Projects and project management tend to have special meanings to the individuals involved in a specific line of research. This article reports on some topics covered in an informal Swedish network ...

The European integration process has changed the competitive landscape in many industries. The questions raised in this paper concern the reactions of national firms that are subjected to this process of internationalisation of competition. This study highlights the vertical inter-dependence within a system of production and distribution. In internationalisation theory, most studies have focused on how firms become international or global players, where entrance into new markets is seen as a result of strategic decisions. To illustrate this process, three industries in food production, that is the baking, the brewing and the confectionery industries, were chosen. The results indicate that a supra-industrial strategic recipe exists, with a core content of specialised volume production. The discussion on company strategies focussed on the retail sector. The findings might be interpreted in the light of Galbraith's theory of countervailing power. Key Words: InternationalisationEuropean integrationcompetitioncountervailing powerindustrial recipesfood sector

A concept of “prescripts” has been developed for those firms that apparently have shown an ability to extract, codify, and package knowledge in a manner that can be used both by themselves and others. This paper considers the prescript concept in terms of project management activity. Because projects and project management are important and apparently becoming more so, the activities of a firm such as Boeing are of interest. Their success turns not only on the ability to manage projects themselves, but also on instituting that discipline on their associates — the implication of an active prescript. This ability is discussed in terms of the company's present competitive position.

One recurring theme in the discourse on global competition is the major shift in thinking about what constitute resources in the economy. It is assumed that the economists' traditional categorization into land, labor and capital has been superseded by knowledge as the prime resource. As a consequence, this belief has led to an increased interest in human resource management, human capital, and the problem of attracting and keeping good knowledge workers. It is maintained in this paper that attracting and keeping good knowledge workers will be essential for survival in the knowledge economy, but that it will not necessarily lead to a competitive advantage. Instead, the competitive advantage resides in the competence of the firm to depersonalize knowledge and codify it into software “prescripts” that can be used to duplicate markets or marketed worldwide.

Small businesses have been an engine of growth in the recent U.S. economy, and forecasts suggest that they may become more important in the future. Especially interesting in this small business sector is the success business service firms seemed to have attained. Recent census information suggests that a significant number of these firms have grown to be "large" firms. The background for this evolution is summarized, and empirical data for business development practices are covered. It is found that these firms tend to accept industry protocol and standard prices. These prices appear to provide an adequate umbrella to sustain profitability for these firms and the acceptance of practices tends to produce marketing oriented organizations. Consequently, "locally fit," niche-oriented firms evolve, which appear to do well within the present competitive environment across the spectra of business services.

The choice of an organizational architecture for providing after-sales services to customers spans two extremes. A firm may either supply the services itself, or it can supply them through an independent distribution network. Because of the importance of after-sales services both in establishing a firm's competitive advantage and in sustaining profitability, the choice of organizational design would appear to be of significant strategic importance. In order to explore this association, a comparative empirical study was made of the after-sales networks of two firms supplying international markets-one directly and the other through a network. Although there were trade-offs in the two organizations, there was equal success in providing customer service, which would suggest that a structure for this purpose does not exist. Instead, it was observed that contact near customer usage and devolved decision making were important in service success. Integrative devices, concerning both culture and knowledge, seemed to play a further role in maintaining these firms' competitive edge. In interpreting these results, network and temporary concepts were useful in describing processes of each organization. It was noted that the distribution channels for services were different from product distribution in both cases, which undoubtedly is of strategic importance in managing these operations.

In the discourse on modern management, the concept of flexibility is often mentioned as a desirable characteristic of firms and employees. Flexible organizations exhibit an ability to change in response to market changes. It should be clear, however, that a range of possibilities exist between “rigid” organizations and truly flexible ones. This range is discussed. Further, a firm’s ability to demonstrate flexibility depends to a large degree on the flexibility exhibited by its employees. Firms exhibiting different degrees of flexibility have different demands on the flexibility of their coworkers, which means that a matching between supply and demand exists. Employee flexibility has several dimensions, which are also discussed as well as some conditions for a flexible work‐ cum lifestyle. The starting point for the discussion is the assumption that neither the firms themselves nor the surrounding society are especially adapted to a lifestyle of flexible work. Some measures to alleviate these conditions are proposed.

Traditional thinking suggests that profitability is linearly dependent upon market share, an assumption not carefully tested/or services. This assumption is examined in this study for business services in light of the apparent opportunity in this sector for entrepreneurs. Cross-sectional data from secondary sources suggest that a V-shaped relationship may be a better description of variation up to nine times average firm size in this sector. This interpretation of results is important to the strategy of small business managers became it relates to the plans they might make in growing their businesses. Normative recommendations promise improvements/or firms entering the critical intermediate share stage. These include focusing on revenue per employee as an objective, developing professional management assistance, formal projectfication of work (thus utilizing virtual organizations'), and paying a11ention to organization while growing.

When Sweden entered the European Union, relatively important consequences were expected in the food sector. In this empirical paper, some results from research aiming to explore changes in the market situation, as well as strategic responses in firms, are presented. The results are derived from a total of 45 interviews, conducted among sup- plier firms, retailers and industry organisations in the Swedish food market. Consistent with expectations, some support is given for an increase in market integra- tion. Nevertheless, such activities and processes did not seem to be primarily linked to the EU. Firms were increasingly acting in an international arena, but an arena with other bases and demarcations than the EU and the European internal market. Appearing as a main contribution of the formal European integration process, is its strenghtening of the importance of scale advantages. Scale advantages in different com- pany functions were described as major forces in the development of the Swedish food market. According to our study, a second dominant force in the change processes is the interna- tional diffusion of practices in the retailing business. Such practices, involving centrali- sation, store concepts and various aspects of product management, are reshaping the positions in the market independent of 'hard' flows of goods and capital.