Klas A. M. Eriksson

Contact information

Email: klas.eriksson@hhs.se
Links: Google Scholar
CV: Download CV

Klas A. M. Eriksson holds a PhD in Economic History and is a researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics and at Ratio. He has previously been a visiting scholar at Stanford University and Columbia University in the United States. In his doctoral dissertation, How the City Was Owned (2022), he examines, among other things, how the ownership and construction of real estate in Stockholm have been regulated over the past 150 years. He is also trained as an urban planner.

Klas’s research interests include creative destruction, institutional change, disruptive innovation, economics and culture, real estate prices, urban economics, and the history of economic thought.

Related publications

Article (with peer review)

Introducing the inverted Icarus paradox in business history – Evidence from David and Goliath in the Swedish telecommunications industry 1981–1990

Eriksson, K., Lakomaa, E., Nykvist, R., & Sandström, C.

Publication year

2024

Published in

Business History.

Abstract

Previous research in business and management history has identified the Icarus paradox, which describes how organisations may fall due to overconfidence and hubris. We build upon previous research on paradoxes in business history and introduce the notion of an inverted Icarus paradox. Using rich archival sources coded in a relational database, we show how an entrant firm, Comvik, outmanoeuvred an established government monopoly in the non-market domain from 1980 to 1990, despite inferior resources and a weak market position. The government monopoly Televerket faced an inverted Icarus paradox; it could not leverage its strengths and political connections as they were stuck in a David versus Goliath narrative where public opinion was more sympathetic to the entrant firm Comvik.

Article (with peer review)

Digitalization and the future of Management Learning: New technology as an enabler of historical, practice-oriented, and critical perspectives in management research and learning

Laurell, C., Sandström, C., Eriksson, K., & Nykvist, R.

Publication year

2020

Published in

Management Learning

Abstract

How are historical, practice-oriented, and critical research perspectives in management affected by digitalization? In this article, we describe and discuss how two digital research approaches can be applied and how they may influence the future directions of management scholarship and education: Social Media Analytics and digital archives. Our empirical illustrations suggest that digitalization generates productivity improvements for scholars, making it possible to undertake research that was previously too laborious. It also enables researchers to pay closer attention to detail while still being able to abstract and generalize. We therefore argue that digitalization contributes to a historical turn in management, that practice-oriented research can be conducted with less effort and improved quality and that micro-level data in the form of digital archives and online contents make it easier to adopt critical perspectives.

Article (with peer review)

A revised perspective on innovation policy for renewal of mature economies – Historical evidence from finance and telecommunications in Sweden 1980–1990

Eriksson, K., Ernkvist, M., Laurell, C., Moodysson, J., Nykvist, R. & Sandström, C.

Publication year

2019

Published in

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Abstract

What is the role of innovation policy for accomplishing renewal of mature industries in Western economies? Drawing upon an unusually rich dataset spanning 9752 digitized archival documents, we categorize and code decisions taken by policymakers on several levels while also mapping and quantifying the strategic activities of both entrant firms and incumbent monopolists over a decade. Our data concerns two empirical cases from Sweden during the time period 1980–1990: the financial sector and the telecommunications sector. In both industries, a combination of technological and institutional upheaval came into motion during this time period which in turn fueled the revitalization of the Swedish economy in the subsequent decades. Our findings show that Swedish policymakers in both cases consistently acted in order to promote the emergence of more competition and de novo entrant firms at the expense of established monopolies. The paper quantifies and documents this process while also highlighting several enabling conditions. In conclusion, the results indicate that successful innovation policy in mature economies is largely a matter of strategically dealing with resourceful vested interest groups, alignment of expectations, and removing resistance to industrial renewal.

Article (with peer review)

Digital entrepreneurship and field conditions for institutional change

Geissinger, A., Laurell, C., Sandström, C., Eriksson, K., & Nykvist, R.

Publication year

2018

Published in

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Abstract

Digital entrepreneurship may result in institutional turbulence and new initiatives are frequently blocked by vested interest groups who posit superior financial and relational resources. In this paper, we explore the role of cities in facilitating digital entrepreneurship and overcoming institutional resistance to innovation. Drawing upon two historical case studies of digital entrepreneurship in the city of Stockholm along with an extensive material on the sharing economy in Sweden, our results suggest that cities offer an environment that is critical for digital entrepreneurship. The economic and technological diversity of a city may provide the field conditions required for institutional change to take place and to avoid regulatory capture.