The project on Volvo's development from group to global automotive player 1956-2001 starts at the time when Gunnar Engellau took over as CEO in 1956 and extends to the turn of the century 2000, when the group had just streamlined its operations and made the dramatic decision to sell its passenger car production to Ford. This was a period in Volvo's history characterized by great drama and also describes how Sweden's largest engineering company met the challenges faced by the automotive industry during almost half a century of structural transformation and changing production conditions. The focus of the study is on the choice of strategies within the group's various industrial parts, i.e. primarily Passenger Cars, Trucks and Commercial Vehicles, and their relationships with each other and the market. The international perspective is highlighted.

The project, which is a continuation of an earlier study of the group's history up to the mid-1950s, is based primarily on various written sources taken from the Volvo Group's archives. The focus is on the board minutes of the various business areas, supplemented by internal material in the form of reports, correspondence and speeches from a number of Volvo managers. Access to this material has previously been very limited, so this is the first time that a more in-depth examination of the Volvo Group's development during the latter part of the 20th century has been possible. The project is expected to take three years.