Do you feel abandoned when you’re expected to handle everything on your own in a store? You’re not alone. Amie Gustafsson, a newly minted PhD in Business Administration at Karlstad Business School and researcher at CTF, has studied the state we find ourselves in when technology fails and we are left with a rigid digital source code as our only companion.
– Self-service strips away the human relationship, and without human touchpoints that can repair trust after a machine failure, customer loyalty to the brand becomes very short-lived.

How do unmanned stores and self-service affect customers’ sense of service and trust?

– I would like to gain a deeper, contextually grounded understanding of how personal assistance is legally regulated and applied in Sweden, says Manja Kreševič.

Why did you select Karlstad Business School for your research study visit?

– My decision to undertake a research visit at Karlstad Business School was driven by both my broader academic focus on Sweden and the relevance of its model to my PhD studies. My research examines the legal framework for personal assistance in Slovenia, with a comparative perspective on Sweden, widely seen as a pioneer in this field through its 1994 LSS legislation.

Does changing the coach help? How big is the home advantage? Does the crowd matter? These are questions that interest Niklas Jakobsson, professor in national economics at Karlstad Business School.
– Much of the discussion in sports deals with questions that are essentially economic in nature, he says.

Niklas Jakobsson has always liked individual sports, but his interest in team sports has grown in recent years.

– Football came into my life through my son and the Allsvenskan, while ice hockey is close at hand through Färjestad and the SHL. Both sports stir strong emotions while also producing a lot of data, which makes them well suited for analysis.

It is mainly football and ice hockey that have sparked Niklas’s interest. And students are quick to engage when the referee’s whistle sounds.

This year’s meeting was held at the Spirits Museum in Stockholm and included presentations from several ongoing research projects – including studies on wine tourism, work environments in restaurant kitchens, and AI robots as colleagues.

The Swedish Hospitality Industry’s Research and Development Fund (BFUF) annual research meeting is a platform for knowledge exchange and networking, where researchers, industry representatives and BFUF’s board meet to discuss current research and future development opportunities within the hospitality sector. The aim is to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry, generate new ideas, and contribute to a sustainable and competitive hospitality industry.

When Covid struck, hotel employees were thrown into a new and uncertain labour market situation. Mass redundancies, extensive use of short-time work schemes, and rapidly changing working conditions blurred the boundaries between the internal and external labor market—creating a prolonged in-between state with consequences for individuals, organizations, and the labour market at large. Elin Storman, newly awarded a PhD in Working Life Science, has written the dissertation “Navigating Organisational Restructuring and Job Transitions – A Case Study of Workers in the Swedish Hotel Sector.”

Covid hit the hotel industry unusually fast and hard. In a sector already characterized by insecure employment conditions, the sudden drop in demand led to mass redundancies and widespread implementation of short-time work—a crisis tool that was, at the time, used for the first time in its new form in Sweden.

On April 8–9, the first Ethical Hackarinas event was held at Karlstad University. It was two intensive days that put ethical hacking in focus and contributed to increased knowledge and awareness in the field of cybersecurity.

The program offered a mix of inspiring lectures and hands-on activities, with participants from industry, academia, and the public sector. The event was aimed at both beginners and individuals with a broader interest in technology, security, and issues related to inclusion and representation within tech. With a strong emphasis on practical elements, participants had the opportunity to try things out themselves, and no prior knowledge was required.

Two of the attendees explained why they were interested in participating: