Published: Sep 15, 2021 by Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews
Authors: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

The aim of this scoping review was to identify what themes are recurrent in the current debate on circular economy (CE) and value-creation. The study investigated the available CE and value-creation literature in the context of business models. In conclusion, there is need for a deeper academic discussion on how to measure economic value in a CE and on finding ways of analysing and comparing short- and long-term benefits.

Published: May 28, 2020 by Open Access Journal of Addiction and Psychology, Vol. 3 No. 5: OAJAP.MS.ID.000573, pp. 1–2.
Authors: Larsson, Anthony
Subjects: Political Science, Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Business, Management and Accounting, Sociology, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Social Work

This opinion paper briefly discusses some of the financial incentives of ensuring adequate public funding for substance abuse treatment amidst ensuing cutbacks on treatment costs.

Published: Apr 08, 2020 by Marketing Intelligence & Planning Vol. 38 No. 2, pp.151–166.
Authors: Anthony Larsson; Ellen Broström
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

Customer retention still presents a challenge in today’s increasingly digitalised business environment. The insurance industry has recently begun its digitalisation process and is struggling with customer retention. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the recurrent trends in the academic discourse surrounding this topic. Expressed as a “conditional statement” this is summarised as: “IF [most recurring] THEN [need for further research]”.

Published: Jan 31, 2020 by Accountability in Research, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 57–79.
Authors: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

This study investigates the involvement of how “champions” contributed to the rapid failures of the 1980s case of the cold fusion initiative NCFI in Utah, and the 2000s case of BBMRI.se, the Swedish node of a biobank harmonization initiative, and how these two examples would become “failed scientific megaprojects”.

Published: Dec 03, 2019 by Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 349-377.
Authors: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting, Work & Organizational Psychology, Communications Studies

This interview study investigates how managers/associates of a failed distributed large-scale Research Infrastructures perceived their brand and the role mindsharing played in light of the organisation’s ultimate failure. The study’s implication is for branding to account more for social and individual motivations and less for instrumental motivations, e.g. mission statements.

Published: Jul 08, 2019 by Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 37-54.
Authors: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

This paper aims to study the definition and formation of Skunk Works and how it may present itself as a viable theoretical alternative to other mainstream concepts of collective/corporate entrepreneurships, while dissecting some of the prevalent misconceptions of the extant literature regarding the application of Skunk Works.

Published: Oct 23, 2018 by Biopreservation and Biobanking, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 375-383.
Authors: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting, Research Methods

The purpose of this study was to document publications addressing the current debate on large-scale distributed medical and/or biobank Research Infrastructures and identify the most pressing issues discussed by these articles through a narrative review.

Published: Jul 09, 2018 by Entrepreneurship Research Journal, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 20170115.
Authors: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting, Work & Organizational Psychology, Communications Studies

This case study investigates whether collective entrepreneurial team cognition remains consistent throughout all stage processes when setting up a large-scale, distributed research infrastructure. A new “action phase model” was devised, known as the “4 I’s of entrepreneurship", with each “I” elucidating the entrepreneurial rationale behind various stages of the creation process: Intention, Initiation, Implementation and Introspection.

Published: Jun 01, 2018 by Social Science Information, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 196-222.
Authors: Anthony Larsson; Carl Savage; Mats Brommels; Pauline Mattsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

This study analyses the perceived key interests, importance, influences and participation of different actors in harmonizing the processes and mechanisms of a distributed research infrastructure.

Published: Aug 31, 2017 by International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 858-877.
Authors: Anthony Larsson; Yamit Viitaoja
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting, Communications Studies

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions among representatives from various established major Swedish banks in how they experienced the digitalisation process and its impact on customer relations.

By: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

Digitalization and digital transformation affects everyone to some extent or another. As the welfare services and the labor sector are becoming increasingly more digitalized, many of us stop to ask ourselves what our future will look like. Will welfare services become more accessible or less? Will we keep the jobs that we have now, or will we need to reskill? Who wins and who loses as a result of the technological development? And what new innovations and services can we expect within the next few years?

These questions are discussed in two recent books published by Routledge. They explore topics such as telemedicine, EdTech, predictive health care, blockchain, digital dentistry, citizen protection, circular economy, GDPR, substitution of labor, gig economy, the “cashless” society, and many more.

During this lecture, the many speakers and panelists (consisting of some of the books’ authors) will share their insights and different perspectives on these important topics. You will learn more about:

- How commercialization of welfare services will affect the availability of such services, and what service innovations we can expect to see in the future.
- The implications of telemedicine, and how it will affect the extant welfare.
- How circular economy can provide opportunities for entrepreneurs in a digitalized society.

