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.
Value co-creation is a core focus area in both B2B marketing and strategy research, necessitating resource utilization within and across organizational boundaries. In the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group, scholars have focused on the interactions among resources as one important way to analyze central questions about resources in business relationships and networks. This has produced a breadth of investigations and concepts that are locally defined and utilized. This may hamper further theoretical development and inhibit analytical precision. The purpose of this paper is to develop a more general shared understanding of resource interaction by identifying and explicating the key concepts used, and to assess its status as an approach. The paper synthesizes 20 years of research to identify key concepts and the relationships across concepts. This provides both a platform for further conceptual and empirical research within IMP and potential for cross-fertilization with parallel B2B areas.
Huemer, Lars & Wang, Xiaobei (2021)
Resource bundles and value creation: An analytical framework
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
Purpose The study has two related objectives. At the firm level of analysis, the author proposes that a clearer distinction between firms’ mediating functions and mediators could enhance the understanding of business network strategizing. Whereas firms’ mediating functions have received attention in IMP research, less focus has been given to organizations whose core business is mediation. At the system level of analysis, the study complements the perception of a network horizon with that of a network verizon. Whereas the horizon is closely associated with work on firms’ mediating functions, the network verizon is of particular interest to mediators. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual study combines IMP insights with strategic management theory. Findings The notion of a network horizon is important for business network strategizing, but also influences the perception of relevant network structures. These structures tend to be characterized by sequential interdependencies and a long-linked technology, often associated with physical products and production facilities. The notion of a network verizon highlights a network “depth” that has been unnoticed by previous work, which has focused on how narrow or wide a firm’s network horizon should be. The network horizon and the network verizon add strategizing options in terms of connecting key actors in the network to create additional value. Originality/value This paper concerns how IMP scholars understand boundaries and firms, and how perceptions of these influence business network strategizing. The study articulates a distinction between firms’ mediating functions and those organizations that fundamentally create value through mediating services. This distinction has system-level implications. In particular, the claim that the basis for a firm’s strategizing is its network horizon is discussed. The author proposes the notion of a “network Verizon,” providing a boundary perception of specific relevance to mediators. The network verizon portrays a network depth beyond both sequential tiers in a supply chain and links between different supply chains.
Wang, Xiaobei; Persson, Kurt Gøran & Huemer, Lars (2016)
Logistics Service Providers and value creation through collaboration: A case study
Logistics service provider (LSP) strategy and value creation is a cooperative endeavor. The study focuses on how LSPs create value by taking advantage of being connected and exploring the presence of various forms of interdependence. Using a single case study and a framework addressing network externalities and the concept of value logic interaction, we identify three types of collaborative value creation; distributive, functional and systemic. Whereas the fundamental logic of the LSP is mediation in terms of performing a distributive service, it is also subject to externalities in its functional and systemic value creation initiatives. LSPs are thereby portrayed as strategic entities dealing with a set of interdependencies in order to facilitate value creation in their networks. These firms need a rather advanced understanding of different types of economies and forms of collaboration to succeed. The study also associates different types of LSPs with the identified types of collaborative value creation.
Abrahamsen, Morten H.; Henneberg, Stephan C., Huemer, Lars & Naudè, Peter (2016)
Network picturing: An action research study of strategizing in business networks
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.
Huemer, Lars (2014)
Creating cooperative advantage: The roles of identification, trust, and time
The last few years have seen increasing recognition of the work of logistics service providers, as well as the significance of functioning supply relationships. This paper proposes an alternative view of supply management that builds on the observation that traditional supply chain management focuses on logistics clients rather than the service providers themselves. The paper utilizes the 4 Resource Interaction tool to illustrate how a logistics service provider faces different idea structures and activated structures than its clients in three different markets. The resulting resource perceptions and preferred resource combinations create tensions and tradeoffs between the logistics service provider and its clients. Unchaining logistics from the conventional chain structures achieves a more comprehensive understanding of interactions between shippers and logistics service providers.
Huemer, Lars & Wang, Xiaobei (2012)
From chains and tiers to layers and exchange streams: An analysis of information flows and intelligent goods
, s. 87- 101.
Huemer, Lars (2012)
Organizational identities in networks: Sense-giving and sense-taking in the salmon farming industry
6(3) , s. 240- 253.
Persson, Kurt Gøran & Huemer, Lars (2011)
Samarbeid i forsyningskjeder
, s. 357- 369.
Felzensztein, Christian; Huemer, Lars & Gimmon, Eli (2010)
The effects of co-location on marketing externalities in the salmon-farming industry
