It is often claimed that there are locally embedded values and attitudes towards entrepreneurship, exerting a strong influence on the rate and level of entrepreneurial activity in regions. The concept of regional entrepreneurship culture aims to capture such phenomena, and refers in a general sense to the level of social acceptance and encouragement of entrepreneurs and their activities in a region. This chapter discusses regional entrepreneurship culture as a source of persistent differences in regional rates of new firm formation, and presents a number of empirical regularities for Sweden to illustrate the empirical relevance of the main arguments. Using data on rates of new firm formation across Swedish regions over time, the chapter further explores the association between start-up activity and the business cycle, as well as how the geographic distribution of start-up rates changes during a major economic crisis.

As the organiser of the workshop 'IT-stöd för vård och omsorg i hemmet', the author presents a general picture of the subject, and call for one day's discussion with around 30 participants from all around Sweden.

This report shows the result of the work of IANIS+ eHealth work group (WG). The WG has collected regional eHealth experiences from around Europe through a number of activities: • Regional eHealth case studies of which 17 (from 15 regions) are shown in this report • Four joint meetings of the group of which one was a policy seminar with invited guests from the EU Commission, relevant organisations in the field of eHealth and regional authorities • A meeting with the European Commission DG Information Society & Media, Unit H1 eHealth • Collaboration with the eHealth network within the organisation Assembly of European Regions (AER) • Attendance in recent major eHealth conferences: · Personal Health Systems arranged by the European Commission when launching the eHealth part of the 7th Framework Programme, 11-12 February 2007 · The EU-US eHealth Policy Workshop, 10 May 2007 · The final conference of the INTERREG IIIB project Baltic eHealth, 21-22 May 2007 • eHealth seminars at IANIS+ annual conferences in Blekinge 2006 and Bilbao 2007 The innovation perspective of eHealth in the regions has been the focus for the IANIS+ eHealth WG. Regional diversity regarding strategies, policies, and action plans for eHealth can act as a driving factor for successful eHealth projects, but leads also to challenges for interoperability, standardisation, integrity and security. It is important to learn from others. It may be about how to choose the right technology or what methods to use for implementation. Depending on what area of eHealth, there are numerous projects and up-and-running services from which we can learn. Not to forget there are also many experiences from unsuccessful trials. Even if an eHealth solution has failed in one setting, it can be a success under different circumstances. The aim of the IANIS+ eHealth Working Group was to share experience between regions belonging to the network, and bring up some issues of good practice for regional eHealth implementation. Projects brought up in the IANIS+ working group are projects in there own rights, with pros and cons. The projects cover different perspectives and types of eHealth. Some were difficult to evaluate while others are valuable comparable experiences from different settings and circumstances. In any case, we can learn something from all the cases as examples from reality and as a complement to formal evaluations and scientific studies of eHealth. We would rather use the term good practice than best practice. There is always something good to learn from others while there is hardly any best practice that works under every circumstance.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential synergies between an electronic waybill (e-Waybill) and other Intelligent Transport System (ITS) services. An e-Waybill service, as presented in this thesis, should be able to perform the functions of a paper waybill (which is an important transport document and contains essential information about a consignment) and it should contain at least the information specified in a paper waybill. To investigate synergies between the e-Waybill solutions and ITS services, we present 5 conceptual e-Waybill solutions that differ in where the e-Waybill information is stored, read, and written. These solutions are further investigated for functional and technical requirements (non-functional requirements), which can potentially impose constraints on a potential system that should implement the e-Waybill service. A set of 20 ITS services are considered for synergy analysis in this thesis. These services are mainly for road transport, however most of them are relevant to be considered for utilization in other modes of transport as well. For information synergy analysis, the e-Waybill solutions are assessed based on their synergies with ITS services. For different ITS services, the required input information entities are identified; and if at least one information entity can be provided by an e-Waybill at the right location we regard it to be a synergy. The result from our synergy analysis may support the choice of practical e-Waybill systems, which has the possibility to provide high synergy with ITS services. This may lead to a higher utilization of ITS services and more sustainable transport, e.g., in terms of reduced congestion and emissions. Additionally, a service design method has been proposed for supporting the process of designing new ITS services, which primarily utilizes on functional synergies with already existing ITS services. In order to illustrate the usage of the suggested method, we have applied it for designing a new ITS service, i.e., the Liability Intelligent Transport System (LITS) service. The purpose of the LITS service is to support the process of identifying when, where, and by whom a consignment has been damaged and who was responsible when the consignment was damaged.

It is well-known that development is uneven across regions. The current academic and political consensus calls for policy interventions targeted towards a more balanced, inclusive and regionally cohesive growth. Yet, despite decades of sizeable policy efforts, there is no clear evidence of economic and social convergence across regions within countries. Entrepreneurship and innovation are proven to be strong drivers of regional economic development, and therefore they offer a source of potential solutions to the challenges imposed by an adverse international context. However, both entrepreneurial and innovative activity are themselves highly unevenly distributed in space, which might in itself be a main cause of the persistent regional inequalities in both developed and developing countries. A deeper understanding of the drivers and the implications of sub-national disparities in entrepreneurship and innovation is therefore a priority for implementing policies aimed at unlocking the potential of all regions in order to maximize their contribution to national growth and prosperity. In this introductory chapter, we create a background and a foundation for the rest of the chapters in this edited volume. © Iréne Bernhard, Urban Gråsjö and Charlie Karlsson 2021.

Illuminating and timely, this book explores several theoretical and empirical issues related to the potential for increasing capacities for innovation, knowledge and entrepreneurship. It highlights the current academic and political consensus that calls for policy interventions targeted towards more balanced, inclusive and regionally cohesive growth. © Iréne Bernhard, Urban Gråsjö and Charlie Karlsson 2021.

