Thomas Taro Lennerfors

Whither Japanese keiretsu? The transformation of vertical keiretsu in Toyota, Nissan and Honda 1991–2011

Drawing on institutional theory, this paper discusses the transformation of vertical keiretsu in the Japanese automotive industry from 1991 to 2011. By investigating the cases of Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, the paper empirically contributes to the debate on whither the Japanese economy is heading. Long-standing relationships to suppliers and exclusiveness have changed significantly in Nissan, while remaining stable in Toyota and Honda. New competition-based elements and more open support systems have been added to earlier governance mechanisms such as power and anshin (security). We argue that the studied keiretsu since the 1990s follows diverse and complex trajectories of hybridization, and we suggest that the Japanese economy is developing similarly.

Organizational diaspora: The aftermath of the Saléninvest bankruptcy

In this paper, I argue that the concept of diaspora, meaning the mass and usually involuntary migration of people from their homeland, which is widely used in disciplines such as anthropology, can contribute to organization studies both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, the concept of diaspora urges scholars to study the identifications with roots, routes and the new home, the emotional relation the people in the diaspora have to these roots and routes, and the exchanges within the diaspora. This contributes to understanding organizational identity. Empirically, the concept of diaspora brings up issues of remembering and recovery of the homeland, but connotations can also be positive. I focus on diaspora in the aftermath of bankruptcies by drawing on a case study of Swedish shipping firm Saléninvests bankruptcy in 1984. I will describe the Saléninvest diaspora that both remembered and reconstructed Saléninvest, and whose members did not feel at home in their new workplaces.

Sustainable and fast ICT: lessons from dromology

Purpose – This paper aims to suggest that ethical issues in information and communications technology (ICT) should be researched from a holistic perspective, including environmental values and other values inherent in ICT. This paper thoroughly discusses the value of speed by drawing on ICT advertisements and theories of speed, primarily Paul Virilio’s work. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology consists of a semiotic analysis of ICT-related advertisements primarily from Sweden. These empirical data are combined with a close reading of Paul Virilio’s work, and the analysis moves abductively between theory and empirical data. Findings – Speed is promoted in ICT-related advertisements and may be analyzed using concepts of dromology, dromocracy, dromoscopy, the dromosphere, instantaneity and grey ecology. Research limitations/implications – Most of the data are from the Swedish context. Social implications – To create a sustainable society, one must explicitly discuss how speed forms and shapes socie...

Chance interventions – on bricolage and the state as an entrepreneur in a declining industry

In this paper, we develop the notion of bricolage by paying attention to the role of chance in the same, rather than approaching it from the perspective of control and agency. We argue that the concept of chance can be used to downplay the common tendency to focus on individual agency in bricolage, proposing an alternative understanding of the latter as constellations of resources coming together in unexpected combinations. We situate our theoretical argument in the for bricolage understudied context of a declining industry, where we focus on the role of chance in how resources are combined and separated in state interventions, connecting to the literature on the ‘state as entrepreneur’. Three episodes from the Swedish state-owned shipping companies Zenit and Uddevalla Shipping during the shipping crisis of the 1970s and 1980s are used to illustrate how state intervention can be imbued with chance and serendipity.

Virtues and Vices in Project Management Ethics: An Empirical Investigation of Project Managers and Project Management Students

Project management is omnipresent, yet the research on project management ethics is still lacking. Recent research stresses the importance of developing virtue ethics for project managers. This study contributes to this research by offering an empirical exploration as to whether virtue ethics is used by project managers and project management students, and whether the use of it is fundamentally maximalistic or minimalistic. The study shows that virtue ethics is used by respondents—particularly virtues of courage, fortitude, truthfulness, and moderation, and the avoidance of vices, such as weakness of will and cowardice. It also shows that virtue ethics is invoked both maximalistically and minimalistically.

Sustainable ICT: A Critique from the Perspective of World Systems Theory

Even though the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry has historically been spared the critique of being environmentally unfriendly, society has as of late recognised the negative environmental effects of the ICT industry. However, such critique has been gradually replaced by the concept of Sustainable ICT, in which ICT is almost seen as a saviour, something with big potential of solving economic, societal and environmental issues. In this paper, our aim is to critically discuss the notion of Sustainable ICT by turning to an ecological perspective of World Systems Theory (WST). Immanuel Wallerstein, the main proponent of WST argues that the success of developed (core) countries today is a product of systematic unequal exchange of raw material, goods and labour with underdeveloped (peripheral) countries. Alf Hornborg, the Swedish Marxist ecologist, develops WST by focusing on the global distribution of environmental degradation. In this paper, we present Hornborg’s ecological WST, we apply it to ICT by means of examples from the ICT Value Chain (from materials extraction to disposal) in order to illustrate the global distribution of environmental degradation. We argue that WST is a fruitful, and critical, alternative perspective to the more optimistic view of Sustainable ICT.