Current Projects
INDUSTRIAL PhD HYDAC is based on the business model concept and explores how this model is constantly challenged and modified by virtue of the dynamic context in which businesses operate. The purpose of the project is to explore and discuss how collaborating and interacting with various business connections (e.g. customers and suppliers) helps to shape and develop the business model. For further information, please contact PhD student Kirsten Frandsen kifra@sdu.dk or advisor Kristin Balslev Munksgaard, kbm@sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
FIELD STUDIES IN CHINA (private enterprises) is a book project about master’s students’ vocational experience of supply chain management in China. For further information, please contact Jan Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
VELUX VISITING PROFESSOR PROGRAMME (the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation) involves a research partnership between Professor Ram Narasimhan of Michigan State University and researchers at the University of Southern Denmark in Kolding. Ram Narasimhan is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of operations management and supply chain management. One of the benefits of partnering with Ram Narasimhan will be to raise the profile of research to international calibre, as he will be able to assist with publication of articles in addition to being involved in specific projects. He will also conduct research seminars and appear as guest lecturer. For further information, please contact Jan Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
VIFU FOOD NETWORK (FI) is a joint venture between the University of Southern Denmark in Kolding and VIFU Knowledge Centre for Food Development (Videncenter for Fødevareudvikling). The project puts the spotlight on the spread of innovation involving small enterprises (often creative/adaptable) and large enterprises (often excelling at market access). Existing best practice is being compiled via a case study. For further information, please contact Kristin Balslev Munksgaard, kbm@sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
VPV FOR SERVICE PLATFORM (FI, Service Platform and TI) is a joint venture between the University of Southern Denmark in Kolding and the Danish Technological Institute, Odense. The aim is to develop a tool for assessing the potential for specific PPI project concepts. The tool will be delivered to Kolding Municipality. For further information, please contact Ann Højbjerg Clarke, ahc@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
EU START-UP (FI) is a pilot project about individual career choices. The project looks at how social support from social networks affects both the decision to switch employer and the decision to start a business. The project further aims to study these mechanisms from an international perspective and to examine how they are modified by cultural influences. For further information, please contact Kim Klyver, kkl@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
REGX 2.0 (Region of Southern Denmark) has 2 aims: 1) to conduct four ecosystem analyses of priority clusters in the Region of Southern Denmark (Welfare Tech, Lean Energy, Offshore Energy Denmark and Design and creative industries) with a view to gaining a better understanding of what characterises these clusters and making recommendations for how the clusters can be developed, and 2) to support the four clusters as they strive to achieve gold status before 2016. The project is financed by the Region of Southern Denmark and runs until March 2014. For further information, please contact Lotte Langkilde, lot@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
THE TCI CONFERENCE (Region of Southern Denmark) seeks 1) to promote sharing of the latest knowledge about clusters; 2) to profile Danish clusters to the international cluster community; 3) to support the internationalisation efforts of the clusters in the Region of Southern Denmark. The conference took place from 3–6 September 2013. For further information about the conference, please refer to www.tci2013.com or Lotte Langkilde, lot@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
GROWTH BY DESIGN (The European Social Fund) aims to create an organisational platform of a co-operative nature capable of connecting creative micro enterprises that have ambitions to enhance their operational basis through independence and freedom. The project seeks to develop participating businesses into growth companies capable of achieving increased growth through the use of design, as well as to enable companies to maintain employment and contribute to joint growth. For further information, please contact Suna Løwe Nielsen, sso@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________________
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA (GERA) has received a monetary grant for African research colleagues to travel to academic conferences. The grant includes support for travel from Ghana and Uganda to the Annual Conference of Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Oxford, England, in August 2013. For further information, please contact Thomas Schøtt, tsc@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA (BSUGE/KNUST, Danida) seeks to enhance collaboration between researchers in Africa and Denmark. More specifically, the project aims to train African researchers to analyse surveys and to publish articles. With this in mind, two workshops are being held in Ghana, with approx. 20 African researchers in attendance. For further information, please contact Thomas Schøtt, tsc@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
