Evaluation document, KoF11 Part A: Strategic aspects on research ...

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Uppsala University 1<strong>KoF11</strong><strong>Part</strong> A: Department of Business StudiesA1 i.IntroductionThe discipline of Företagsekonomi exists in several European countries, but has taken onsomewhat different features in each country. In Sweden the discipline is broad, covering thestudy of all kinds of formal organizations and almost any aspect of these entities. At theDepartment of Business Studies at Uppsala University a special focus is placed on issues ofgovernance of large organizations, the use of accounting information, industrial marketing,corporate entrepreneurship and the embeddedness of organizations in broader societalinstitutions. Research at the Department has a long tradition of dealing withinternationalization, international business and transnational organizations and institutions.The research is organized into five sectors, each dealing with a specific area. Each sector isled by a chaired professor and provides a forum for discussing and developing research.Although most scholars are enlisted in one sector only, there is a high level of interaction andcollaboration among scholars having their main basis in different sectors. In this way,researchers can relate their specific interest to a broader spectrum of ongoing research onorganizations.International BusinessThe international business research embraces several areas, which include a number of subtopics.One traditional area concerns the internationalization process of the firm (Johansonand Vahlne, 1977). This model points to the gradual character of internationalization and thevital role played by experience about foreign markets and psychic distance between countries.Our research in this area has resulted in some widely cited articles and, lately, the “market–asbusiness-networkapproach” has come to play a major role in the development of thisresearch. We are currently investigating some of the basic assumptions of this model, and wehave also initiated studies on the continuing internationalization process of the multinationalcorporation (MNC). The purpose of the latter is to shed light on how dispersed experience andresources, within the corporation, are utilized and coordinated in the creation of new businessand market entry. This has not been done extensively in existing research. Moreover, an ongoingtopic concerns how internationalization emerges through opportunity-seeking. In thisaspect, we have adopted a more pro-active role of the firm, rather than the risk-avoiding viewthat was prevalent in earlier research.Another area of research focuses on management of the MNC. In this area, we particularlystudy the emergence of subsidiary centres of excellence, innovation and knowledge transfer.We also study the MNC as a political organization and investigate sources of subsidiaryinfluence, the tension between subsidiary roles in the local business context and the corporatecontext, and the related struggle for control. The projects embracing this research haveutilized and developed the concept of embeddedness of the MNC (Forsgren et al, 2005). It hasalso stimulated us to initiate research on the role of headquarters in the MNC. This is a highlyrelevant issue, given the complexity that is usually ascribed to the contemporary MNC.Another growing theme of the group concerns the cross-cultural impact on management inMNCs. In this area we function as a node for an international network of researchers. Finally,through our tradition of addressing the interplay between the MNC and its businessenvironment, we study how the MNC affects host-country economies through knowledge2011-02-28 Dept of Business Studies v 1.0
Uppsala University 2<strong>KoF11</strong>spill-over. This is a timely theme, which utilizes interdisciplinary competences betweenbusiness studies and the field of economic geography. An emerging collaboration withinternational scholars has been initiated.The primary mission of our international business research has been to develop a school ofconsistent thought that can be employed in various areas of study. On this basis our goal is torenew ourselves by addressing contemporary topics and generating new ideas that influenceour current view on internationalization and management. The research has often challengedthe “main stream” and traditional ideas in the field, and resulted in what academics usuallyrefer to as the “Uppsala School”.MarketingThe research in marketing is fundamentally grounded in research conducted from the 1960sonwards. Empirical studies in the 1960-70s of the internationalization of Swedish companiespointed to long-term relationships between the investigated companies and their customers. Aconsequence of this observation was the emergence of a strong stream of research directedtowards business-to-business relationships. Scholars were highly involved in the developmentof the internationally well-known IMP approach to business-to-business relationships. Thisaddresses the interaction between business firms and networks of business relationships, andchallenged the received marketing theory in attempts to develop new ways to understandbusiness relationships. It is today accepted as one of the dominant theories on marketing andpurchasing in industrial markets. The theoretical foundation, which was primarily constructedon business-to-business relationships, became broader and incorporated a business networkapproach.In recent years, business relationships and networks have dominated marketing research.While the initial thoughts of these theoretically were employed for studying industrialcompanies, new research thoughts emerged to incorporate other types of actors. Several newgroups were recruited to cover the wide range of marketing research, which is to cover thebehaviours of companies and individuals from MNCs to consumers. The businessrelationships and network approaches have been increasingly applied as a starting point tostudy different <strong>aspects</strong> of company behaviour both in local and international contexts as wellas business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings. For each of the above filedresearches, there appeared new research groups working together. The network perspectivehas also been expanded to include relationships with important non-business counterparts,such as political and social actors. The latter, for example, comprises research groupsstudying the behaviour of both MNCs and also small companies in an international context.For example, consumer marketing researchers focus on the issue of consumers as valuecreatorin business networks.Our research in marketing covers studies concerning international, industrial, consumer andservice marketing. Aspects investigated include, for example, commitment, interdependence,knowledge and trust in business relationships. Other examples are economical andtechnological consequences of network embeddedness. Several research methods, includingcase studies and surveys, have been employed. Furthermore, international cooperation withresearchers from other universities in Europe and Asia is an important part of the tradition.2011-02-28 Dept of Business Studies v 1.0
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