We cooperate with the private-, public-, and voluntary sector related to innovation and entrepreneurial development and activities.
We are particularly providing research support to regional partners, involving students at the bachelor-, master-, as well as the ph.d. level in the research projects. As such, we are fundamenting for research-based education.
Our research results are of regional, national and international interest as they are published in high-ranked international journals.
Research topics
We apply a broad perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship as our research spans around product innovations, service innovations, process innovations, platform innovations, digital innovations, as well as market innovations. We are also facilitating for- and analyzing effects of intrapreneurship activities in organizations.
Our research group provide studies with practical implications for different industries, comprising:
- Innovation studies of firms, comprising innovation systems/networks and platforms, particularly focusing specific sectors, such as industry, retailing, culture or tourism. Our studies often contain elements of social entrepreneurship, STS-studies, Triple Helix-studies, communities of practice, and/or "green" and sustainable innovations.
- Tecnhology- and innovation management, particularly studying industrial business management, supply chain innovation, public sector innovation management, service innovation, service design, design thinking, business model innovation, system engineering and science politics and decision-making.
- Corporate entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship) in well-establised private companies and in the public sector, through effective utilization of available resources in and between firms and networks, as well as studies of managers and employees entrepreneurial orientation, intention and learning. Here, studies also contain digital entrepreneurship and innovation.
- Entrepreneurship and small business management, comprising studies of start-ups, nascent entrepreneurship and innovation and entrepreneurship culture, supported by the practical use of methods and tools, such as Lean Startup, MVP's, business model canvas, personas-, value proposition- and customer journey design and profitability analysis. Here, research support firms so to grow and to survive, by supporting segmentation, establishing networks with investors and supporting incubators. Here, studies are also supporting entrepreneurship education and immigrant entrepreneurship.
How do we conduct our research?
Our applied research perspectives will suit companies that seek knowledge about how business models, forms of organization, processes, services and product offerings leads to changes of the firm, participating networks, the sector, the society, and most important -for the consumers or users.
We offer new perspectives on innovation that challenges and complements the existing product- and technology-oriented innovation perspectives, by mainly focusing on value-creation enhanced through co-creation with the consumers, users and other main partners and market actors.
Our research group members show competence in qualitative methods (depth interviews, focus groups, observations, ethnography, inductive process studies) and quantitative methods (surveys, panel studies, experiments, social media/API data), applicable for solving a broad specter of research problems.
Research diciplines
The broad background and the interdisciplinarity among our researchers is a strength, as we may be able to unite our theoretical and methodological competence in innovative research projects. We try to combine our different perspectives and find it useful to utilize the group members competence in every research projects.
Partners and networks
Our research group participate with a broad range of research partners, business schools and universities. Some core partners are:
RNI Scandinavia (The research network on Innovation).
Industry partners, such as the Kongsberg Group, Yara Technology center, Applied Autonomy AS, Herøya industripark AS, Vesar and «Den magiske fabrikken», as well as industrial clusters, such as Electronic Coast/NCE-NMT.
Public partners, such as NAV, county councils, municipalities, industry associations and retail associations, Virke and Handel og Kontor.
Other cooperative partners is Komplett, Telenor, Posten, Norgesgruppen, The Norwegian Football Association, etc.
Our research group members cooperate with researchers at other universities and business schools both at a national level, such as NHH og Senter for Service Innovation (https://www.nhh.no/en/research-centres/csi/), NTNU, The University of Agder, AHO, UIT, Sintef, etc. and at an international level, such as The University of Karlstad (Centrum för Tjänsteforskning), The University of Luleå (https://www.ltu.se/research/subjects/Entrepreneurship-and-Innovation), Hanken, The University of Roskilde, Copenhagen Business School, University of Strathclyde, Loughborough University, University of Iowa, Miami University og Indiana University Bloomington.
Ongoing research and projects
Our research areas spans from innovation and digitalization in retailing, to public sector innovation and business model innovation for autonomous systems, as well as help developing green and sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Innovation in retailing trhough digitalization
- Digital innovation in the retailing system -Vivant Digital
- The School of Digitalization
- The Nordic Reko-rings as sustainable digital food systems - Digifood
- Innovation in the shipping industry and autonomous systems
- Transforming Shipping through Ecosystem Business model Innovation (TSEBI)
- Capacity building and enhanced competence related to autonomous systems in transportation and process industry
- New perspectives on adoption and diffusion of innovations
- Special Issue in Journal of Business Research
- Developing methods of user innovation in innovation processes through micro-ecosystems
- Innovation and social entrepreneurship in the public sector
- Entrepreneurial orientation and learning
Enclosed projects:
- Innovation in retailing - Vivant Vestfold (2015-2019)
- The effect of digitalization in retailing - Report for Virke and HK in Norway (2018)
Find the publications from our research group members in Cristin.