WINVIN2 (InterReg) is involved with knowledge sharing as a powerhouse for developing business models. The prerequisite to enable companies to develop their business model is for the companies to share with one another various types of information about the market, the economy and resources. New opportunities for development and change come to the fore through coaching and learning from one another. Knowledge sharing and sparring can thus enhance the competitive position of businesses on the one hand, but on the other, this can also result in increased interdependence and a risk of opportunism. For further information, please contact professor Per Vagn Freytag, pvf@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
THE INDUSTRY OF THE FUTURE IN DENMARK (private funding agencies) is a project that seeks to understand how small-sized Danish industrial exporting companies use design as a powerhouse for international development of their activities and of innovation. The project is based on previous experience from collaboration with small industrial companies on research and development, which draws attention to the fact that many Danish companies would benefit from augmenting their capabilities in terms of the basis of design and specifications applied when collaborating with external suppliers in foreign cultures. For further information, please contact Poul Rind Christensen, rind@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT (Nordic Energy) is a Nordic collaborative project to examine the interaction of a number of the Nordic Region’s logistics suppliers, their customers and the public authorities with a view to investigating why still relatively few Nordic logistics suppliers operate with a sustainable profile. The project seeks to develop road maps for companies and authorities alike with a view to increasing sustainability and the competitiveness of the Nordic Region’s logistics supply chains. For further information, please contact Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________________
ENTREPRENEURS’ NETWORKING SEMINAR (IDCR) is a project designed to motivate GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) researchers in the Middle East and North Africa to work together to analyse adult population surveys (APS). The analyses focus on building capacity, including how entrepreneurs’ networks are formed in terms of their gender, age, education and teaching, as well as how these factors affect innovation, export and growth ambitions within national contexts. For further information, please contact Thomas Schøtt, tsc@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________________
NORDIC GROWTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP REVIEW (Nordic Innovation) is a Nordic collaborative project with the aim of producing a report containing up-to-date Nordic data, country chapters and other relevant topics in relation to entrepreneurship. The report was presented and discussed at a meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers in the field of enterprise and innovation policy in autumn 2012. For further information, please contact Glenda Napier, glenda@regx.dk
_________________________________________________________________________________
PhD PROJECT KIEL (Fachhochschule Kiel) examines how intellectual capital and its management affect start-ups and development of high-tech businesses in Schleswig-Holstein. For further information, please contact PhD student AnnelieTallig, ate@sam.sdu.dk or Majbritt Rostgaard Evald, advisor, mre@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________________
INDUSTRIAL PhD DANISH STANDARDS (FI) examines the relationship between standardisation and innovation. The project seeks to create new knowledge about the standardisation and innovation activities of Danish businesses from a strategic point of view. Among other things, the project seeks to give Danish Standards insight into their customers’ strategic behaviour and motivation for participating in standardisation committees, as well as to contribute knowledge of how the standards subsequently influence innovation in the individual companies and industries. For further information, please contact PhD student Frank Steven Dahl Andersen, fda@sam.sdu.dk or Kristian Philipsen, advisor, kp@sam.sdu.dk
_________________________________________________________________________________
GEM 2012 (the Danish Industry Foundation) is an international comparative study involving approximately 38 countries a year. This project was begun in 1998 and is led by the London Business School and Babson College in the US. Denmark has taken part in the project from the beginning. Each year, the project examines the entrepreneurial activity and growth in the participating countries. The Danish study and report are carried out by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management and the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Studies. Each year the project concludes with the publication of an annual GEM report as well as an anthology on the same theme with contributions from many Danish researchers and practitioners in the field. Also, a major annual Entrepreneur Conference is held involving around 250 participants. This year’s theme is “Intrapreneurship in Denmark”. For more information, please contact Thomas Schøtt, tsc@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