Organizations that pursue the almost impossible—be it paradigm-shifting theories, scientific breakthroughs, technological invention, disruptive innovation, or game-changing products and services—are constantly grappling with the question, “What should we measure to gauge our potential opportunities, track our progress, or know we’re investing correctly to deliver?” To understand this question, this chapter looks at rising opportunity for businesses to capture breakthroughs and inventions earlier in their development, the transition of the ARPA model (DARPA, I-ARPA, ARPA-E, and ARPA-H) from seeking future results to more near-term impact, and the internal measures used by Lenovo and Facebook to measure their progress. This chapter builds on the pioneering work done in Stanford University’s Foresight program, a two-decade long effort that culminated in the launch of Stanford’s Moonshots program and the book Building Moonshots: 50+ Ways to turn Radical Ideas into Reality.

This study examined the dynamics, challenges and opportunities of developing innovation systems in low resource settings with a particular focus on Uganda. It applied perspectives of technoscience and concepts of innovation systems, triple helix as university-industry-government relationships, mode 2 knowledge production and situated knowledges in understanding the context, identifying key policy issues and suggesting ways to address them. A mixed methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative methods was used in the study. It involved review of key policy documents, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and meetings with scientists, business leaders in the target organizations and firms, community members as well as observations of production processes in firms. Findings underscore the need for greater interaction and learning among actors in the emerging innovation systems in Uganda and eastern Africa. An opportunity for this to happen may be the growing number of entrepreneurial initiatives at the university and some public research organizations in the country. These entrepreneurial initiatives are driven by scientists, who are enthusiastic about moving their research results and innovations to market. This makes it plausible, in low resource settings like in Uganda, to promote the university working closely with public research organizations and firms as a locus for research and innovation. However, enabling conditions, which foster interaction and learning among actors, should be put in place. First, there is need to formulate specific policies and strategies with clear goals and incentives to promote growth of particular innovation systems. Second, a clear national policy for financing research and innovation is needed, which involves on the one part core funding to universities and research organizations, and on the other, competitive grants for research and innovation. Third, business incubation services should be established and/or supported as places where entrepreneurial scientists and other persons develop and test their business ideas and models. Fourth, there is need for institutional reforms to make administrative processes less bureaucratic, more costeffective and efficient. These reforms are necessary for example in processes involving procurement and financial management, research project approvals (for ethics and safety), technology assessments, contracting and licensing and other registration services. The findings and conclusions from this study demonstrate that technoscientific perspectives and innovation systems approaches can be adapted and used as a framework for identifying and explaining conditions that promote or hamper innovation in low resource settings as well as policy options to address them.

This chapter examines ownership and control of Swedish companies. Sweden witnessed a significant increase in ownership concentration in the top 20 and top 100 firms in the past few decades. Equity ownership concentration remained virtually the same in listed companies. A few major ownership patterns may be documented. First, the large shareholders remained the dominant corporate governance model in Sweden. Second, the largest domestic shareholders, such as families and holding companies (closed-end investment funds) have persisted in the past few decades. Third, there was an increase in the share of foreign owners as the largest shareholders in both the top 100 and listed companies. Fourth, there was also an emergence of new entrepreneurs as the largest shareholders in the large Swedish companies. The chapter has documented both the persistence of corporate insiders and ownership changes (e.g. an increase in foreign ownership, establishment of new domestic largest individual shareholders) in the past few decades. It also shows the importance of domestic institutional investors. It discusses a few reasons why the ownership structure remains persistent despite the substantial influence of global market forces, liberalization of domestic markets and corporate governance and legal reforms in Sweden.

Humanity confronts an existential threat without historic precedent. Environmental pressures have reached such intensity and pace of change that the earth system may be irreversibly tipped into a new and unpredictable state. The emerging global reality is, in turn, redefining overall conditions for business success. Addressing these challenges both demands and brings great opportunities for innovation. An important and sometimes neglected aspect of innovation is the design or redesign of business models, which has been identified as a greater source of lasting competitive advantage than new products and services per se. The business model has also been suggested as a new unit of analysis when discussing sustainability. However, this is still a relatively underexplored area. The aim of this work was therefore to develop an approach to business model design that supports strategic sustainable development, i.e., supports organizations to contribute to society’s transition towards sustainability in a way that strengthens the organization.    

To be able to design a business model that supports strategic sustainable development, it is necessary to know what sustainability is and how to develop sustainability-promoting, economically viable strategies. Therefore, the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, which includes, e.g., an operational definition of sustainability and strategic guidelines for how to approach it, was used as an overarching framework. Specific research methods and techniques included, e.g., literature reviews, questionnaires, interviews, work with focus groups, participatory action research with partner organizations, creative problem solving techniques, modeling, and simulation.

The literature reviews revealed potential sustainability benefits of developing business models in conjunction with product-service systems (PSS). However, a knowledge gap exists regarding how to effectively connect these fields. Arguably, PSS strategies can best contribute to sustainability when business models support their implementation and when both the business models and the PSS strategies are guided by an understanding of strategic sustainable development. Therefore, an integrated approach to Business Model Design for Strategic Sustainable Development was co-developed and tested in PSS innovation work with partners, e.g., companies within the energy and lighting sectors. The tests indicated that the new approach helped to clarify strengths and weaknesses of current business models from a strategic sustainability perspective; to transform an organization’s vision and strategy into a sustainability-framed vision and a sustainability-promoting strategy; and to communicate the new vision and strategy to the value network as a basis for engaging important stakeholders in the change. For example, the approach supported one of the partner companies in its transformation towards providing sustainable PSS solutions in the form of light as a service.

Examples of business benefits of the new approach include improved scalability and risk avoidance, which provide a foundation for better investment strategies. Benefits also include improved differentiability and a broadened view on, and a more solid foundation for, collaboration with stakeholders that are increasingly important to sustainable business success.

