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Acquisition integration is important to realize synergies and to achieve acquisition success. However, there is a lack of clarity on pertinent integration approaches suggesting that integration is more complex and dynamic than traditionally assumed. In this chapter, we shed light on ambiguous cause effect relationships by investigating the effect of integration related decisions on intermediate goals. Additionally, we argue that entrepreneurial integration skills, or proactivity under ambiguity, are needed to keep pace with the dynamism inherent in acquisition integration. Based on primary data on 116 acquisitions, we find that entrepreneurial integration skills can display both advantages and disadvantages. While it helps to realize expected and serendipitous synergies, it can also trigger employee uncertainty due to decreased transparency. In supplementary analysis, we show measures to outperform with various integration approaches. Implications for management research and practice are identified.

An important requirement when producers apply for protected designation of origin (PDO) or protected geographical indications (PGIs) is to adapt and agree on a concise definition of the geographical boundaries and area of the product. Whereas PDO products must be both strongly ecologically and culturally embedded in the specific area, PGI products are allowed a weaker degree of embeddedness. The research question of this paper is: How are geographical boundaries becoming PDOs and PGIs? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The analysis is based on diverse forms of empirical material. Document studies of laws, policy documents, etc. have been analyzed to uncover what kind of measures and concepts that have been important for implementation of the scheme in Norway. Interviews with producer organizations have involved the persons responsible for working out product regulations in producer organizations. Interviews have also been conducted with key informants representing public administrative bodies administering the regulation. All interviews have been semi-structured.

The analysis identifies a set of important conditions for the boundary work of PDO-PGI in Norway. The conditions can generally be said to be characterized by a weak understanding of the food-people-places nexus and a strong reliance on instrumentalised system logic in how to deal with the map-nature dimension in boundary work. The short answer to the research question is that geographical boundaries are becoming PDO and PGI through controversies.

The controversies are characterized by what is defined as cultural adaptation work. The actors overall adaptation work is understood as the sum of the practices that takes place in the interplay between people’s translations of language and knowledge, reorganization of social relationships and transformation of materiality. The interplay is embedded in the tension between the global and the local, the old and the new and results in both intended and unintended consequences.

This chapter analyzes a specific form of contemporary art, the one that is created and exhibited in the community, conceived and visualized outside of the art market and independent of the agenda of creative industries and art galleries. The motivation, purpose and meaning of such art practices, for both the artists and the community, are discussed and examples of community art projects are analyzed in order to understand how art became, in this first quarter of the twenty-first century, such a valued collective asset, so accessible and present in the daily life of the common man. Two Portuguese case studies have been chosen as illustrations: the first one is a funding programme of projects focussed on artistic practices for inclusion (the PARTIS programme, by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) and the second is a self-financed and self-curated artistic collective, Pescada n^º 5.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had major impacts on the performance of construction projects that have adopted social distancing measures. This study examines the effect of social distancing measures on project schedule performance through job reorganization on construction project sites.

Responses were obtained through a survey of 154 construction projects and analysed using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The findings established that social distancing has a negative effect on schedule performance, social distancing has a positive effect on job re-organization and job re-organization has a positive effect on schedule performance. Additionally, the results indicate that job re-organization partially mediates the relationship between social distancing and schedule performance, while social distancing moderates the relationship between job re-organization and schedule performance with low social distancing having the stronger positive effect.

This study contributes theoretically to a greater understanding of the impact of adopting COVID-19 safety measures such as social distancing on the schedule performance of construction projects. The study also shows how social distancing could lead to schedule performance through job reorganization.

