Eleven students in Master's programmes Innovation and Industrial Management and Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg were in January 2017 awarded a travel grant from Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture, to write their Master’s theses abroad.
Ebba Bergbom Wallin and Maria Lundin
Programme: Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship
Traveling to China to collect data for their Master’s thesis “Service development within European subsidiaries in the automotive industry”. The aim with the thesis is to study the development of service offerings in the Geely’s subsidiary CEVT. Through a qualitative case study, the students will examine how the work with developing services has evolved from an entrepreneurial approach to include more structured ways of work.
Victor Göthensten and Axel Hellström
Programme: Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship
Travelling to USA to meet with start-ups och incubators in Silicon Valley and work with their Master’s thesis "A comparative study of start-ups in Silicon Valley and in Gothenburg: Examining the validation process of innovations". Many start-ups have difficulties to develop innovative offers that meet the market’s demand. The students will therefore study how start-ups och incubators are working to validate that they actually meet the demand; to minimize waste of resources.
Erik Armkvist and Lucas Malina
Programme: Innovation and Industrial Management
Traveling to China to work with their Master’s thesis "The knowledge management system at China Euro Vehicle Technology: A single case study of the knowledge transfer process between actors". The students will be visiting CEVT Innovation Center in Cixi, Geely's HQ in Hangzhou, CEVT at Lindholmen and Volvo Cars in Gothenburg. The aim of the study is to investigate how CEVT in Gothenburg can be more efficient in the knowledge transferring process, towards both Volvo Cars and Geely.
Alexis Rehnberg and Victor Lavin
Programme: Innovation and Industrial Management
Traveling to Boston, USA to work with their Master’s thesis “Bridging the co-innovation gap between students and firms”. Both students and firms in Sweden experience difficulties to connect and collaborate with each other. Stanford and MIT are well known for their developed business collaborations and have a long tradition of success in this regard. The students will visit these institutions to learn how they integrate with businesses and create opportunities for students and companies. Other relevant organisations and concepts will also be researched in order to find solutions to bridge the gap in the Scandinavian context.
Moa Gustafsson and Julia Franke
Programme: Innovation and Industrial Management
Traveling to Germany and USA to collect data for their Master’s thesis "The future in real time, Industry 4.0" - A Case study of Ericsson”. Experts forecast that industry 4.0 will reshape an already competitive landscape, disrupt whole industries and form a fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 connects embedded product technologies, smart processes, and systems of production. The objective of this thesis is to investigate how Industry 4.0 technologies will transform today's business.
Björn Ingmansson
Programme: Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship
Traveling to Israel to meet with entrepreneurial actors in Tel Aviv. The Master’s thesis "Tel Aviv, an inspiring entrepreneurial ecosystem" will investigate the factors behind the growing success of Tel Aviv as an entrepreneurial scene. The economic capital of Israel has become one of the most important clusters of innovation in the world. By analysing these factors with key entrepreneurial actors, the hope is to find new qualitative evidence to back up the statistics.