The Service Research Center (CTF)

John-Erik Hassel recently completed his PhD in business administration at Karlstad Business School and The Service Research Center (CTF) and has done research on venture builders.

John-Erik Hassel, tell us about your research

– My research is about understanding a relatively new actor in entrepreneurial ecosystems called venture builders and how they can be understood in a larger context. Venture builders are actors who use a structured process to establish startups one after the other in collaboration with individual entrepreneurs.

Mia Larson, professor of business administration at Karlstad Business School, and Cecilia Cassinger, senior lecturer at Lund University, recently published the article “Platform Stories: The Role of Ideological Narratives in the Development of a Tourism Sharing Business Model”.

Mia Larson, tell us what your article is about

– It is about how an entrepreneur in adventure tourism creates a new digital sharing platform. In our article, we show the importance of attractive narratives in creating legitimacy, engagement and interest for the platform among its users, investors and those operating it. In this case, the narratives revolve around sharing resources, sustainability, an identity linked to adventure sports, as well as profit-making. 

How can business models extend the lifespan of trucks and make them circular? What requirements do different stakeholders have, and how are business models, service design, and product design affected? These questions are the focus of the research project Re:Value – a collaboration between industry and academia.

For future circular offerings to be accepted in the transport industry, they must meet the industry's challenges and expectations. Within the framework of Re:Value, researchers at the Service Research Center (CTF) at Karlstad University will develop new knowledge about future customers' and users' needs and requirements in the field.

Per Kristensson and Lars Witell, together with Mohamed Zaki from the Cambridge Service Alliance, are the editors of the new book "Handbook of Service Experience", which provides a comprehensive perspective on service experiences in business contexts. The book brings together current research and empirical case studies, focusing on customer experience, service design, innovation, and management in the digital era.

"We are very please to now present this book, says Per Kristensson, Professor of Psychology and Director of CTF. "As we have received many inquiries about our research on how customers, citizens, patients, and other users experience organizational offerings, we decided to join forces with the Cambridge Service Alliance at Cambridge University, with whom we have a strong relationship. It is a fantastic privilege, and a rare opportunity, to collaborate with one of the world’s top-ranked universities on such an important topic as people’s experiences of service organizations."

Bruksort 2.0 (Industrial town 2.0) is an innovative project that aims to strengthen Hagfors through social development, citizen participation and focus on mobility. The subjects of Business Administration and Media and Communication Studies at Karlstad University are part of the project.

Hagfors in Värmland is a town characterised by the steelworks Uddeholm AB – an industry founded in the 17th century that has contributed to the municipality’s development and community, providing job opportunities and attracting more people to live there. Uddeholm AB has been the lifeblood of Hagfors for a long time. However, a declining population, along with high demands on skills supply, are big challenges for the community of Hagfors today.

For the past 15 years, the Service Research Center (CTF), with funding from the Knowledge Foundation, has generated world-class research on service innovation, servitisation and customer experiences. Lars Witell, professor of business administration, is the editor of a new book titled Service Innovation and Management.

– We have also had the opportunity to develop ISE – a competence development programme for professionals in these areas, says Lars Witell, professor of business administration at CTF and Karlstad Business School. In the book, we have tried to create knowledge that is tailored for professional development training.