This research aims to illustrate the value grid framework in a multinational company: Ericsson Mobile Platforms AB (EMP). How does the value grid model help to define the organization's Key Success Factors (KSF)? For this case study, the value grid concept proves to be a valuable heuristic tool to locate opportunities that are not evident when applying a traditional value chain approach. The value grid approach allows firms to identify opportunities and threats in a more explicit way than with the traditional value chain model. One year after the data was collected in 2007, ST Microelectronics and Ericsson merged their wireless semiconductor businesses with the goal of creating the industry's strongest product offering in semiconductors and platforms for mobile applications. The reasons for the merger can be seen directly from the value chain analysis. The new company, which is named ST-Ericsson, can now identify indirect ways of influencing demand by playing a coordinative role with network operators.

Three hypotheses are presented in this article, each supported by observations and theory. The first is that party distinctions in Scandinavian politics have ceased to be vehicles for coherent ideas related to political ideologies, but that parties instead have become machines to stay in power and keep supporters employed. The second is that the tradition among political parties in Scandinavia and especially in Sweden for accepting federalist measures as a response to central state inefficiencies has been checked by the development of the welfare state. It can only regain momentum through external pressure. The third is that the Scandinavia welfare state model has shifted from one of providing support to the needy to a party guaranteeing the middle class a certain life-style.