Master's students in innovation and entrepreneurship get the opportunity to write their theses abroad
Five students in the Master's programmes Innovation and Industrial Management, and Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg have been awarded a travel grant from Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture, to write their Master’s theses abroad. Below follows a presentation of the scholarship recipients and their research areas.
Olivia Pivén and Johanna Dahlqvist
Programme: Innovation and Industrial Management
Our thesis will examine success factors in the implementation and strategic decisions around artificial intelligence (AI). The goal is to provide recommendations to Swedish companies who wish to implement AI in their business but do not know how. The rationale behind the topic is that the pace of technological development is steadily increasing, and while some countries are already far ahead in their journey, some countries lag behind.
The Swedish government has a stated vision to be one of the leaders within AI and other digitalization areas, but this vision seems to lie far ahead. In order to succeed, Swedish companies need to understand how to develop, implement and fully capture the value of AI. Therefore, we will travel to Silicon Valley - a place known for technological start-ups and giants, to examine what is needed when taking the first steps to AI implementation.
Douglas Redman and Aleksei Kuchera
Programme: Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship
In our master thesis project, we are going to explore how most reputable European universities approach innovating entrepreneurial education. Learning and teaching innovations will be one of our main focuses. We will investigate how universities apply technologies to help them facilitate students’ successful performance. Our main research methods will consist of interviews and participating observations. We will conduct qualitative interviews with entrepreneurial professors, students, and alumni. The observations will take part in the classes that are deemed innovative. Collecting this data in person will help us increase the reliability and validity of the study.
We have selected 4 top-ranked European universities to conduct our study with; Copenhagen Business School, Warwick University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management. These are among the best universities in their countries (Denmark, UK, the Netherlands, and Germany) which also hold high positions in business and entrepreneurship education rankings
Sonja Haller
Programme: Innovation and Industrial Management
My master thesis will be about university-industry collaboration and its effects on innovative thinking among students. I chose to investigate the University of Irvine, California in more detail. UCI not only is located at the very center of Orange County’s technological hub, but they also have some interesting approaches to facilitate university-industry collaboration. For example, they have a Research Park and an Applied Innovation program. The businesses at the UCI Research Park collaborate with the faculties, graduates and current students.
My goal is to interview representatives and students from UCI and from collaborating companies. UCI is known for fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit and I am curious to investigate if all this influences the students’ innovative thinking. All in all, it will be very valuable for my master thesis to conduct interviews not only in Sweden but also in the USA to compare the two countries.
The Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture
The Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture yearly assigns two millions SEK towards scholarships to master’s students during their thesis writing. The scholarship allows students to visit international companies and universities and to create their own international network whilst working on a research based master thesis. The recipients of the scholarship should operate within the foundations prioritized research areas, Culture and Health as well as Innovation and Entrepreneurship.