This dissertation deals with the rise of new industries through entrepreneurial activities. The aim is to investigate how differences in contexts might encourage or discourage entrepreneurial activities. This contextualization of entrepreneurship enhanced our understanding of when, how and why entrepreneurial activities happen.

Entrepreneurship is recognized to be a spatially uneven process and, in addition to previous research that has examined the actions of individual entrepreneurs, we also need to understand the context in which entrepreneurship occurs. We have a good understanding of how structural conditions like industry structure, organization structure and agglomeration effects influence the context, but we know little about how the social dimension of the context is the transmitting medium between structural conditions for entrepreneurship and the decision to act upon identified entrepreneurial opportunities. Following this line of argument, this dissertation is built on the assumption that entrepreneurship is a social phenomenon which gives strong arguments for including local culture in entrepreneurship research.

The temporal persistence and the pronounced differences of culture and structural conditions between places reflect path-dependent processes. I therefore use regional path dependence as an interpretative lens to study the contextualization of entrepreneurship in two Swedish cities.

Although each context is unique, some generalizations can be drawn from the four individual papers in this dissertation. The first is that industrial legacy leads to the formation of a distinct local culture and that the persistency of this culture influences the subsequent entrepreneurial activities in new local industries. The second is that this persistency of culture suggests that entrepreneurs who are outsiders, geographically or socially, are the driving forces for the emergence of new local industries. Finally, new industry emergence is a result of a combination of exogenous forces and initial local conditions, but it is the entrepreneurial individuals who translate these forces and conditions into entrepreneurial activities.

Intermodal transports chains are complex both through its numbers of players and its number of different processes. The relationships between the players are usually settled through contractual agreements. Although the players have a common goal of providing an efficient transport chain they are also to some extent competitors, both within the chain and in other business relationships. The transport market is, like most other markets, affected by the overall informatization of society which is characterized by the fact that production tends to be information intensive. Electronic business and the focus on and development of supply chains increase pressure on effectiveness and access to information on the transportation part. At the same time the technology development and the emergence of simplified and low cost communication solutions enable improvement of processes and reduction of transaction costs with information at the core. It provides an opportunity for intermodal transports as it enables real time information to be shared between the actors and thereby improve the quality. However, implementation of ICT systems opens up new possibilities and new threats, which will have implications and consequences on the business, beyond the technical aspects and effect the power balance at all levels. This thesis sets out to contribute to the understanding of the importance of information in transport chains for achieving transparency as well as its widerimplications on the players in the transport chains. In this context transparency is defined as knowledge made accessible to all relevant players involved in the transport chain and it implies: • controllability of the common task • focusing actions on a common goal • defining the players tasks (e.g. required input and output) in the framework of a common goal all enabling a high quality transport chain.

CONTENT The convergence of Societal Intelligence and Territorial Intelligence to promote Sustainable Development of weakened territories in France. By CHRISTIAN BOURRET Can military education benefit from the study of competitive intelligence? By DIDIER DANET Strategic Dependence of a Developing Country Vision from Patents By HENRI DOU, JEAN MARIE DOU JR, SRI DAMAYANTY MANULLANG Causes of Competitive Analysis Failure: Understanding and Responding to Problems at the Individual Level. By DR CRAIG S. FLEISHER, SHEILA WRIGHT Simon’s theorem reconsidered – towards a theoretical framework for competitive intelligence. By PER FRANKELIUS The Human Factor and Competitive Intelligence: Resource, lever and key for success. By ANNE‐MARIE FRAY Looking for Information: a New Approach to Consider Efficiency and Effectiveness. By PASCAL FRION, HENRI SAMIER The generation of a rumour: from emergence to percolation. By LAURENT GAILDRAUD, HENRI SAMIER, JEAN MAURICE BRUNEAU Tracking business news on the World Wide Web for dynamic CI study of industries. By BRIGITTE GAY Intelligence ideals. By MAGNUS HOPPE Economic Intelligence in Small and Medium Businesses in France: a survey. By SOPHIE LARIVET Competitive Intelligence and Strategic Governance Issues for French Groups of Mutual Banks Facing the Financial Crisis. By DR. DENIS MALHERBE Writing cases as a knowledge capture process in a competitive intelligence program. By MONICA M MALLOWAN, CHRISTIAN MARCON Knowing is action: from noticing to sense-making. By NICOLAS MOINET, PASCAL FRION Methodology to integrate Competitive Intelligence with the Hoshin Kanri planning system: Application to a Commercial Strategy. By FILIBERTO LUÉVANO NARVÁEZ, MARISELA RODRÍGUEZ SALVADOR, JOSÉ ROBERTO ANTONIO VEGA PINO Marginalizing the periphery: enhancing competitive awareness by looking less hard. By MICHAEL NEUGARTEN Enterprise 2.0 as a way to facilitate, enhance, and coordinate intelligence work within large organizations: A Case Study at Toyota Material Handling Europe. By JON‐ERIK OLSSON, JIMMY SANDELL Representing territory resources within a territorial intelligence system. By MARYSE SALLES, GABRIEL COLLETIS Evaluating Business Intelligence Software - Testing the SSAV Model. By YASMINA AMARA, KLAUS SOLBERG SØILEN, PER JENSTER, DIRK VRIENS How application integration, security issues and pricing strategies in business intelligence shape vendor differentiation. By KLAUS SOLBERG SØILEN, ANDERS HASSLINGER Operational Business Intelligence: A Viable Concept. By MATTHIJS VAN ROOSMALEN

The economic crisis has had severe and negative impacts on the EU over the last decade. This book focuses on a neglected dimension by examining European political entrepreneurship in times of economic crisis with particular emphasis on EU member-states, institutions and policies. The main focus is on the role that the political entrepreneur can play in promoting entrepreneurship and growth. It is argued that the political entrepreneur and political entrepreneurship can positively influence the conditions for entrepreneurial activity and business. © Charlie Karlsson, Charlotte Silander and Daniel Silander 2018. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this chapter is to review how industrial policy developed from mainly a ‘passive’ policy focusing market failures to a mainly ‘active’ policy focusing on creating better conditions for growth and international competitiveness. We have discussed the interpretation of the concept of the industrial policy and followed up that discussion with an overview of the arguments for and against the industrial policy. We have highlighted the the-oretical foundations for industrial policy and illustrated the difference between ‘old’ and ʼnew’ industrial policies. We paid particular attention to ‘spatial’ aspect of industrial policy by discussing whether industrial policies should be place-neutral or place-based. The paper ends with a discussion of the difficulties related to the formulation and implementation of industrial policies. © Iréne Bernhard, Urban Gråsjö and Charlie Karlsson 2021.