By: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Literature

This following article was commissioned by Chinese University of Hong Kong for their online publication "Machine Lawyering". The article presents our book “The Rise and Development of FinTech: Accounts of Disruption from Sweden and Beyond” (Routledge, 2018) and discusses some additional context against the backdrop in which the book was written.

By: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting, Economics, Finance, Business & Industry

Text by Peter Wiklund (auto-translated from its Swedish original text)

The Nordic Region at the forefront of global financial innovation

More focus on the individual, lots of new technology and a Nordic region that is at the forefront. These are some of the important trends in the banking and finance industry right now.

Customers can take advantage of new and individualized services, while the banks must find themselves in close cooperation with new players. These are some of the effects of digitization in the banking and finance industry.

The digitialzation of the financial industry has been going on for a long time, and a milestone was when the first Swedish Internet bank opened in December 1996. Already, a development started, which is still ongoing, namely with increased self-service and to find new ways to interact with their customers.

- According to a study by Gartner, 85 per cent of all customer interaction within banks is expected to be managed without any human contact in 2020, as there are so many new channels available, says Anthony Larsson, researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Comfortable solutions

An effective communication and self-service is of course something that most customers value, but there are also big profits for the banks. Another survey points to substantial cost savings for the global big banks by switching to "chatbots" in customer communication - this can be as much as eight billion dollars up to and including 2022.

Bank customers would like to have comfortable solutions, such as a "one-stop shop" where all their cases can be done in one and the same place quickly and easily, says Anthony Larsson.

- One of the challenges for the traditional banks is that many of today's customers feel so well-informed and knowledgeable - at the same time as they have overestimated their own knowledge, that they sometimes risk acting self-inflicting and choosing solutions that are not always optimal for themselves.

Customer loyalty with individualization

Like many other industries, the finance industry can also benefit from the large amounts of data generated by all transactions performed.

- Big data and analyzes can be used for individual adaptation, which in turn can contribute to securing customer loyalty, says Anthony Larsson.

For loyalty may be needed, as existing banks are gaining more and more competition from niche banks and brand new players who move around the edge of the traditional playing field. Old business models are questioned by startup companies within FinTech, that is, companies that combine the latest technologies with financial services.

- The new FinTech companies can act in a more quick, flexible manner while acting in a more focused manner to a greater extent than many large banks can do. This has caused the traditional banks to act and embrace many of the things FinTech did at an early stage, such as increased use of omni channels.* Other banks, such as Goldman Sachs, have already introduced artificial intelligence and machine learning into some of their solutions.

New forms of authentication

The next big technical step in the financial industry can be about the constantly hot topic of authentication, Anthony Larsson believes.

- There is currently a lot of development and discussions about biometric authentication, such as fingerprint and face recognition. The idea is for it to be a more advanced security solution, while it will be even easier for customers to gain immediate access to their services without having to concern themselves with, for example, passwords and pin codes.

However, there is still some way to go before it will be used practically to any great extent, he says.

- This is mainly due to the fact that the technology has not gained trust among the majority of the customers yet. A study conducted in eleven different countries shows that only 46 percent feel they trust in biometrics. Such concern is not entirely unwarranted, as there are scientific studies that have shown deficiencies, such as one showing that twins have been able to manipulate a voice recognition system.

Opens for external companies

"Open banking" is something else that has meant a big change for the industry. A new EU directive states that the banks are obliged to have a kind of open developer interface so that external companies are given the opportunity to offer services to the bank's account holders.

- It has meant a big change, although it has been slow in the beginning. But now more and more banks are opening a form of developer portals so that, in particular, startup companies within FinTech can create innovative solutions that are "on top" of the bank's data, says Michael Juul Andersen, Chief Revenue Office (CRO) at Spiir.

Danish Spiir is an example of a newly started FinTech company that has benefited from this opportunity. With their solution, hundreds of thousands of Danes can now manage their budgets, control their expenses and find cheaper alternatives for their fixed costs.

Developing in networks

One trend that goes hand in hand with the development of open banking is that there is increasing development work that takes place in networks or close collaborations with widely differing partners. A survey shows that more than four fifths (84%) of traditional industry players are now actively seeking partnerships with FinTech companies. They seek out these to get support in digitization processes and to create innovative digital services for their customers. One concrete example is that in 2018 Danske Bank chose to invest and become a partner in Spiir.

- The trend will be towards the customer being offered more and more services that are individualized and transparent, so that they get full control of their finances - regardless of whether they are, for example, a customer of several banks at the same time, says Michael Juul Andersen.

