I have a Ph.D from Umeå School of Business and Economics, Umeå University. Besides academic work in Sweden, and at BI since 1999, I have been a visiting scholar at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile (2004-2006) and at University of Technology, Sydney, Australia (1995).
Research areas
My research interests include interorganisational relationships and international management. Trust and identity are often core concepts. A recent project concerns interactions between multinational corporations and indigenous groups.
Teaching areas
Strategic management and Supply management. The role of business for economic and social development.
The circular economy, which entails a fundamental transition from waste management to resource management, involves waste minimization and prolonged resource utility. Resources should arguably be managed in a manner reducing the likelihood that they turn into waste. Correspondingly, waste should be managed in a way increasing the likelihood that it becomes a useful resource. To achieve such ends, this research highlights the bundled nature of resources (including waste). The study is based on an abductive research process and it de-bundles the resource categories portrayed in the 4R model. The de-bundled framework is applied to a longitudinal case study focusing on a recycling company's participation in the circular economy. This application results in distinctions between endogenous and exogenous adaptation strategies. Endogenous adaptations involve an explicit bundle awareness and attention to interaction processes within 4R resource categories, exogenous adaptations include interaction processes between 4R categories. It is proposed that adaptations involving deliberate tradeoffs between endogenous and exogenous strategies may lead to more circular business models and sustainable resource management.
All organizations intend to create some form of value. Yet, the most influential analytical frameworks focusing on resources emphasize competitive advantage, which is a concern for only some organizations. This study proposes a novel analytical framework focusing on value creation. Moreover, the framework returns to the emphasis on the bundled nature of resources stressed in earlier strategy theory. The concepts of resource interfaces, resource imprints and cogency effects, are combined to (i) highlight the bundled and interdependent nature of resources (ii) reinterpret the classical emphasis on rareness and inimitability and (iii) redefine the meaning of a strategic resource. With help of a longitudinal case study, the scope of value creation is broadened by reconsidering the meaning of the ‘best resource’ and the ‘weakest link’; focusing on being ‘better with…’ rather than being ‘better than….’.
Huemer, Lars (2017)
Everything is one? Relationships between First nations and salmon farming companies
Verbos, Amy Klemm; Henry, Ella & Peredo, Ana Maria (red.). Indigenous aspiration and rights: The case for responsible business and management
Huemer, Lars (2017)
Strategizing in horizons and verizons: Distinguishing between mediators and firms' mediating functions.
Our paper is concerned with how managers understand their surrounding network and what strategic actions they take based on this insight. Recent research in the areas of network management and business relationships shows increasing interest in the interplay between cognition and action, particularly on how managers relate perceptions about their business network (“network picturing”) to decision-making and strategizing activities. In this study, we apply a novel research approach combining process research and action research methodology. Our sample is introduced to business network theories and concepts, and the use and adaptation of these concepts results in managerial options being articulated and applied. Our findings add new insight in the field of network strategy and network picturing. Network picturing represents a way to understand the boundaries of the firm and how this understanding affects managers' decisions. This differs from the fundamental distinction between the external and the internal environments of classical strategy analysis. In terms of network picturing, strategizing is a way to understand the resulting actions or network outcomes that managers see as viable within their surrounding network. We also provide a conceptual process exercise as an example of how this insight can be relevant for managers in their decision-making processes.
Wang, Xiaobei; Persson, Kurt Gøran & Huemer, Lars (2016)
Logistics Service Providers and value creation through collaboration: A case study