This book gives a comprehensive overview on Software Product Management (SPM) for beginners as well as best practices, methodology and in-depth discussions for experienced product managers. This includes product strategy, product planning, participation in strategic management activities and orchestration of the functional units of the company. The book is based on the results of the International Software Product Management Association (ISPMA) which is led by a group of SPM experts from industry and research with the goal to foster software product management excellence across industries. This book can be used as textbook for ISPMA-based education and as guide for anybody interested in SPM as one of the most exciting and challenging disciplines in the business of software.

This dissertation explores the relationship between digital technologies and firm performance. It draws on recent research in the fields of innovation and digitalisation and studies the relationship between software development and firms' capabilities to innovate, internationalise, and develop growth aspirations. The main aim is to go beyond the indicators of digital technology use and instead study the development of software and the intentions behind developing it. The thesis studies the link between software development and firm characteristics. The dissertation consists of four distinct yet interrelated papers, each addressing the different aspects of this relationship. 

Paper I provides an insight into the role of software in digital transformation, comparing it to Research and Development (R&D) investments and highlighting software development as a critical component of innovation that contributes to firms’ competitive advantage in the economy. Paper II finds evidence in favour of a ‘software-biased’ shift in innovation and empirically shows the link between software development and the propensity to introduce innovations and have higher innovation sales. Paper III studies the link between growth aspirations and software development, showing that software development is essential for developing growth aspirations and aspiring for international growth. The final paper examines the determinants of internationalisation, revealing a positive relationship between software development and firms' propensity to engage in export and import activities. This finding suggests a complementarity of software development when navigating the complexities of global markets. 

The dissertation contributes to the understanding of software development’s role across firms. It highlights the strategic value of software not just as an operational tool but as an input for building competitive advantage and prospects for innovation, internationalisation, and growth aspirations.

How do you create the conditions for innovation within an organization to truly unleash the imagination of teams? This chapter considers the real-world human factors and conditions that our experience has shown as critical for lasting positive shifts to happen in organizational culture. We present an organizational model for shifting innovation culture, highlighting several best practices that we have learned—sometimes the hard way—as well as practices underway at other notable companies like global furniture company IKEA.

Product development can play a key role in society’s transition toward sustainability. However, methodological support for this is immature, particularly regarding the social dimension, and as it remains largely unclear among companies what social sustainability means, it is hard for them to assess how they and their products contribute to a socially sustainable society or not. Because social sustainability has been overlooked for long in product development research, there is a need to build methodological foundations for how companies can integrate social sustainability considerations in their practices.

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore how the social dimension of sustainability could be strengthened in the context of product development and specifically how a systemic, systematic and strategic sustainability perspective could be included to provide better support for decision-making and innovation for social sustainability.

The research included industrial case studies to explore current practices and needs, to prototype and test initial decision-support, to reflect on challenges and opportunities, and to create a conceptual approach for improving existing practices. Specific methods and techniques included literature reviews, interviews, prototyping and typology building.

Insights include that: (i) organizations that show a better understanding of the complexity of social sustainability and have a broader perspective of its interdependencies have a way of organizing that overcomes traditional hierarchies and allows for more collaborative and strategic work in this area; (ii) the applied systems perspective clearly determines how encompassing and aligned the scope and definition of social sustainability become in an organization’s practices; (iii) social sustainability impacts connected to products’ lifecycles, when addressed, are often considered by functions outside of product development; (iv) analysis as decision-support has several limitations, particularly in dealing with supply chain impacts. Mitigating the risk of an unsustainable supply chain is unlikely to occur through simply selecting suppliers based on ‘country social sustainability score’, but rather requires making design decisions early in the innovation process and actively seeking to improve social conditions in the supply chains. 

Building on these insights, a typology containing three types of social sustainability approaches in product development organizations was developed. The insular, the connected and the systemic types describe elements that differentiate approaches, and that taken together determine when an approach has the potential to strategically contribute to social sustainability. The differences also determine the constraints that product developers work with when pursuing social sustainability goals. 

Integrating social sustainability in product development requires rethinking established practices. The possibility of just complementing previous theories and methodologies within sustainable product development with social sustainability aspects should not be taken for granted as there are significant differences and therefore extensive development of new theory and methodology might be needed. This should be investigated further. Identification of leverage points to intervene in organizations to help them shift to a more systemic perspective and maximize the organization’s ability to strategically work with social sustainability is also an interesting line of further research.

Product development companies can play a key role in society’s transition toward sustainability. However, previous research points to the lack of such a systemic and strategic perspective in dealing with sustainability aspects in product development and the neglect of the social sustainability. This paper builds on a prior empirical paper and together with insights from Sustainable Product Development and Corporate Sustainability literature propose a typology of social sustainability approaches in product development organizations.  The typology presented is a result of an iterative five-step process: defining purpose, reviewing literature, defining relevant dimensions and attributes, reviewing empirical cases and finally creating the typology and its types. The resulting typology presents three types – the insular, the connected and the systemic - across four dimensions: System boundaries, how success is defined, what guides strategic decisions, and how the work is structured within the organization. Each dimension is further broken down into three to four attributes. The typology suggested serves as an analytical tool by bringing clarity to important elements that differentiate social sustainability approaches. These differences, taken together, determine when an approach adopted by a product development organization has the potential to strategically contribute to social sustainability and when it cannot. In terms of product design and development activities, the differences in the system boundaries and success dimensions of our three proposed types also determine the constraints that product developers work with when pursuing social sustainability goals. In this sense, the typology is promising also in terms of its practical application as it should be helpful in framing discussions and providing direction for product development organizations who wish to truly progress in their sustainability journey.