IMPLEMENTATION OF OPERATIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR was initiated by the Centre for Facilities Management (CFM). This project analyses why operational experiences are only incorporated to a limited extent in new construction or renovation projects. What are the barriers, and what are the possible solutions to the problem? For further information, please contact Torben Damgaard, torben@sam.sdu.dk
_______________________________________________________________________________________
USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WELFARE TECHNOLOGIES is mainly aimed at ensuring the application of user-driven innovation in the development of welfare technologies in the Region of Southern Denmark, and to spread awareness of user-driven information among users and private providers of welfare technology products. The University of Southern Denmark’s role in the project is to generate knowledge about when and how companies can be involved in a process of innovation driven by users. In addition, the SDU’s role is to create awareness of how models of the interaction between public and private players can be developed and used to set out criteria for assessing and selecting ideas generated by users. For more information, please contact Ann Højbjerg Clarke, ahc@sam.sdu.dk
_______________________________________________________________________________________
REG X (the European Social Fund) is a national platform for competency building, exchange of experiences and advice for organisations (companies, authorities and knowledge environments) that works to promote clusters and open innovation networks in Denmark. REG X’s activities lie in the field where the needs of the business community merge with the latest knowledge about clusters and open innovation. REG X is intended to be a link between the decision makers who launch new regional business policies on clusters and open innovation partnerships, and the practitioners who work on implementing these policies. For more information, please contact Lotte Langkilde, lot@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
PHD OPEN INNOVATION (Research and Innovation) is a collaboration between FORA, REG X and the Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management, which Lise Andersen is working on in her PhD thesis about Open Innovation.
For further information, please contact PhD student Lise Andersen lid@sam.sdu.dk or thesis supervisor Torben Damgaard, torben@sam.sdu.dk.
________________________________________________________________________________
INNOVATION NETWORK FOR MARKET, COMMUNICATION AND CONSUMPTION is aimed at advertising and analysis agencies, production companies and other businesses. Based on the market-related challenges and the academic focus, the following six projects have been specified: The Communication and Innovation Agency of the Future; Implementing Innovations in the Advertising Industry; Development and Implementation of New Methods for Qualitative Analyses of the Commercialised Market; Efficient Design and Communication; The Global Business; and Sound Branding. The project’s results will be anchored in the production and design companies via platform II. For further information, please contact Torben Damgaard, torben@sam.sdu.dk.
________________________________________________________________________________
WELFARE TECH REGION – DEFU STEPP is aimed at the Growth Forum of Southern Denmark’s business area, welfare technologies and services. The project makes use of tools for research, innovation and application of new technologies and aims to develop and produce relevant tools and design elements for the healthcare sector, including design and innovation processes. Specifically, the focus is on automating the sterilisation centre with future methods and techniques in mind. For further information, please contact Torben Damgaard, torben@sam.sdu.dk.
________________________________________________________________________________
INDUSTRIAL PHD, JUELSMINDE TRÆLAST LUMBER YARD (Research and Innovation) deals with three areas: strategy, SME theory (small and medium-sized enterprises) (including growth) and change management. There are contributions for the project’s three main areas from several different perspectives and approaches. However, in the overlap of the three areas dealing with strategy and implementation in SMEs, no theoretical contributions have been identified. This project has the added dimension of a focus on the retail industry, and theoretical contributions have not been identified in this area either. The project will look at strategy implementation in SME retail chains using Juelsminde Trælasthandel A/S as a case study. It will involve a wide range of disciplines, and its focal point will be the streamlining of the processes and mechanisms that are crucial for the SMEs to successfully implement their strategies. For more information, please contact PhD student Søren Graungaard Pedersen sgp@sam.sdu.dk or thesis supervisor Jan Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk.