Forthcoming Reorganisations Inter‐Authority working parties develop programmes for forthcoming Local Government reorganisation. Elaborate Health Service reorganisation plans are formulated. Schools are merged to form comprehensives. Central Government reshuffles frequently involve merging or demerging whole departments, and Common Market entry will eventually lead to some synthesis of services and policies at continental levels of operation. Many European countries approach major Social Services mergers—for example, the Dutch are soon to take action on Seebohm‐style report called “Structural Perspective”, and the 1970 Danish Social Steering Act is equivalent to the 1970 British Social Services Act, except that it allows for a four‐year changeover period. The Swedes continue to test integrated service delivery at neighbourhood level along the lines of such famous experiments as the Tierp commune block in Uppsala. Many European countries are in throes of Maud‐type Local Government reorganisations, which Italy embarked on in April 1972, and Britain is to embark in April 1974. The public sector is evidently moving through a period of major mergers as scepticism about 1960s' industrial conglomeration prompts the Government's fair trading legislation promising new merger evaluation methods. General principles about merging public services begin to emerge. Relevant data derives from British Social Services' reorganisation following the Seebohm Report, London Local Government reorganisation, American and Australian state‐level experiments in service integration incorporated under Allied Services legislation and various service industry mergers. Merger theory is still in its infancy, even that part which derives from industrial experience the degree of potential upheaval in public services reorganisations demands that fullest possible use be made of our existing understanding of what may occur when two or more organisations merge.

Schumpeter explained how capitalism has changed in such essential ways that it is evolving into a new kind of economic system. It is not entirely clear, however, what the nature of this new system will be. It will probably be centralist socialism, says Schumpeter, because the observable tendencies point in that direction, as does the logic of the historical situation. Yet, it could be guild socialism dominated by unions. He did not know and we do not know. It is even possible that the new social reorganisation could be one that is not socialist at all.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how to nourish innovation during the course of a downsizing event. Drawing from an array of intra-organizational network studies, we show how management can use its understanding of the existing formal and informal networks to rewire connections between employees. Downsizing always leaves scars. Yet tough choices need to be made in tough times. In such times, innovation efforts are easiest to cut since their returns are uncertain and will only arrive in the future. Innovation is known to suffer. Cutting on innovation however may simply postpone the inevitable by poorly equipping a firm for future survival let alone competitive positioning.

The insights presented in this article are based on research and consulting work over the past years with a number of leading companies in industries varying from financial and information technology services, to engineering, trading and professional service firms (a.o. Atos Origin, Equens, Siemens, Deloitte, ING, Academia, DSM, Friesland Campina, Shell, Philips). This work centered on understanding how to orchestrate downsizing without hampering the interpersonal network of relations that constitutes the innovative DNA of the firm. To examine this process, we used organization network analysis techniques to visualize the networks that facilitate the transfer of innovative knowledge at a variety of organizations. Through a series of interviews in combination with analysis of the innovation networks pre- and post-downsizing, deeper understanding of the characteristics of the guardians of innovation was gained. Personal innovation activity and value of inputs were measured and these were correlated with the network position prior and post-downsizing.

Orchestration of downsizing is a delicate and crucial task for management. There is a natural tendency, when deciding who to retain, to mostly look at the knowledge and capabilities that an individual holds. Without connections to others in the firm, however, even if the knowledge someone holds is relevant, it will not be developed further. In this paper, it is argued that a crucial ingredient of downsizing is for management to use its understanding of the existing formal and informal networks so it can rewire connections between employees keeping our findings in mind.

Downsizing requires managerial agility. While typically of strategic nature, the consequences of downsizing may have considerable negative operational consequences, disrupting organizational routines, when management does not tread carefully. When deciding on who to retain and who to let go, value attributed to individual knowledge and capabilities commonly play a leading role in guiding these managerial decisions. The true value of these knowledge and capabilities however, will not flourish without a supportive social infrastructure to leverage them within the organization. Without connections to others in the firm even the brightest idea will not be developed further. Successfully managing a downsizing even requires management to use insight in the existing formal and informal networks present within the organization to actively rewire connections between employees bearing our findings in mind. Without attention to properly retaining some wires and rewiring other social contacts, and particularly the ones that nourish innovation, downsizing becomes self-defeating.

