About us

Business & Design Lab was formed as a five-year project in 2006 and became a formal centre, as an interfaculty research unit within the university on January 1, 2011. As such it belongs to a small group of more or less similar cross disciplinary approaches of business and design in different parts of Europe, US, Asia and Australia.

The purpose of Business & Design Lab is to support research between the fields of design and business studies to engage in the surrounding communities to contribute to its development as a growing and more sustainable region - with help of design.

We experiment with new approaches in the relation between research and education, especially in relation to the new Master's programme in Embedded Design, and in a pedagogy that benefits from the design process, its artistic and exploratory devices and tools.

HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design is the host department for BDL.

Areas of research

Research at Business and Design Lab is organized in four major streams:

Digitization, innovation and entrepreneurship

Fostering a dialogue between design, technology and business administration scholars we investigate new forms and understandings of organizations, ownership, work and markets and alternative change paths to a sustainable society.

Automation/artificial intelligence and work

We investigate how automation and different kinds of AI transform the meaning of work, with a particular emphasis on professional and creative work and on the shifting boundaries between humans and machines.

Digitization, public space and the social contract of democracy

In this wide steam of research, we investigate the implications of the digital transformation (investigated in the previous two streams) for the notion of public space and democratic structures. We have a particular interest in the digitization of public debate and the consequences changing business models of digital media for democratic processes.

Design, participation and local sustainable development

We investigate the possibilities of different design methods for transforminglocal development towards sustainability. At the intersection between design, organization and marketing studies, we unpack the complexities of organizing participatory processes for local sustainable development. Some of our activities here are organized together with the Centre for Tourism.

Torsten and Wanja Söderberg's professorship in Design Management

Torsten and Wanja Söderberg's professorship in Design Management will develop new knowledge and new practices in the meeting between artistic design practice, scientific theory, practice in management and business economics. Subject orientation may change over time, but should always be in the areas of design and economics. The professorship is not limited in time.

In 2007, the Torsten Söderberg Foundation donated SEK 40 million to the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts and the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

Elena Raviola, holder of the professorship

Elena Raviola, researcher at HDK-Valand, is the holder of the professorship since September 1, 2018.

Former holders:

• Lisbeth Svengren Holm
• Ulla Johansson

History of Business & Design Lab

The Business and Design Lab was formed in 2011 and its formation was linked to the establishment of the Torsten and Wanja Söderberg Professorship in Design Management in 2010. The centre is led by the current recipient of the chair and has previously been led by Professor Ulla Johansson and Professor Lisbeth Holm-Svengren.

During the initial years, the Business and Design Lab focused on investigating the value of design and other artistic methods for management and innovation in corporate contexts.  In the second phase of development, the centre has concentrated its research on the role of design in contributing to sustainable development. This new direction has broadened the focus of the centre by being in dialogue also with other art forms present at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, by developing a mutual exchange relationship between scholars from the arts and business administration and by taking into special consideration digitization.

Business & Design Lab leverages on the local, national and international network of scholars and practitioners interested in the intersection of Design and Business studies.