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

Uppsala University 9<strong>KoF11</strong>EntrepreneurshipOne particularly successful research program concerns processes of technological renewaland the diffusion of technological capabilities within the multinational corporation. Ongoingresearch efforts explore the conditions and processes that explain the emergence of“superstar” foreign subsidiaries, as well as largely neglected longitudinal trends in theemergence and diffusion of new technological capabilities across advanced foreignsubsidiaries of the multinational network.As for the Department as a whole, our ambition is to remain among the very top departmentsof Företagsekonomi in the Nordic countries.A3.IntroductionWe believe that promising future research directions will be found in each of the areas wherethe Department has developed a critical mass of research and special competence. Research atthe Department is governed by five principles that have successfully been applied so far andthat will continue to guide our future work.First, in an era where there is a strong belief that quality can easily be translated into quantity,we strive for true quality in research. Our ambition is to provide genuinely new knowledgethat is of high theoretical and societal relevance. We emphasize innovativeness – we put moreemphasis on the task of bringing new perspectives into various fields of research than onrefining existing perspectives. Although this strategy leads to a reasonable number of highqualitytexts being published in widely distributed media, we are aware that the strategy isprobably not the optimal one should the purpose be to score high on popular quantitativemetrics of research success.Second, we believe in concentration and a long-term perspective. We believe that quality andinnovativeness are fostered by investments in large and long-term research efforts onparticular issues. We organize for long-term teamwork on carefully selected researchproblems.Third, we emphasize the importance of deep and extensive empirical studies as the main basisfor theory development. Such empirical studies tend to be time-consuming but they arecrucial for developing high-quality research.Fourth, we think that it is important to exploit the fact that research in the Department coversa broad range of issues. Although we build on specialized research teams, we endeavour tocontinue keeping the existing high level of interaction and dialogue among these teams. Suchdialogue favours both quality and innovativeness and often leads to new research projectswhere knowledge and competence from various subfields are combined in a fruitful way.Finally, our aim is not only to produce high-quality research but also to develop highlyqualified scholars, whether they remain at our department or complete their careers elsewhere.Such efforts are directed not only at our doctoral students but also at our young faculty. Wewish to recruit excellent scholars who can strongly contribute to our research themes andmissions – excellence per se is not enough.2011-02-28 Dept of Business Studies v 1.0