Organisations are all around us. At work and at school, at the shopping centre and the football club, in health care, everywhere we are surrounded by organisations that we are part of and are affected by in various ways. Organisations develop, market and sell different types of offerings; they manage financial flows and capital; they execute key societal functions in the public sector, and much more. Business administration ranges over a wide range of fields – all of which aim to understand various aspects of how organisations work, how they can be managed, and how they develop.
Business administration research at LiU
At Linköping University, research in business administration is conducted in four main fields, although many researchers are also involved in interdisciplinary research projects and research programmes, within the university as well as in collaboration with other Swedish and foreign universities.
One field the LiU researchers focus on is accounting, auditing and finance. Here they investigate questions relating to financial reporting, standards and application of regulations in the private and public sectors. The university produces outstanding research in auditing, including auditing quality, auditing practice and the auditing profession. Other research within this field concerns finance, with particular focus on venture capital, business valuation and investment decision-making.
In marketing and innovation, the researchers start out from a unique combination of perspectives on marketing, and how this relates to innovation and strategy. For instance, LiU research on environmental approaches to green marketing and business development has had considerable impact. The university conducts ground-breaking research on how manufacturers can increase competitiveness by focusing on service differentiation. LiU has also positioned itself with internationally strong research on the service sector, service innovation, the sharing economy and innovative business models.
The researchers also investigate innovative and sustainable management control and organisation in complex environments. A growing field concerns management control and strategies for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. LiU researchers have also excelled in research on management control, organisation and human resource management in contexts where operations are knowledge intensive and are conducted on a project basis. Another research strength investigates the organisation of the response to accidents and crises. Here, important questions include how the collaboration between the emergency services and other actors, including volunteers, should be led and organised, to ensure better responsiveness in the event of accidents, and increased social resilience.
Researchers in business administration at Linköping University are also interested in organisational issues relating to sustainable change, development and dynamics in organisations, in working life, and at the societal level. This research is particularly notable in fields such as entrepreneurial organisation and entrepreneurship, and the challenges they are focussed on include gender and ethnicity, and organisation in developing countries.