Product-Service Systems (PSS) have been identified as potentially important for addressing sustainability challenges. However, progress has been relatively slow as regards realizing this potential, and a lack of practical approaches to the design of business models capable of supporting implementation of such PSS has been proposed as a partial reason. The aim of this study is to explore connections and the potential functional nexus between the three fields of PSS, Business Models and Sustainability, in pursuit of possible key enablers to further realization of the potential for sustainability-promoting PSS. A systematic review and analysis of the academic literature is performed. The review shows that, although a relatively new and unexplored endeavor, there is growing effort at the interface of the three fields. The review indicates that the main deficit so far is that the PSS and business model fields lack concrete guidelines and practical tools for how to embrace the sustainability dimension in a strategic way. Especially the strategic dimension emerges as a general finding from diverse sources as a potential key enabler for mutual benefits across the three fields. The study thus points to the need for research aiming at developing such guidelines and tools, and also at exploring case-based applications to create experiential knowledge, to fill the gaps in current theory and practice.

In 1987 a book by Chris Freeman with the title “Technology policy and economic performance. Lessons from Japan” was published. This book turned out to be the birth certificate of the systems of innovation perspective which came to enjoy a tremendous popularity the next three decades. The topic of this thesis is within the field of systems of innovation.  This approach is extensively used today and the systems of innovation is an extensive field of studies; there is a growing interest and a well-established group of researchers deal with the concept and set the research agenda. Despite the great interest and the extensive work so far, the concept is challenged by noteworthy conceptual and methodological ambiguities and limitations.

The aim of this thesis is to advance a theoretical framework of the systems of innovation perspective by adopting an actor-based perspective. From a theoretical perspective, the dissertation pinpoints the system of innovation at the interplay between two rationales: a territorial rationale and a functional rationale. The intention of this theoretical framework is to shed light upon the variety of actors operating within a system of innovation. Based on different logics or rationalities, actors understand and behave differently which has an impact on the behaviour and performance of the system. The assumption is that the different rationalities influence the innovation process, and how activities are organized and carried out. In the empirical backdrop of the thesis, the Swedish system of innovation is analysed in terms of how innovation policy discourse and practice have developed over time. The territorial based system of innovation is analysed through three instances: VINNOVA, the Swedish National Innovation Strategy and the Innovation Council, all considered to be relevant in understanding the embeddedness of ideas on innovation within Swedish politics and practice. The functional based system of innovation is addressed through the role of the large firm Ericsson in the systems of innovation. Ericsson has been chosen as an actor in a system of innovation, and therefore attention is paid to the interplay with the territorial actors, such as the state and universities. Several conflicts of interests characterize the relation between Ericsson on the one hand and the university and government on the other. The interplay between the two types of systems of innovation is further concretized in the analysis of the Mobile Heights case, an innovation cluster programme. Three main analytical conclusions have been emerged from the empirical research, discussed in terms of policy makers, policy implementers and practitioners pinpointing to a fairly loose system where different interests, networks and practices can only be partially and temporarily aligned.

Uganda’s economy is agro-based; although the country is land locked it has great potential for industrial development. It is well endowed with natural resources and salubrious climate, but with little success in transforming its agricultural and mineral wealth into processed commodities for local, regional and international markets. The Uganda’s National Development Plan 2010- 2014 and Uganda Vision 2040 call for a transformed Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years. To achieve this goal, Ugandan economy needs to be industrialized. This need is one of the identified strategic bottlenecks. Various strategies and action plans have been developed to steer the country’s economy towards sustainable development and increased competitiveness but with little success. It has been recognized globally that economic development depends heavily on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are the prime source of new jobs and play a crucial role in income generation as well as in industrialization processes. However, most small businesses fail within their early stages of operation mainly due to under-capitalization and / or lack of proper management and business skills. Globally, through business incubators, start-ups and SMEs have been significantly enhanced to overcome their initial and critical stages of development. Business incubators have been tried in Uganda but not in a successful way. An Open Innovation Business Incubator is a physical or virtual environment that combines the attributes of open innovation and business incubation concepts in creating and supporting new start-ups. This research aimed at understanding more of the situation in Uganda, how the innovation systems and incubators are managed in other countries and to design a model for how to create better conditions for incubators in Uganda and similar low-income countries and stimulate industrial development. The proposed model has adopted an open innovation approach and a list of suggestions and recommendations has been made. Different methodological tools and participatory approaches were utilized in the process of undertaking the study to achieve the objectives. Data were collected through literature review, analysis of relevant theories such as industrialization, entrepreneurship, science, technology and innovation, business incubation, triple helix and clusters theory, open innovation, and public private partnerships. Review of Government reports and policy documents, discussions with industrial and incubation experts, surveys, focus group discussions and case studies were done. Useful ideas were obtained from seminars and conferences. Research findings indicated that: • There are hardly any graduate incubatees in Uganda, thus there is a need to foster partnerships and synergies between government, private sector/non-government organizations and academia for open incubation, • All incubators in Uganda focus on incubatees developing technologies and products but not on business models , • Open innovation incubators combined with entrepreneurial oriented strategies can effectively support start-ups and SMEs but requires strong mutual trust amongst actors, • Through public-private partnerships and open innovation incubators, industrial transformation can be stimulated.

