The Service Research Center (CTF)
We develop new knowledge on value creation through service.
News
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2024-10-23
Welcome Siri Jakobsson Störe, new researcher at CTF
We are delighted to welcome Siri Jakobsson Störe. Her research interests primarily lie within clinical psychology, health psychology, and developmental psychology, closely linked to her background as a licensed psychologist.
Siri, tell us about your background!
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2024-10-22
Hello there, Per Skålén, Professor of Business Administration!
You have recently, together with Jakob Trischler, published a study that introduces a framework focusing on public services. Could you briefly tell us about the study and its findings?
– The study builds on my previous research on services as value-creating practices. Simply put, it aims to create a reference framework to understand that services consist of concrete value-creating activities in which people actively participate. An example could be a restaurant visit, where value-creating practices include welcoming guests, presenting the menu, serving the food, eating the meal, and paying for it.
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2024-10-22
Study shows that data from meetings with patients and users does not always represent their needs
Petter Falk, new doctor in Political Science at Karlstad University and the Service Research Centre (CTF), sheds light on conditions and grounds for datafication in his doctoral thesis “Assemble Care // Align Data”.
– What surprised me the most was that datafication is intuitively accepted, despite a kind of intellectual resistance, says Petter Falk.The term “big data” is frequently used nowadays, but your research emphasises the importance of the small details. Why is that?
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2024-10-03
Robot colleagues – a trend that requires research
In the project “AI-robotar i besöksnäringen: En framtid med nya kollegor” (AI robots in the tourism industry: a future with new colleagues), researchers from Karlstad Business School and the Service Research Center (CTF) are looking at how employees in the tourism industry are affected by having AI robots as colleagues.
Kristina Palm, Poja Shams, Nina Löfgren and Maria Åkesson from CTF, along with Calle Rosengren from Kristianstad University and Carin Håkansta from Karolinska Institutet, are running the 2-year project, starting in June 2025. Strawberry Hotel, Furhat Robotics and Compare Karlstad are also taking part in the project.
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2024-09-30
New initiative to lighten the regulatory burden on farmers in Sweden
This autumn, Karlstad University’s Samhällsnytta AB is launching a project alongside farmers, public agencies and advocacy groups. The focus is to lighten the regulatory burden in farming, which has long been perceived as both costly and time-consuming.
- We gather “the whole system in the room”, a methodology that ensures an active contribution from all parties involved towards sustainable and practical solutions, says Johan Quist, CEO of Samhällsnytta.
Samhällsnytta along with other public agencies as well as advocacy groups will receive SEK 7 million for the project from Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency. The project will be carried out within the SustainGov innovation programme.
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2024-09-30
Researchers: This is what must be done in order to halve food waste by 2030
Researchers at the Service Research Center (CTF) at Karlstad University have written a report about Nordic food waste with recommendations for political measures. The message is clear:
– We can either take forceful action right now, or else abandon the goal of reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030.The researchers have identified initiatives and measures that resulted in less food waste in restaurants, schools, retail businesses and Nordic households. Based on that, the researchers propose a number of measures for halving food waste by 2030.
– It’s everything from implementing political measures in order to reduce food waste, to reinforcing the Nordic collaboration through more clearly defined requirements regarding data sharing, as well as assessment and reporting of food waste, says Helén Williams, associate professor of Environmental and Energy systems.