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- Fridholm, Tobias, 1980-
(författare)
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Working Together : Exploring Relational Tensions in Swedish Academia
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study explores the basic social conditions for high-quality university research, and focuses on research in science and technology in Sweden. Swedish research policy has adopted more of a market perspective on academic research and its role in society. This has meant the promotion of competition between researchers, increased focus on efficiency at universities, and attempts to make academia harmonize more with industry and other actors. How do such policies affect the variety of perspectives within the academic system? How do they affect the positions and identities of individual academics? These issues are discussed through the concept of "relational tensions". Relational tensions refer to social strains arising when interacting actors have different perspectives. Relational tensions can stimulate creativity, but may also cause unproductive conflicts. The discussion is underpinned by interviews with university researchers and a case study of Uppsala BIO-X, a program to commercialize university research in biotechnology. Typical cases of relational tensions are identified. These concern both interpersonal relations and differences between organized science and industry. A notable observation concerns potential frustration of individual academics, as competition and efficiency tends to make their positions and identities more contested. Researchers cope with relational tensions in three identified ways: socialization, seclusion, and lateral authority. Socialization is natural and often necessary, but reduces the variety of perspectives. Seclusion serves to retain variety and independence, but reduces interaction with others. Lateral authority is to formally or informally lend a researcher more authority, which improves the chance of maintaining a variety of perspectives without reducing interaction. The sustained usefulness of academic research arguably depends on its ability to foster and communicate a variety of perspectives. Hence, (i) promoting lateral authority seems fruitful within academia and in relations between academia and industry, and (ii) encouraging competition and efficiency may to some extent be counterproductive.
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| 2. |
- Lagerholm, Magnus, 1973-
(författare)
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Kunskap och innovation i ett moget kluster : En ekonomisk-geografisk studie av aluminiumindustrin i Småland-Blekinge
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis aims at understanding mechanisms behind knowledge generation and learning in a mature cluster by analysing firms in south-east Sweden engaged in the development and manufacturing of aluminium products. The point of departure is in concepts and assumptions related to spatially concen-trated systems of similar and related firms and industries, such as agglomera-tions, clusters or innovation systems.Three sets of empirical analyses have been conducted: a mail survey, a series of in-depth interviews and a register-based analysis. The analyses focus on three themes: inter-firm relations, the embeddedness of the clustered firms in the region, and the role of labour and labour mobility in cluster development. It is shown that also in a rather mature and low-tech cluster, firm competi-tiveness rests on continuous knowledge upgrading and innovation. In general terms, firms in this cluster do have business relations with other firms at all different spatial scales. While there are manifold buyer-supplier relations within the cluster, most firms have their most important linkages outside the region. The firms regard themselves as part of a cluster and various mecha-nisms contribute to this. There is a strong sense of trust and loyalty, and this applies in particular to those engaged either in some of the more organized supplier networks or the regional cluster initiative Aluminiumriket. Finally, the cluster does not seem to constitute a very fluid labour market for special-ised skills. Labour mobility between firms in this particular cluster seems to be fairly low.
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| 3. |
- Teigland, Robin, et al.
(författare)
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Investigating the Uppsala Biotech Cluster : Baseline Results from the 2004 Uppsala Biotech Cluster Survey
- 2004
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Just 65 kilometers to the north of Stockholm, Sweden, the Uppsala region has beenincreasingly receiving worldwide recognition during the past five years as a strongand dynamic cluster in the field of biotechnology. In 2003, Vinnova and theVinnväxt Program awarded Uppsala BIO – the Life Science Initiative a package offinancial support for a period of ten years to further support the region’sdevelopment and competitiveness. Uppsala BIO contracted CIND to facilitate inthis process, and one of CIND’s first activities was to conduct the 2004 UppsalaBiotech Cluster Survey. This survey was designed to gain an understanding of thecurrent “state of affairs” in the Uppsala biotech cluster, and selected survey resultsare presented in this report.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Waxell, Anders, 1972-
(författare)
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Uppsalas biotekniska industriella system : En ekonomisk-geografisk studie av interaktion, kunskapsspridning och arbetsmarknadsrörlighet
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose of the thesis is to study industrial transformation and growth within a local cluster of biotech activities in Uppsala, Sweden. A combination of theoretical approaches is used to address questions of why certain regions become more competitive: the cluster approach, innovation systems theory, and the technological systems approach. First, the industrial system is mapped in order to identify important local actors and structures. Secondly, by using interviews, a questionnaire, and a longitudinal database, key relations are studied from a spatial point of view. Four different fields of interaction are studied: business and market interaction; interaction with investors; collaborative and overall social interaction; and labor market interaction. The importance of the local milieu varies depending on the types of interaction in focus. Business interaction is predominantly global. Relations with investors are mainly regional and focused to the broader Stockholm region. The local milieu in Uppsala is more significant with respect to formal cooperation and collaboration, especially between local academy and industry actors, as well as informal interaction and social networks. The local milieu also seems to be important for knowledge transfer on the labor market. The creation of innovations and competitiveness is not just an outcome of buyer-supplier linkages, but is also a result of both formal and informal interaction occurring between industry and actors in the institutional and environmental setting, where knowledge, skills and information can be traded and/or transferred. Thus, the presence of knowledge intensive local actors and the quality of the relations is an important factor for the creation of industrial transformation and growth.
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| 6. |
- Waxell, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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What is global and what is local in knowledge-generating interaction? : The case of the biotech cluster in Uppsala, Sweden
- 2007
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Ingår i: Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. - 0898-5626 .- 1464-5114. ; 19:2, s. 137-159
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to describe the structure of the biotech cluster in Uppsala, Sweden, and to analyse how cluster knowledge dynamics result from processes and interactions unfolding at different spatial scales. The empirical basis for the analyses are derived from various sources: business registers, an internet- based survey of 106 firms, 23 in-depth interviews with key individuals, and a longitudinal database give data on the degree to which collaborations, rivalry, business transactions, capital sourcing and labour mobility take place in the local cluster. In addition to asking questions about which interactions are most localized and globalized, respectively, the paper also sets out to give an account of the 'clusterness' of the case in point. The paper shows that while the business relations of the biotech companies in Uppsala are strongly globalized, the sourcing of capital, the informal social networking and the labour market dynamics are much more regionalized/ localized.
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