The dynamic, interactive and complex nature of global supply chains provides a tremendous challenge for supply and logistics executives. The development of global supply chains has become a critical success factor not least for Nordic companies, and should be seen as important in gaining entry into emerging markets such as China and East Asia. Many companies have experienced problems in shifting their supply chain abroad into low cost regions, and supply chains often end up with high total landed costs. This paper reports on the findings from a case study at IKEA and their global supply chain development. The research aims to better understand the challenges supply chain managers face in global supply chain development.

With increased competitiveness, increased pressure to exploit scale advantages in operations and with increasing customer demands of availability, adaptability and responsiveness, supply chain management has become a cornerstone in modern business administration. One concept that has attracted attention from scholars and practitioners is the concept of supply chain agility. This paper concerns the development of responsive supply chains and presents a case study concerning a Swedish global retail firm. The purpose of the paper is to explore the relationship between supply chain transparency and the agile supply chain. We also aim to explore the challenges that firms face when striving to attain transparency and implementing response-based supply strategies in buyer-supplier relationships. Our findings in this research project in progress points at the critical role of a system handing real-time information. Our study also corroborates the view that it is perhaps more realistic to discuss agility as a current status and something that is continuously developing, rather than as a static property of a supply chain.

The paper explores how international sourcing in retail operations in the case of IKEA of Sweden have evolved over time. The internationalization process of IKEA has been subject for quite a lot of scholarly attention over the years. In contrast to most other studies on the internationalization process of IKEA, this study has its focus on the development of international sourcing. International retail sourcing development in the case of IKEA is discussed over three themes concerning international retail sourcing development at IKEA; sourcing market development (where?), sourcing scope development (what?), and sourcing strategy development (how?). The paper identifies three distinct characteristics of IKEA’s sourcing operations can be identified. The paper suggests that although IKEA’s overarching goals and characteristics of sourcing operations have been consistent, the sourcing operations have still undergone significant change. The paper also suggests that the scope, the strategy selection and the market development aspects of retail sourcing development are highly interrelated.

The dynamic, interactive and complex nature of global supply chains provides a tremendous challenge for supply and logistics executives. The development of global supply chains has become a critical success factor not least for Nordic companies, and should be seen as important in gaining entry into emerging markets such as China and East Asia. Many companies have experienced problems in shifting their supply chain abroad into low cost regions, and supply chains often end up with high total landed costs. This chapter reports on the findings from a case study at IKEA and their global supply chain development. The research aims to better understand the challenges supply chain managers face in global supply chain development.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore small business e-commerce development and usage of the emerging ICT-infrastructure for e-commerce in Sweden. For more than a decade firms in countries with appropriate infrastructures in place have generally been able to exploit internet technologies for business purposes.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the results from a telephone survey on Swedish small businesses. The 160 firms surveyed were independent manufacturing firms in Sweden with a number of employees ranging from ten to 50 and a turnover not surpassing e 10 million. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS.

Findings: The paper presents empirical data on e-commerce development among small businesses in Sweden. The study shows that a significant share of the studied firms have adopted internet technologies, but also that more than 70 per cent of the small businesses in the study have more than five years of experience of e-commerce. The study finds that small businesses in Sweden show remarkably high levels of e-commerce adoption. The study shows strong penetration of web site and e-mail use among small businesses in Sweden, but also that advanced applications are still not broadly applied.

Originality/value: Statistics presented by the OECD have recurrently shown that the Scandinavian countries are in the lead as regards building an ICT infrastructure. Sweden’s leading position in ICT has been confirmed by several studies. Because of scarce resources and lack of knowledge, small businesses are generally known to be lagging in terms of ICT use. This study empirically explores small business e-commerce development in Sweden and contributes to the stream of research aiming at benchmarking e-commerce development

By applying a resource-based view on SME development and analysing empirical data collected from qualitative and longitudinal research on e-commerce development among 20 Swedish SMEs, the authors identify and discuss the post-adoption decision dilemmas – or Balancing Acts – faced by managers. The study contributes to the existing literature on SME e-commerce development by suggesting that SME management faces three major decision dilemmas: e-commerce capacity and competence development, e-commerce scope and e-commerce development drive. By outlining a set of managerial aspects of e-commerce development, we point out the contextual and resource dependence of SME management.

On different levels and with different strategic importance, business managers face technology decisions every day. These decisions concern not only which technologies to use, but also which ones not to use. Technology is a strategic issue in business in the sense that decisions to reject or adopt a specific type of technology, at either firm or industry level, can in the long run have an impact on the ability to develop and fulfill market needs. The purpose of this thesis is to empirically explore information and communications technology (ICT) adoption in an industrial context in order to challenge prevalent conceptualizations of adoption. The thesis proposes that ICT adoption in an industrial context needs to be understood and evaluated through a processual and longitudinal approach. The thesis specifically concerns organizational level adoption (cf. individual/user level adoption) of ICT applications for processual support (cf. manufacturing technology or product technology) in an industrial marketing context (cf. consumer marketing context). Through an empirical exploration of five cases of ICT adoption processes found in the Swedish Automobile industry, this thesis presents a view on adoption as interaction that is different from prevalent conceptualizations within the field.

The empirical material was collected through in-depth interviews with key actors in the five adoption processes and observations made over time in the adoption processes under study. The study has a focus on capturing rich descriptions concerning five entities constituting a conceptualization of adoption: object of adoption, subject of adoption, process of adoption, outcome of adoption and context of adoption. The thesis contributes with an alternative view on adoption in the industrial setting with a focus on adoption as a process of interaction. Through an exploration of my empirical materials, I challenge prevalent conceptualizations of adoption. I conclude that given the embedded and organic nature of the adoption process, it is necessary to approach adoption as a process of interaction. For the presented conceptualization and given the industrial context, this thesis asserts that the object of adoption technology is to be viewed as an open solution (cf. given product), that the subject of adoption is to be viewed as something ongoing between and within an actor (cf. adoption as a single-firm issue), that the process of adoption is to be viewed as an ongoing process of interaction (cf. linear), that the context of adoption is to be viewed as embedded interaction and context as part of the process (cf. context as ‘out there’), and that the outcome is to be discussed in terms of status (cf. binary).

This paper explores and extends the concept of transparency, as transparency-related terminology in marketing management research is limited in its typological development. Building on previous research, it outlines four types of transparency and extends them by adding three related facets. The four types are: cost transparency, supply transparency, organizational transparency and technological transparency. The expanded concept of transparency is discussed and analyzed using four illustrations, based on case studies conducted at two focal firms in the Swedish manufacturing industry. The study contributes to the field of marketing management research by showing the interrelatedness of information technology exploitation, trust and transparency. In addition, the study highlights the dynamic aspects of the transparency concept. In contrast to results of former studies, the present findings indicate that increased transparency in buyer–supplier relationships brings about not only positive, but also some negative effects.