High digital maturity in the Nordic countries

Nordic FinTech companies have a good reputation internationally, thanks to companies such as Klarna, iZettle, Coinify, Lendino and Fixura.

- In a global comparison, the Nordic region is at the forefront of financial innovation. The Nordic finance companies have a high digital maturity, and we now see a solid infrastructure for innovation and access to bank data. The EU directive PSD2 opens for account-to-account payments and will definitely create many alternative payment methods to the existing cards. It will be a "game changer" for payments, says Michael Juul Andersen.

* Omnikanal here entails a coordinated customer contact between different channels, so that the customer experiences a holistic solution.

By: Anthony Larsson
Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting

Doctoral student Anthony Larsson will defend his doctoral thesis on 12 December at Karolinska Institutet.  The thesis covers the fate of biobank initiative BBMRI.se, which was ultimately discontinued by the Swedish Research Council following an investigation. In his thesis, Anthony Larsson describes why the initiative failed. However, his work began on completely different premises.

Anthony Larsson was recruited to Karolinska Institutet, KI, in august 2011 and was employed as a doctoral student at KI in January 2012, to analyse the process of building a biobank infrastructure. But as time progressed, a lingering discontent was directed towards KI, which served as the host university for the biobank initiative, BBMRI.se. Some of the six other member universities that also participated in the initiative felt that KI gave itself undue favours.

“I hope this thesis will provide a scientific contribution to something that is new and unchartered, such as this complex type of infrastructure that is spread across several geographic areas and buildings, but it may also be seen as a form of “cautionary tale” regarding what could happen if you fail to respond to warning signals in time,” says Anthony Larsson, doctoral student at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) at Karolinska Institutet.

A biobank stores human tissue samples and blood samples etc. for research purposes. When BBMRI.se (BioBanking and Molecular Resource Infrastructure of Sweden) was launched in 2009, it was the hitherto largest investment ever made in a medical infrastructure by the Swedish Research Council (VR) and was part of the EU-initiated umbrella organisation BBMRI.eu.

Different interpretations about funding distribution

BBMRI.se had a rather distinct structure with eight work packages, containing for example molecular analytics resources, ethics and law, biobanks informatics, physical biobanks, etc.

“Reports were submitted to KI in a yearly basis, which in turn reported to VR. This meant that the organisation was very segmented and created some friction with the BBMRI.se management at KI because there were different interpretations as to how the funds were to be distributed,” says Anthony Larsson.

Apart from literature studies, the core of his thesis is comprised by qualitative interviews with the organisation’s leading researchers, which allowed Anthony Larsson to follow the development.

Further funding was halted

After KI found itself on the receiving end of criticism, VR decided in 2016, following an internal and external investigation, to halt further funding and discontinue the venture. The critics alleged that KI did not adhere to the stipulations made by the consortium agreement as originally agreed upon.

Already in VR’s first evaluation from 2012, it was indicated that there were unclear structures, particularly in relation to the host university, KI, and the other actors.

As the discontent escalated, the premises for Anthony Larsson’s thesis were altered.

From the outset there had been a common vision within BBMRI.se, but this dissipated in time. One of the articles in the thesis discusses what happens when actors in an organisation have different perceptions of the mission statement and act according to their own convictions.

“When there’s no insight into what’s being done on an overarching level or in the other work packages, it leads to uncertainty, whereby actors start pulling in different directions while only focussing on their own affairs, which leads to fragmentation in the organisation,” says Anthony Larsson.

A problematic vertical-oriented organisation

The thesis shows that a large part of the problem was that BBMRI.se had a vertical-oriented organisation without intermediate level feedback.

“The organisation had needed more checks and balances during the different projects to ensure that it was progressing in the right direction. KI also reacted much too late to the criticism and much could have been resolved through talks,” says Anthony Larsson.

The thesis work has not been without its challenges, especially after the VR decision to cancel further funding to BBMRI.se.

“I’ve had to revise some of my articles to get them to reflect the reality since the outcome was something altogether different but this also made it more interesting and powerful,” says Anthony Larsson.

New national organisation for biobanks in 2018

In 2018, BBMRI.se became part of a new national organisation for biobanks, Biobank Sweden, this time with Uppsala University as the host university.

“Upon defending my thesis, I shall look forward to having an opportunity to discuss my dissertation and its outcome,” says Anthony Larsson.

After obtaining his Ph.D., Anthony Larsson will continue his research on digitalisation at the Stockholm School of Economics. He will also participate in a two-year research project, which seeks to understand how artificial intelligence may be used to affect the decision-making process for corporate boards in the future.

Text: Helena Mayer