Abstract This study analyzes an attempt at integration of a pre-school class, a leisure-time center and an elementary school in Sweden. The integration was organized in the form of Vertical Track which implies a successive development of groups comprising children between six and twelve years old, pre-school teachers, recreation pedagogues, and schoolteachers. The integration was prompted by state governed reforms such as the 1992 law allowing six-year olds to start compulsory school. The study is based on cultural-historical activity theory and was carried out as participant observation and action research. The study addresses the question of the potentials and alternative goals for change and development of the present school pedagogy and classroom practice that integration implies. Special attention has been paid to what tools might potentially mediate in processes of integration. A research and educational program, the 5thD, was jointly created between researchers and teachers and located in a Vertical Track. The capacity of this complex tool as a mediator in the multicultural Vertical Track structure was explored. It is argued that the Vertical Track as an instantiation of the integration reform represents an arena for potential expansive transformation. However, in order for integration to have an impact on the pedagogical practice in schools, teacher interactions need to be mediated by communicative and conceptual tools. It is suggested that the 5thD program is an example of such tools. Keywords: Integration, pre-school teacher, recreation pedagogue, schoolteacher, contradiction, expansive learning, mediation, and tool.

Between 1950 and 2013 the total amount of Swedish travelling has increased from about 20 billion to about 140 billion passenger kilometers. This included an increase in travelling with private cars from about 3 billion to about 105 billion passenger kilometers, and in bus travelling from about 2.5 billion to about 5 billion passenger kilometers. The European commission has indicated that public transportation (if powered by clean fuels) is a suitable way to reduce environmental and health problems.

This thesis focuses on sustainable personal road transport, and aims to develop and test a new approach to examining the economic and socio-ecological sustainability effects of various road vehicles for private travelling and related business models. A special focus is set on comparing various bus systems for public transport and ways (business models) for private people to access cars. The main comparison parameters are the total cost of ownership and carbon dioxide emissions of different energy carriers for buses and cars. The Design Research Methodology is used to guide the research approach. The approach also builds on the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, which includes, for example, principles that define any sustainable future and a strategic planning process. The approach first employs Strategic Life Cycle Assessment to give a quick overview of sustainability challenges in each bus life cycle stage from raw materials to end of life. Several analysis tools such as Life Cycle Costing, Life Cycle Analysis, Product Service System, and Business Model Canvas mapping are then iteratively used to ”dig deeper” into identified prioritized challenges. Literature reviews, interviews, and simulations are used as supporting methods.

The results from a first theoretical test of the new approach suggest that a shift from diesel buses to electric buses (powered by renewable energy) could significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions, while also significantly lowering the total cost of ownership. The theoretical calculations were followed up by testing of electric buses in real operation in eight Swedish municipalities. The tests verified the theoretical results, and showed that electric buses are better than diesel buses both from a sustainability point of view and a cost point of view, and also that electric bus operation is a practically viable alternative for public transport. The new approach was tested also by comparing a variety of business models for private car travelling. The results indicate, among other things, that only people who travel more than 13.500 kilometers per year would benefit from owning a car.

In all, the thesis suggests a simultaneous shift from diesel buses to electric buses in public transport and, for the majority of the car drivers that drive less than 13.500 kilometers per year, switching from car ownership to car use services would be favourable for an affordable transition of the transport sector towards sustainability. 

This thesis aims to understand how investment uncertainty is managed in equity

crowdfunding (ECF). It does so by exploring backer behaviors at different stages of

the investment decision process during funding windows, based on information and

communication technology (ICT) and innovation. The included papers in this thesis

are also linked to a conceptual model for an overall view of backer behaviors during

this phase of the investment decision process. This expands the research on investment

decision-making in this domain and provides insights regarding the management of

investment uncertainty in ECF.

ECF is a result of the fintech revolution supported by ICT and innovation as key

catalysts. These catalysts have created a structural change in early-stage financing,

which is burdened by investment uncertainty. Investment uncertainty arises from

information asymmetry, and highlights the importance of information availability in

managing uncertainty. However, the absence of face-to-face meetings with

entrepreneurs and the lack of knowledge among backers are key concerns in the

investment decision process. This reduces access to information and reduces the

possibility of making independent and accurate decisions.

Hence, backers must find ways to obtain information, and ICT-driven innovations have

become an important solution to this problem. In contrast to traditional funding

alternatives in this domain, ECF offers unique opportunities based on social capital (the

wisdom of the crowd) and context (designed functionalities). These opportunities have

full potential during funding windows on digital platforms and come in the shape of

interactions and collaborations vital for ICT-driven innovations.

This thesis comprises four papers. Paper 1 analyses the conditions for ICT and

innovation that lead to structural changes. Paper 2 evaluates the characteristics

embedded in demand-driven signals from discussion boards. Paper 3 explores

investment dynamics based on signaling during funding windows. Finally, Paper 4

examines investment strategies based on investor type and portfolio theory.

Consequently, Paper 1 presents the conditions for this phenomenon to occur, while

Papers 2-4 explore how this affects backer behaviors in relation to theoretical models

to draw conclusions about the management of investment uncertainty.

Various patterns emerged from these studies. First, the drivers of ICT and innovation

can be clustered and positioned within the innovation lifecycle. Early in this lifecycle,

they rely on networks based on interactions and collaboration for new knowledge

production. Second, backers tend to appreciate clarity in feedback loops (answers)

based on demand-driven signals (questions) from discussion boards when evaluating.

Third, some backers invest early, whereas others invest late and receive all available

signals during the funding windows. Fourth, more sophisticated backers invest more

aggressively than less sophisticated ones. Hence, all patterns depend on ICT and

innovation, and enable conclusions about the management of investment uncertainty

during funding windows in ECF.

