The Service Research Center (CTF)

On November 6–7, the autumn meeting of the SQMA network – Swedish Quality Management Academy – was held at the Service Research Center (CTF) at Karlstad University.

Swedish Quality Management Academy was founded in 2012 to connect Sweden’s world-leading institutions in quality research. SQMA is a collaborative platform for professors and associate professors in the field of quality research, aiming to renew education, collaborate on research projects, and exchange experiences.

The network brings together quality researchers from Swedish universities and meets once per semester to discuss research and education.

Anders Fundin, professor and research director at SIQ, and Kajsa Nyman, CEO of SIQ, both participated in the autumn meeting.

In the western part of Karlstad’s city center, an extensive development initiative is underway to create a future sustainable and health-promoting urban environment. Two researchers from the Service Research Center (CTF) are leading the project.

The area, which has a strong cultural and historical character, will become a place for innovation, social values, and green urban development through the project Omställningslabb Karlstad, launching in 2025.

– The vision is an attractive mixed-use district with new housing, commerce, green spaces, culture, and meeting places, says Siri Jagstedt, Senior Lecturer in Business Administration at Karlstad Business School and researcher at CTF.

The research project Gennovation at Karlstad University aims to provide small and medium-sized enterprises in Värmland with better conditions for growth and enhanced competitiveness.

By integrating gender, equality, and inclusion as strategic tools for business development and innovation, the project seeks to contribute to more sustainable regional development.

Gennovation is a four-year project funded by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket), Region Värmland, and Karlstad University. It is a collaboration between the Centre for Gender Studies (CGF) and the Service Research Center (CTF).

In the article “Towards High Circularity: Reconfiguring Firm-level Strategy”, researchers Andrey Abadzhiev and Alexandre Sukhov, both from Karlstad Business School and the Service Research Center, want to inspire hope among companies in conservative industries that are seeking to transition towards more circular and sustainable solutions.

What does circular economy actually mean – and how does it differ from a traditional linear economy?

– Economics is fundamentally about creating value through the redistribution of resources, says Alexandre Sukhov. In a linear economy, we tend to create value by extracting raw materials, producing and selling products, but we also lose value by considering consumed products as waste once they have been used and fulfilled their purpose. It’s from that perspective that the manufacturing industry has been streamlined.

In her doctoral thesis, Jana Huck, who recently completed her PhD in Business Administration, seeks to understand what idea development is really about by observing how people in various contexts work to improve an idea and pave the way to make it a reality.

Jana Huck got the impression that everyone talked about idea development as a phenomenon, yet without truly explaining or grasping what it actually involves – or even means. This is what inspired her doctoral thesis, Idea Development for Innovation: A Multi-Level Exploration of the Activities and Processes Propelling Ideas Towards Innovation.

Welcome as a PhD student in Industrial Engineering and Management! What will you be researching?

– Thank you! My research will focus on AI, idea management, and gender equality, with a particular interest in how AI can be used to improve efficiency in the early stages of the innovation process.