I’ve discussed Saab and their (non-)future several times here in the last year, so, of course, I must comment on the latest news, like so many others.

So before Christmas, I wrote that Saab’s demise is a true sign that we’ve entered the new millennium, where old elephant institutions must not live on forever. And still, Saab, is now resurrected. As a native Swede, I am really happy for all the people involved with the company, and am happy that the national icon lives on.

As a business professor, I am not convinced that this will keep Saab alive for very long. What will a small buyer like Spyker do for the brand? Enhance its prestige? That’s not an easy task, which Saab’s previous efforts have shown. Increase volumes? A muscular giant like GM did not manage, one wonders whether a small actor like Spyker would be better equipped? What will Saab do for Spyker? Increase its mass appeal? If Saab had mass appeal, it would not have died and been resurrected in the first place.

However, I am sure that the death and resurrection of Saab has boosted people’s opinions of and attitudes toward the company (this mirrors a research project we’ve worked on about reactance – when companies are discontinued or merged, people react by enhancing their evaluations of what is about to be lost). But how long will that last?

Will people still see a prosperous future for Saab at the end of this year, a future that is nextopian enough to boost sales now? after all, in our beautiful Expectations society, what matters is not that it is alive now, what matters is what people expect of it in the future.

What do you smart people think?