Representing the complexity of a complex world is neither possible, nor helpful for practical judgment or decision-making. Human decision makers are hampered by cognitive limitations and, often also, time pressures and open-ended decision processes. Computer tool for simplifying understanding can help overcome some of these problems. I will here show that heuristic tools, enabling various conceptualizations can be of help in representing a complex world in a manner simple enough for professional inquiry and decision making to be feasible.

Customer involvement in innovation activities is a common practice among companies in most industries. It has been widely researched by scholars to demonstrate its risks and advantages. Yet, the growing importance and recognition of the Internet are transforming the scope, boundaries, and dynamics of interactions among firms and customers. Progressing information and communication technologies (ICTs) (including the Internet) enable faster, cheaper, and more efficient collaboration. The demonstrated benefits of using various web-based methods for customer involvement in innovation activities have encouraged companies to adopt a new approach. Despite this, there is a lack of knowledge about associated challenges. In addition, prior research was unable to provide empirical evidence of the claimed benefits ensuing from web-enabled customer involvement. As a result, companies may experience unforeseen difficulties and may not be able to achieve what they expect from their implementation of web-based methods. This thesis aims to address this research gap by exploring web-enabled customer involvement from a firm’s perspective. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to increase the understanding of web-enabled customer involvement in innovation activities by exploring its use and its impact on firms’ innovation, as well as management competences needed for its efficient realization. The thesis draws on the concept of absorptive capacity and includes four empirical studies from various industries. The adoption levels of a wide range of web-based methods were identified and compared with the findings of the previous study, thereby uncovering interesting changes in their popularity, as well as differences in adoption among companies in various industries. The empirical findings of this thesis show that web-based methods increase a company’s probability to introduce service innovations. Three types of challenges related to different types of web-based methods were identified and verified. It was also possible to identify corresponding management practices to handle these challenges. The management practices form three firm competences, constituting a specific absorptive capacity. It was proved that all dimensions of this specific absorptive capacity are needed for successful and effective customer involvement. Insights of this thesis contribute to increasing the understanding of web-enabled customer involvement. Therefore, the thesis provides companies with empirically verified knowledge that is necessary to make decisions about the implementation and management of web-enabled customer involvement.

Professor Per Davidsson is the recipient of the 2023 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Throughout an extraordinarily productive career, he has made invaluable contributions in building the field of entrepreneurship. His early studies on entrepreneurship and culture and his studies on the growth of small businesses played an important role in the emergence and development of entrepreneurship as a scholarly field of research. He has also, continuously, made more conceptual contributions by critically probing the development of the field, and engaged in writing foundational books that have been used extensively in higher education institutes. By probing and challenging traditional assumptions throughout his career, he has contributed to the refinement and renewal of the field. © 2023, The Author(s).

Emergency call takers listen to callers expressing mundane errands, but also to callers who describe severe accidents, agony and deaths. The emergency setting is further complicated by having to perform triage under time-pressure, but without possibilities of seeing the patient. The setting rests on an imperative of speedy management—there are few or no possibilities to postpone or reconsider decisions. At the same time, the mode of communication (telephone) may cause overflow or insufficient information, resulting in an uncertain and ambiguous decision setting. A focal point for the organization is therefore the individual capability of conducting triage. However, call takers are also helped by organizational routines, which are manifested in decision support systems, in order to navigate this uncertain and ambiguous setting. Taken together, the emergency setting brings a tension to the fore—how does this emotional setting, with features of vivid and interruptive experiences that possibly detour normative decisions, interact with routines that are supposed to provide for both stability and that recurrent decisions can be made under similar conditions? Drawing on the fields of psychology, decision making, organization theory and communication theory the tension is investigated by a series of four studies. The first study is a field study of the emotional landscape of emergency call taking. Emergency call takers rated callers’ emotional expressions in authentic emergency calls, the level of intensity and expressed need for help. The second study is an experiment, using a speech sample from authentic emergency calls in order to find out whether expressed emotion and intensity contribute to perceived need for help. The third study focuses on management strategies of call takers. More specifically, how do emergency call takers manage double-faced emotional management—i.e., their own and the caller’s emotions—simultaneously? The fourth study focuses on how call takers make decisions, more specifically how call takers use intuitive and emotional capabilities to complement or challenge rational aspects of the decision support systems. The studies reveal that certain emotions occur more often than others and that the level of intensity of expression contributes to perceived help need. Call takers have also developed specific emotional management strategies in order to cope with both callers’ and their own emotions. Finally, call takers were found to use rational and formal routines as well as non-formal, intuitive and emotionally based individual routines in order to derive their decisions. These findings are put into organizational context in terms of implications for emergency call taking. Limitations to the development of situation-specific expertise and obstacles for organizational learning are identified. Also, emergency call taking would benefit from drawing on knowledge found outside of the medical domain. However, the most important finding is that interpretation of emotional expressions in callers’ voices can trigger modifications of the triage routine in use.

Firms have since long given their regular customers special treatment. With the help of IT, many firms have established formal ways to do this. An example is a so-called customer rewards program (CRP), by which the firm rewards the customer for repeated purchase. Firms allocate large resources in these programs with millions of customers enrolled. Hence, it seems important that the CRP works effectively. By effective we mean that it increases sales. Whether it is effective or not is a matter of how it is designed. A CRP typically comes with membership levels. We study how many membership levels the firm should offer in an effective program. We also study if customers prefer individual or group rewards and whether a CRP can break and create habitual purchasing behavior. In the study, we also analyze under what conditions the customer prefers a CRP over a sales promotion. In general, the study adds to the understanding of Customer Rewards Programs as an incentive structure. There are many different ways to design these incentives and especially the continuing development of IT is expected to influence the future design and role of these types of programs. This study is part of the Swedish Research School of Management and Information Technology (MIT) which is one of 16 national research schools supported by the Swedish Government. MIT is jointly operated by the following institutions: Blekinge Institute of Technology, Gotland University College, Jönköping International Business School, Karlstad University, Linköping University, Lund University, Mälardalen University College, Stockholm University, Växjö University, Örebro University, IT University of Göteborg, and Uppsala University, host to the research school. At the Swedish Research School of Management and Information Technology (MIT), research is conducted, and doctoral education provided, in three fields: management information systems, business administration, and informatics.