________________________________________________________________________________
INDUSTRIAL PHD, VEJLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (Research and Innovation) examines how local entrepreneurship policies are organised in Danish municipalities, and the impact of this organisation on different types of output, such as growth and job satisfaction in the local entrepreneurial environments. This study is based on multiple case studies and two questionnaire surveys. The study takes into account fundamental differences between the municipalities and the effect of these differences on the organisational design parameters for entrepreneurship policy. For more information, please contact PhD student Pia Schou Nielsen pnx@sam.sdu.dk or thesis supervisor Kim Klyver, kkl@sam.sdu.dk.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
THE WIN-WIN PROJECT (InterReg) will in the coming years form the basis for a dynamic, continuous and cross-cutting development process that will provide significant impetus both to individual stakeholders and the region as a whole – hence “WIN-WIN”. The aim is to systematically provide information about the possibilities and opportunities that arise from an intellectual capital statement (Made in Germany/Danish Intellectual Capital Statement) and how this capital is managed. Further, the goal is to encourage and help companies and organisations to present their knowledge and use it more efficiently. For more information, please contact Per Vagn Freytag, pvf@sam.sdu.dk.
________________________________________________________________________________
FOCUS AREA – INNOVATION IN BUSINESS NETWORKS (SDU) will focus on the “M” in “supply chain management” and contribute to developing methods for the professional management of supply chains. This research project aims to develop new concepts and models for how companies can create collaborative networks across functions such as procurement, storage, transportation, sales, product development and finance. Within organisational theory and research, there is a lot of solid knowledge of how different intercompany networks or communities are formed, operate and create value. The goal of the project is to introduce these models and methods into the supply chain management field. This will enable companies to become better at managing supply chains across functions, technical fields, cultures, languages and geographical distances. For more information, please contact Jan Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
_______________________________________________________________________________
DESIGN2INNOVATE (European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund) is a comprehensive research project that is making a major effort to encourage companies across the country to use design more than they currently do. The initiative involves a series of activities intended to promote economic growth through design. It is a unique collaboration between the business community, the public sector, the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Kolding Design School and other educational institutions. For more information, please contact Poul Rind Christensen, prc@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
INDUSTRIAL PHD TRESU (Research and Innovation) is entitled Marketing through the Integration of Marketing, Sales and Supply Chain Management at TRESU A/S and focuses on the marketing and sales function and the coordinating role it plays in businesses. The project will mainly deal with the intra-organisational coordination between marketing, sales and supply chain management and how to support these through communication and competency development. This is considered important for the successful implementation, completion and development of a company’s marketing strategy. For further information, please contact PhD student Anders Peder Hansen apha@sam.sdu.dk or thesis supervisor Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
INTRANET is a new InterReg project undertaken in collaboration between REG X (Centre for Cluster Development) and the Business Development and Technology Transfer Corporation for Schleswig-Holstein, WTSH. The project is called “In-Tra-Net: Innovation in Transnational Networks” and aims to promote innovation cooperation between clusters in southern Denmark and northern Germany. The overall goal is to create a specialised cross-border growth region that can act and compete globally. The project focuses on the three collaboration areas of health and welfare technology, energy, and the experience economy, as identified in the Capacent report. But it will also include clusters in related fields, as they will also be able to contribute cross-cutting technologies (e.g. ICT, robotics and mechatronics). For more information, please contact Louise Fenger Lauridsen louise@regx.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
The VELUX VISITING PROFESSORS PROGRAMME is a research collaboration between Professor Ian Wilkinson from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Professor Louise Young from the University of Western Sydney and researchers from the Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management at the University of Southern Denmark. The opportunity to boost our cooperation with these two researchers over a longer period and have them affiliated with the department will significantly enhance our understanding of how dynamic effects influence the development of buyer-seller relationships. In particular, it will provide input for the analysis of growth patterns within and across industries, including how these patterns can be explained on the basis of different business models and success factors, and/or the spread of innovation models. For more information, please contact Per Vagn Freytag, pvf@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
