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

Ratio Working Paper No. 362: Interest groups and the failure of transformative innovation policy – Insights from the ethanol car bubble in Sweden 2003-2013

Working paperPublication

Björnemalm, R., & Sandström, C.

Download

Publication year

2023

Published in

Ratio Working paper series.

Abstract

Literature on innovation policy has so far paid little attention to policy failure and the mechanisms leading to failure. We describe the Swedish bubble in ethanol cars 2003-2013 and explain why well intended policies may end up with unsatisfactory results. Directives from the European Union forced policymakers in Sweden to act swiftly and the Swedish government put in place The Pump law which forced gas stations to supply ethanol as a fuel from 2006 and onwards. In combination with targeted tax deductions for ethanol cars, a sharp increase in demand took place in 2006-2008. As these started to experience engine problems by 2009-2010, demand declined. Tax deductions were subsequently altered in order to also include cars with very low CO2 emissions, a shift that contributed further to the downfall of ethanol cars. Our data suggests that domestic car manufacturers Volvo and Saab, along with Ford benefited from the ethanol policies as their combined market share for green cars surged from 12 to 75 percent 2005-2008. Ethanol was competitive in the political domain as the fuel was backed by the Centre Party and the associated farmers’ lobby group, but lacked economic, technological and environmental competitiveness. Our findings suggest that innovation policies aimed at supporting new technologies against vested interests may instead end up extending established interests as policies are put in place under the influence of various stakeholders.

Social media analytics for innovation management research: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Article (with peer review)Publication

Geissinger, A., Laurell, C., Öberg, C., & Sandström, C.

Publication year

2023

Published in

Technovation, 123, 102712.

Abstract

New trends in innovation management may require new research methods. Social media analytics (SMA)—a method for capturing and analyzing data from user-generated content published on online platforms—has emerged as a complement or even alternative to more traditional research methods. This article systematically reviews and assesses the use of SMA and its potential for innovation management research. Our results show that use of SMA is still in an emergent phase, although it has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Our literature review illustrates that SMA provides new opportunities for innovation management scholars to enhance customer-, market-, technology-, and society-focused innovation research in several ways. In this paper we develop a research agenda and suggest areas for future research using SMA in innovation management.

The article can be accessed here.

Evaluating Evaluations of Innovation Policy: Exploring Reliability, Methods, and Conflicts of Interest

Book chapterPublication

Collin, E., Sandström, C., & Wennberg, K.

Publication year

2022

Published in

Questioning the Entrepreneurial State, 157.

Abstract

Expansions of innovation policies have been paralleled with an increase in the evaluations of such policies. Yet, there are few systematic evaluations of how such evaluations are conducted, by whom, and their overall conclusions. We analyze 110 evaluations of innovation policy in Sweden from 2005 to 2019. Our findings show that the majority of these evaluations are positive, about one-third are neutral in their conclusions, and very few are negative. The majority of evaluations were conducted by consulting firms, close to one-third by expert government agencies, and around 10% by university researchers or as self-evaluations by the governmental agencies responsible for the policy themselves. Few evaluations employed causal methods to assess the potential effects of policies. We discuss conflicts of interest and question the reliability of evaluations of innovation policy.

Abstract

Similar content