The increased attention being devoted to the formal models of market equilibrium with taxes, does suggest that the Modigliani-Miller perfect world models have become assimilated. Like their counterparts in physics, they have served to define the boundary limits within which acceptable solutions are constrained to lie. So far finance theory is the branch of economics which has made most progress on optimal behaviour in dynamic models with uncertainty.

Book: This book provides both students and intelligence professionals with basic theory and a number of practical tools to enhance their careers as analysts. Its subject matter goes under many names: competitive intelligence, competitor intelligence, business intelligence, and marketing intelligence. The aim has been to show the logic behind analysis so that the student and the professional may learn the techniques of building or adapting his or her own analysis to fit any practical problem, rather than presenting well-known analyses as if they were static truths. The book is not about state and military intelligence, nor about the history of intelligence. Having said this, it will be apparent to the reader that the scientific methods and tools presented are shared by all the intelligence functions.

The dissertation examines a case of industrial espionage by one of the parties involved in a forthcoming international negotiation. We want to know what consequences a burglary has for the actual negotiation. The dissertation consist of five hypothesis, of which the three first were empirically tested. The discussion of thesis four and five is supported basically by research literature, but have also found indirect support in the empirical study. A game theoretical model of four information sets is used. Thesis 1: Pay-offs do not change significantly from one information set to the other. confirmed Thesis 2: Behavior do not change significantly from one information set to the other. confirmed Thesis 3: The perception of fairness do not change significantly from one information set to the other. confirmed Thesis 4: International negotiations is socially so complex that it only makes sense to study the phenomena from an interdisciplinary angle. confirmed Thesis 5: A descriptive evolutionary approach can be an alternative to neoclassical economic theory in understanding the study of international negotiations. confirmed The study also confirms that economic theory is correct in excluding the ethical dimension from their models, as these factors have little influence on the end price. Fairness plays only a minor role in international negotiations. **

Abstract: Being a small company within the metal industry, Berglunds Mekaniska AB, located in Löddeköpinge/South Sweden, faces a lot of the typical problems of the branch. The metal industry is a low tech segment. The problems become particularly clear in smaller companies. Many of these companies lack even a clear vision of the firm’s future. Few have developed a strategy. An immediate consequence is that these companies are more vul-nerable to change in demand as they find themselves at the mercy of a small local market. The mechanical industry has traditionally been considered to be con-servative. With increased competition the acquisition of new knowledge has become a necessity. Smaller companies like Berglunds are increasingly de-pending upon outside help for their survival. With the case of Berglunds, an external business consultant has showed how both administration and lead-ership have been run ineffectively. These problems are to be improved suc-cessively by continuously coaching the CEO/owner and the staff. The coach-ing process is planned to be maintained for a longer period of time.

Market Intelligence provides managers with helpful concepts, tools and ideas on market intelligence and analysis. Additionally, it gives the reader some of the analytical tools used to analyze both micro and macro factors in the organization’s environment to better predict future outcomes and help decision making. The field of competitive intelligence is studied by a diverse research community. Contributions are made to aid states on a national, regional and local level (Public Intelligence), the military (Military Intelligence), non-profit organizations (NPO Intelligence) and private companies (Private Intelligence). However, these contributions are mostly done in isolation, even though all these fields of study have much in common. The authors build their insight on these various schools as well as practical applications and provide the essential insights to aid management thinking.

This thesis describes an investigation into the use of multi-agent systems for automatic distributed control of district heating systems. A district heating system is basically composed of production units, a distribution network, and a large number of consumer substations. Operators of district heating systems have several, often conflicting, goals, e.g., to satisfy customers and to minimize production costs. Current substations are purely reactive devices, making local decisions without taking into account the global state. Moreover the substations determine the flows in all parts of the district heating system. The optimal operation of the district heating system is therefore limited to providing sufficiently high temperature and pressure to all customers. The approach studied in this thesis is to equip substations with software agents to form a multi-agent system. The purpose is to dynamically control the district heating system using demand-side-management strategies. Demand-side-management are claimed to have a number of positive effects, e.g., lower production costs, reduced usage of fossil fuel, dimensioning production capacity for a lower effect/reserve alternatively with maintained dimensioning increase the number of consumers. To our knowledge this is the first work that implements automated demand-side-management strategies in district heating systems. The fundamental idea behind the approach is that a large number of local decisions with apparently small impact, together have large impact on the overall system performance without reducing the quality of service delivered. In order to evaluate the approach, a fine-grained simulation tool that simulates a complete district heating system was built. This work included the development of novel simulation models, often by integrating existing ones. The simulation tool simulates a district heating system second by second and dynamically supports interaction at each time step with the multi-agent system. The tool enables detailed performance analysis of both district heating systems as well as of different strategies of the control system. Results from simulation studies indicate that the approach makes it possible to reduce production while maintaining the quality of service. The study also shows that it is possible to control the trade-off between quality of service and degree of surplus production as well as the possibility of extending the system with new consumers without increasing production capacity. In another study, a experiment in a controlled physical environment, two agent-based approaches are evaluated and compared to existing technologies. The experiment shows that it is possible to automatically load balance a small district heating network using agent technology. This thesis also comprises an initial study where the strengths and weaknesses of agent-based approaches and mathematical optimization techniques are analyzed and compared. Finally, a generalized formal characterization of the problem space under investigation is provided, i.e., production and logistics network management, together with a preliminary evaluation of the applicability of the suggested multi-agent system approach for this general problem area.