically, an ethnographic study of three Swedish retail chains and their marketing work has been conducted. Interviews with management, observations made at the stores of these three retailers and various marketing texts and images produced by these retailers form the material analysed.

This paper illustrates three different ways of marketing and enacting sustainability. It shows that sustainability is framed differently and, indeed, enacted differently in order to fit various ideas about who are the responsible consumers. The argument is that rather than consumer demand, supply pressure or media scandals, the marketing of sustainability is in each of the cases studied configured around a specific notion of the responsible consumer. What sustainability work is marketed, through which devices it is marketed, and how it is framed is guided by an idea of whom the retailers’ responsible consumers are, what their lifestyles are, and what they will be interested in. Images of responsible consumers work as configuring agents around which retailing activities and devices are organized.

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of the marketing of sustainability and offers a new explanation about what it is that influences the various approach to sustainable marketing taken by retailers.

Selecting an appropriate theory has always remained a critical task for the digital policy researchers. The literature seems to miss providing theoretical accounts of policy view of the digital platforms governance and offering tools for measuring the effectiveness of policies. To this end, this paper aims to provide a critical review and comparison of dominant information systems (IS) theories used. It highlights the weaknesses of these theories to explain technology features and actor- technology interactions with the rising trend of digital platforms. The main argument of this research is that the policymakers will not have adequate tools for policymaking of digital platforms by following the assumptions of theories used dominantly in the IS field.

This paper analyzes the assumptions of dominant IS theories and their applications in the digital policy literature. Then, it shows to what extent these theories are incapable of conceptualizing features of technology and actors’ role in policymaking and governance of digital platforms.

This paper identifies three aspects of digital platforms, including layered architecture, multisided (“side” means “participants”) and user interaction based, that dominant IS theories have shortcomings in explaining them.

The findings of this research can help authorities to take a more realistic view in defining digital platform policy objectives and applying more appropriate tools in policy implementation.

Discussing insights into the shortcomings of theories helps to define the theoretical requirements for studying policymaking and governance of digital platforms. It also suggests opportunities and recommendations for future studies.

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 aims to combine several modes of thought based on systems organization and observing systems in order to construct a model for a “designerly way of thinking”.

The approach is to regard design as a “groundless field of knowledge” that may source methodological insights from cybernetics, systems theory, cognitive studies and complexity theory, among others.

The focus of this research is to model an adaptive frame‐of‐reference that design students may use in order to construct their own autopoietic identity systems. The semantic question “How does a student obtain information about design?” is changed to a structural question “How could students acquire a structure enabling them to operate innovatively in a modern design environment?” With the backing of cybernetic principles, it is apparent that this process is not only feasible but also preferable.

While the practical use that can be made of any design theory is not within the remit of this paper, it is nonetheless the goal of theory to enhance the individual's analytical and communicative skills.

This paper suggests an autopoietic model‐for‐becoming that can have the virtual potential of bringing one to understand the grey areas of human‐object relationships.

This study aimed at the identification of perceptional environment properties in hospital public spaces that can affect salutogenic components and patients' overall satisfaction and suggested a conceptual framework.

A systematic review focused on specific steps to clarify the impact of public spaces' environmental quality on patients' satisfaction through the salutogenic approach. Searches were conducted in five databases and four scientific journals.

Five perceptional environment components of hospital public spaces: physical–psychological comfort, visibility, accessibility, legibility and relationability can be related to three indicators of salutogenic approach: manageability, perception and meaning and can be evaluated in patients' overall satisfaction: desire to use hospital again, to recommend the hospital to others, to prefer hospital to other healthcare environments and to trust in the hospital.

Despite studies on healthcare environments, there is a lack of research on the salutogenic approach in hospital public spaces. Therefore, this paper focuses on the environmental quality in public spaces as an influence on patients' satisfaction with the salutogenic perspective to create a health-promoting environment.

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.

This paper aims to advance the theoretical knowledge of how manufacturers develop a multisensory value proposition.

An exploratory case study with a global automotive manufacturer was conducted. Personal in-depth interviews with key informants within a manufacturer were performed to obtain in-depth knowledge and insights on how the manufacturer plans and designs a value proposition.

This paper reveals how a value proposition is created from a sensory marketing perspective, which includes orchestrating the sensory experience, harmonising sensory cues to ensure they provide a consistent experience, thereby providing a memorable experience.

Understanding how to offer value might assist managers in tailoring a unique experiential value proposition to position the brand.

This paper proposes a theoretical framework, enriching the understanding of the underlying mechanisms used to create an experiential value proposition. The framework illustrates that harmonising sensory cues based on brand-related stimuli fosters a memorable experience, which enables consumers to (sub)consciously infer value.

The purpose of this study is to examine within a unified framework the timeliness and conservatism of accounting disclosure accommodating the transmission of news among the Scandinavian stock markets.

To this end the authors have used an augmented ordinary least squares (OLS) approach and univariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic and vector autoregressive (VAR) modeling. The sample covers the period from 1987 to 2020, totaling 1452 observations. The sample was collected from the datastream database.

The empirical results of this study are consistent with previous findings and provide evidence that accounting reporting is timely and conservative while news is transmitted amongst the Scandinavian stock markets.

The findings could be important for investors, firms and regulators since failure of considering information that is derived from more advanced approaches could result in lower quality of annual reports of companies.

The authors examined the relationship between earnings yield and conditional risk using an augmented OLS model and the transmission of news among Scandinavian stock markets using a VAR model.

The purpose of this paper is to show that time‐based competition (TBC) strategies aligned to logistics and to multicultural awareness can help organisations respond appropriately and more quickly to the different needs and expectations of customers located around the globe. In a globalised market, where organisations are located in many different countries, establishing competitive advantages that result in sustainable leadership has become a goal to be reached.

TBC was studied in furniture companies in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Brazil by conducting case studies. The research presented here is part of a larger study that focuses on TBC strategies and multiculturalism in the furniture industry.

Data were collected from various furniture companies located in countries targeted in this study in order to gauge the extent to which TBC in a multicultural and logistic‐oriented approach has been taken on board, and how important it seems to be perceived in national contexts.

The paper presents some comparison on logistics management practices between the countries and suggests managerial implication for development and discusses about connection between cultural aspects and time based management.