CAREER CHANGE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS aims to generate knowledge about how social networks can inhibit as well as promote people’s careers. The project is intended to provide a more realistic and balanced understanding of the importance of social networks to individual careers. The project will therefore primarily focus on the inhibitory mechanisms of social networks. However, the project does not set out to disprove the notion that social networks can be used to further people’s careers. Rather, it aims to increase our knowledge of how these networks can and cannot be used by enhancing our understanding of how the inhibitory mechanisms work. At the same time, the project looks at the importance of social networks to different types of career changes. It operates with two types of career change: 1) changing jobs to work for a new employer and 2) starting up one’s own business. Previously, these two types of career change have been studied in isolation. For more information, please contact Kim Klyver, kkl@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
SUPPLY CHAIN INNOVATION aims to investigate the link between companies’ investments in supply chain innovations (SCIs) and their financial performance. In a time of increased offshoring and outsourcing of production, administrative functions and R&D, there is increased pressure on companies’ supply chains as sources of innovation and competitiveness. This project is the first of its kind to examine competitiveness and the relationship between SCIs and corporate financial performance. The project shows how SCIs can create new customer solutions and minimise costs, and aims to provide specific diagnostic tools and a development programme to improve SCIs within traditional heavy industry. For more information, please contact Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
GROWTH THROUGH MANAGEMENT depends on an ever-increasing need for leadership development in small and medium-sized enterprises. It is important for small businesses to focus on general management skills to promote their growth and development potential. The aim is to improve the business potential and enhance management skills in SMEs and to strengthen the competitiveness of individual enterprises through targeted leadership development. The project will run until the end of 2014 and will contribute to the growth of some 600 SMEs by improving managers’ skills development. The project is the first nationwide initiative aimed at improving management skills in Danish companies, and is the product of a collaboration between the Five Growth Centres (De 5 Væksthuse), the Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Danish Chamber of Commerce. For more information, please contact Torben Bager tob@idea.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
SPIN-OFF TECHNOLOGY aims to screen spin-off opportunities in larger companies in order to increase the number of spin-offs funded by parent companies for the creation of new businesses based on related skills and resources accumulated in the parent company. The project focuses on the development and testing of a cooperative model and a method for identifying, starting up and completing spin-off projects in the energy technology sector, mainly in the wind industry, in order to launch new businesses. Many studies suggest that an important part of Denmark’s future growth may come from spin-off entrepreneurs. The reason for the success of spin-off entrepreneurs is that they have a ‘home-field advantage’ in the business area in which they start up and also have a network in place. When the spin-off takes place in cooperation with the parent company, the parent company often contributes staff and ancillary services such as IT and accounting in the start-up phase, so the entrepreneur can concentrate on the business itself. For further information, please contact Torben Damgaard, torben@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
ENERGY AT SEA is divided into five sub-projects with Offshore Center Danmark as the overall coordinator and project manager. The sub-project “The Offshore Wind Sector: Research” is led by the University of Southern Denmark Esbjerg. It is to pave the way for an investigation into how the industry as a whole can gain a share in a growing international market. This will be done through analysis and descriptions of the industry. Thereby we also hope to understand how new clusters – e.g. clusters in the field of OSH – can be developed to benefit the industry’s development. For further information, please contact Torben Damgaard, torben@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
IN- AND OUTSOURCING aims to generate research-based knowledge about insourcing and outsourcing of production in Danish industry. The focus is on large as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. The project aims to highlight the success criteria and pitfalls of outsourcing, as well as the extent of both outsourcing and insourcing in Danish industry. This knowledge is a valuable foundation for analyses and decisions relating to the future competitiveness of Danish industry. The project will deliver specific, practice-oriented tools and a development process for continuously identifying the advantages and disadvantages of keeping production in Denmark. For more information, please contact Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, jar@sam.sdu.dk
________________________________________________________________________________
VELUX VISITING PROFESSORS PROGRAMME is a research collaboration between Professor Carolyn Windsor from Bond University and researchers from the Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management at the University of Southern Denmark. Carolyn Windsor has practical and business experience in talent development and the liberal professions. She can provide input on auditing, accounting and banking for the MSc in Business Economics and Auditing programme in Kolding. She serves as a co-supervisor of PhD students and is also Visiting Professor of Business Economics and Auditing. For more information, please contact Bent Warming-Rasmussen, bwr@sam.sdu.dk