Managers need to take an end-to-end view of their innovation efforts, spotting firm-specific strengths and weaknesses and tailoring innovation efforts in a way that is appropriate to their firm. In times of downsizing, innovation efforts are easiest to cut, as their returns are uncertain and will only arrive in the future. Innovation is known to suffer. At the same time, however, cutting on innovation may simply postpone the inevitable by poorly equipping a firm for future survival, let alone competitive positioning. In this contribution, what innovation efforts should be cut and which should be maintained have been pointed out, and how innovation efforts can be maintained at lower cost has been shown.

Selecting among innovation efforts is important in good times, but it becomes a life-saving exercise in times of crisis. Not only profitability but also job security and long-term employability are at stake. In these times, investing in the development of new knowledge that may only be relevant in a distant future is no longer an option. What managers need to realize is, however, that innovation thrives on employees closely cooperating in fine-grained social interactions. With this consideration in mind, a firm can make better choices to continue to nourish innovation despite downsizing.

Although the explicit desire to investigate network evolution is not a recent one (Burt, 2000; McPherson et al., 2001), it only recently has found its way toward the field of organizational network studies (Van de Bunt et al., 2005). We follow up earlier research by Shah (2000), as we shed light on the network effects of downsizing, which surprisingly has remained particularly rare in this line of research to date. These findings might prove useful to start up much needed studies on tie formation strategies (Hallen and Eisenhardt, 2011) which, at the intraorganizational level, have not been carried out to date.

The purpose of this paper is to take “a long view” of initiatives taken to promote integration between local government and the NHS with the objective of seeking to understand why they have achieved consistently disappointing results.

The paper's analysis is based on an historical overview drawn from official documents and empirical research from the time of the creation of the NHS in 1948. It primarily focuses on the principles shaping the separate but parallel reorganisations of 1974 and their continuing influence up to and including the current White Paper “Liberating the NHS”, and the Health and Social Care Bill.

The fundamental sources of integration barriers today lie in the foundational principles of basing their responsibilities on the skills of providers rather than the needs of service users and their organisational forms on separation rather than interdependence, with national uniformity driving the NHS and local diversity local authorities. In addition, frameworks for integration have been established on a paradigm of seeking to build bridges at the margins of organisations rather than seeking to interweave their mainstream systems and processes.

Future empirical research will be necessary to establish whether the currently proposed arrangements for integration do, in fact, experience the same limited results as previous ones.

Local and national strategies for improving integration should be reviewed in the light of the understandings set out here and local frameworks should seek to align and integrate mainstream systems and processes as far as possible. A thorough and dispassionate analysis should be conducted of whether a free‐standing, single purpose, national organisation still provides the most appropriate structure for delivering health services in light of changing needs, care models, and resources.

The paper offers a distinctive analysis of the possible causes of disappointing outcomes from successive attempts to improve integration. If accepted, it could lead to a radically different approach, first to integration and, ultimately, to the nature of the NHS and local government.

Describes the reorganization of social services in Munich, Germany, from 1992 to 1996. A model of co‐operation between different providers of public services was introduced. Its use was confirmed in 1997.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how trade unions may address the questions of inclusion of vulnerable employees in low-wage “anchored” sectors in the European Union.

The findings presented in the paper are mainly results of the analysis of stakeholder policies and strategies on the national level and on the European level, including both desk research and interviews with social partner representatives and other experts in the sectors as well as company case studies carried out in the examined countries in three selected sectors: cleaning, waste collection and catering.

The main findings of the paper refer to the indirect way in which trade unions try to promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the examined sectors. On this basis are formulated policy recommendations.

The paper is based on case study research that does not cover all possible “anchored” services, vulnerable groups and types of countries, according to their employment and social models.

This paper formulates practical recommendations to European trade unions in the services.

The originality of the paper is related to comparative research focused on services sectors and the consequences of the spatial reorganisation of sectors for the trade union actions.