Kurt Pedersen

The Foreign Expansion of a Service Company: The Case of ISS A/S

The internationalization of business increasingly is led by service sectors, particularly services based on highly skilled labour industries. This article explores a quite different range of services – those that employ low-skilled workers in labour-intensive services. The article is based on the case of ISS – International Service Systems – which over the past four decades has pursued an aggressive internationalization strategy. The article describes the foreign expansion history in the period from 1960 to the year 2000 that reflected the vision of top management in combination with the development of a unique business model. In order to explain its development, three theoretical frameworks are highlighted, and it is shown that the resource-based view offers a convincing frame of interpretation.

Pioneering FDI into the Danish bacon industry

Abstract In the closing decades of the nineteenth century the Danish slaughtering and bacon industry was the main target of foreign direct investments into Denmark. This article examines the determinants and evolution pattern of this early investment and relates it to the general investment development cycle. A survey of the seven pioneers of inward investment shows that locational advantages were the most important determinant in promoting the decision to invest in Denmark. The pioneer FDls further drove the competitiveness and export development of the bacon industry, and thereby created the foundation of what later became the internationally very successful Danish meat processing industry.

Foreign direct investment into Denmark before 1939: Patterns and Scandinavian contrasts

Drawing on a new database, this article presents the first systematic description and assessment of inward FDI into Denmark before World War II. A total of 168 cases were identified, with British, American and German firms dominating the overall picture as might be expected. The composition varies, however, over time and industries. The material shows that FDIs arrived in five distinct ‘waves’ each characterised by a lead nation and industry. The period under observation saw the transformation of an agricultural Denmark into an industrialised nation, which is reflected in the five waves, which were primarily directed towards ‘new’ industries. The article thus offers a link to Danish economic history in general. The material also enables a comparison with FDI into Norway and Sweden over the same period. For the purposes of allowing a discussion of the comparative aspect, FDI-related attitudes, legislation and policies are outlined. While Norway was an anti-FDI hardliner, Sweden took a softer stand and Denmark never abandoned its liberal attitudes. This new material allows us to conclude that, from an FDI perspective, the three nations were not one unit: Denmark broke the ‘Scandinavian pattern’.

From Price Theory to Marketing Management: Danish Contributions 1930-1960

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to show how a particular marketing paradigm developed in Denmark from the 1920s through to the 1960s. It peaked in the mid‐1950s and faded out with one major publication in the early 1970s. This article aims to provide a relatively detailed study of the initial phases of the school and its key ideas.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on primary sources, i.e. the writings of the scholars who shaped and developed the school. A significant number of the sources are available in Danish only.Findings – While the study of marketing in America developed from the inductive, descriptive approach of the German Historical School, an essential precondition for the Copenhagen approach was the second wave of microeconomic theory of the 1930s. The article argues that it was a marketing management school, and that it offered early contributions to the development of marketing theory.Originality/value – Relatively little has been written about Danish and Scandinavian ...

Limits to Scale and Scope: The Failure of a Danish Slaughterhouse Merger in 1890/91

The seminal work of Alfred Chandler was based on observations relating to the so-called second industrial revolution. They concerned the development of the large modern manufacturing company and the paths of that development. This article attempts to apply the framework to a failed Danish slaughterhouse merger in 1890/91 between the established private slaughterhouses and the rising co-operative ones. The article deals with the question of the relevance of Chandlers concepts to the negotiation process and with that of the limits to the explanatory power of the framework. In order to answer these questions, the motives of both parties as well as the negotiation process are investigated in some depth. The analysis provides evidence that both sides made considerable use of arguments in line with Chandlers concepts and serving as a vehicle for creating mutual understanding of the economic rationale behind the merger. The article presents and discusses a number of factors and aspects that stalled the process and eventually caused the failure. These factors are all outside Chandlers universe, the corollary being that while ‘economic’ arguments unequivocally favoured the merger, ‘extra-economic’ factors were powerful enough to nullify the economic rationale. Technological and economic arguments were overpowered by political and social ones.

Leonhard Euler's Wave Theory of Light

Eulers wave theory of light developed from a mere description of this notion based on an analogy between sound and light to a more and more mathematical elaboration on that notion. He was very successful in predicting the shape of achromatic lenses based on a new dispersion law that we now know is wrong. Most of his mathematical arguments were, however, guesswork without any solid physical reasoning. Guesswork is not always a bad thing in physics if it leads to new experiments or makes the theory coherent with other theories. And Euler tried to find such experiments. He saw the construction of achromatic lenses, the explanation of colors of thin plates and of the opaque bodies as proof of his theory. When it came to the fundamental issues, the correctness of his dispersion law and the prediction of frequencies of light he was not at all successful. His wave theory degenerated, and it was not until Augustin Fresnel introduced transverse waves and an elaborate notion of interference that the wave theory again progressed.

An international business blunder: Fennia 1913–16

In 1913 Otto Mønsted A/S, Denmarks leading margarine manufacturer, acquired a majority share in Fennia, a small and insignificant Finnish margarine company. The Danish company had extensive knowledge of all functional aspects of margarine, and had up to 1909 been a dominant player in the British margarine industry. In spite of the massive international experience that had been accumulated by Otto Mønsted A/S the Finnish venture turned into a disaster, because for all their experience the Danish managers committed an impressive range of failures. The work of N. Nohria and S. Ghoshal is applied to the case, and a theoretically consistent analysis is provided. The conclusion of the paper is that the analytical framework of Nohria and Ghoshal serves well in this respect. It is further shown that value-added chain analysis is useful in linking functional failures to a corporate governance perspective. In the final resort, World War I killed off the experiment, but it was doomed anyway. Almost 100 years have passed, but today managers have lessons to learn from this event.

Otto Mønsted and the early margarine industry:: Alliance capitalism a century ago

Abstract The story of the Danish margarine matador, Otto Mensied has not previously been researched in depth. This paper gives a short outline of the career of this international businessman. The main emphasis is on his involvement in the British market. The eclectic theory of foreign direct investment has recently been expanded to cover international networks or alliances. Using this framework we offer some explanation of the fact that Mensteds British operations for some time were a threat to the Dutch early movers, Gebr. Jurgens and Van den Bergh. Their first cooperation agreement of 1908 may be interpreted as a response to the threat of a superior alliance between Mensiea Ltd., its suppliers and its distribution channel.