How we think
Research publications
Organizational climate for innovation and creativity: a study in Swedish retail organizations (2018)
Innovation in retailing is under-investigated in academia and yet highly relevant in practice given the current changes in the retail landscape. Although retailing is often characterised by a dynamic and highly competitive environment, retail organizations are not often considered as “innovative,” at least when compared with manufacturing industries or when using existing innovation frameworks in academic literature. There is a need to consider other ways of looking into retailing's innovativeness.
Innovation i handeln — Om utmaningar och möjligheter med systematisk innovationsledning (2018)
Handeln står inför stora utmaningar. Globalisering, urbanisering och inte minst digitalisering har lett till en intensiv jakt på nya lösningar bland våra mest etablerade detaljhandels- och dagligvaruföretag. Finns det då särskilda utmaningar med innovation i en bransch vars centrala idé har varit att förmedla andras produkter och tjänster?
Retail innovation: perceptions, management, and challenges of a systematic approach (2018)
The retail industry is looking for new ways to compete as digitalization and non-traditional actors are changing the game. In an industry where constant improvements are key and studies of innovation management are scarce-this qualitative study of four retail firms addresses how innovation is currently perceived and managed.
From Powerpoints to Reality – Om att leda strategisk förändring (2015)
Kunden i fokus och stark innovationsförmåga är centrala teman i de flesta företags strategier idag. Inte sällan är begreppen synonyma med företag som IKEA, Apple och Google. Men hur ser det ut för företag i andra branscher; längre bak i värdekedjan, när de vill anamma dessa? Och hur går man från ord till handling?
On collaboration between academia and practice for research and innovation (2015)
Collaboration between academia and industry is believed important for innovation: industry needs academic expertise and know-how and academics need empirical data, test beds and more. So what needs to be improved? A pilot study conducted for BillerudKorsnäs confirms findings in previous research: the main challenge to industry-academia collaboration is the lack of mutual understanding of each other's needs, expectations and output.
Strategic change: a journey towards new meaning? Semantic analysis of corporate communication (2014)
Strategic change, infused with new data, perspectives and concepts may change the inherent meaning of the central tenets in an existing strategy. It taps into the cognitive aspects of a journey where language, in verbal and written form, aids in the process of communicating, understanding and creating new meaning. Hence, it comes as no surprise that communication is argued to be an important means of forming and executing strategy, particularly if that strategy involves change.
From PowerPoints to Reality - Managing Strategic Change in the Paper Packaging Industry (2014)
The thesis explores and describes strategic change towards increased customer orientation and innovation in the Swedish forest and paper packaging industry, an industry which has been subject to calls for new strategic directions for more than two decades. The large-scale and cost-efficient strategy, which has been the industry's hallmark, is in need of a more customer based and innovative emphasis. The research is inspired by different schools of thought in strategy and motivated by the limited longitudinal studies; on the link between customer orientation, innovation and strategy, and on this empirical setting. The link is of particular relevance given the emerging paradigms of dual and ambidextrous strategies in literature and practice, integrating strategies focused on cost and differentiation, efficiency and innovation – at the same time. This development further adds to the need for more insight into the gap between strategy development and implementation. This thesis argues that being able to manage a strategic change towards this end requires an integration of rational and pragmatic thinking and doing that combines levers and measures of cultural and cognitive change with more traditional ones. It contributes to a further understanding of this challenging endeavour and to future research on competitive and sustainable development of mature industries.
Challenging the strategy paradigm within the paper packaging industry
Formulating and implementing a new strategy may be a challenging task, especially if it alters the way in which a company has operated and positioned itself before. This may be particularly true for companies within the forest industry, like manufacturers of paper packaging products, pursuing differentiated customer value and innovative solutions where, traditionally, success has been measured in volume and relative position on a cost curve. Based on a longitudinal case study of Billerud, a Swedish world-leading manufacturer of paper packaging material, two propositions are suggested for future research and practical guidance for managers when formulating and implementing strategic change. Firstly for an organisation going through strategic change, understanding the assumptions behind different strategic intents and the link between a chosen strategy and critical core activities, capabilities and culture is a prerequisite to enable a transition. Secondly, strategic change is enabled through an iterative and probing approach between formulation and implementation which considers knowledge and learning of new concepts, activity and culture as situated.