This study examines how university teachers in two Swedish higher education institutions grapple with the challenge of connecting research and teaching. With the increasing pressure in higher education to improve graduate employability, teaching is expected to include skills-oriented, vocational training which may (or may not) conflict with the more traditional Humboldtian ideal, in which teaching is built on research. Drawing on the rich bodies of literatures on employability and the teaching–research relationship, the authors find that university teachers practice the relationship in four ways: by using scientific articles in the curriculum; by teaching students a critical research attitude; by lecturing about their own research results; and by relying on the formal skills of fellow teachers. These practices of establishing a close connection between teaching and research are, this study suggests, met with resistance from colleagues, who are perceived to favor vocational training and emphasize employability; from students, who are also perceived to worry about employability; and finally from other policies that target partially conflicting objectives, including those for employability.

Researchers in the adjacent fields of international business, organisation theory and strategic management recognise new organisational elements and a new organisational form in large multinational enterprises. In this paper a synthesised view of this new organisational form is presented, based on an extensive literature review. Further, the new organisation of multinational enterprises is compared to the M-form (multidivisional form) and analysed from the perspective of new institutional economics. A new "W-form" (Web- form) is hereby identified and ana lysed. Finally, weak points and contradictory elements in the analysis of a new form are critically discussed.

Sett från högskolans horisont är det angeläget att utveckla området kring högskolan och bättre länka samman campus och centrum. Området kring högskolan behöver bli attraktivare för studenter och sträckan mellan högskolan och centrum behöver bli trevligare än den är i dag. Mot den bakgrunden välkomnar Högskolan Kristianstad en utveckling av området med bättre kommunikationer och vi ser gärna ett nytt badhus nära högskolan.

Several researchers analyse organisational forms as an idealised historical evolution were new organisational forms builds on earlier established forms. These idealised theoretical approaches have the advantages of creating an overall understanding of the variety of organisations that can be observed at a given time. They also explain this variety with a simple evolutionary logic: New organisational innovations occur in established forms. If they prove competitive they will be imitated and, with time, new forms will emerge.  Hereby organisational development is not only a question of situational fit, but also due to historical dependencies. Different contributions observe different forms and give different theoretical explanations. This paper suggests an extensive framework of different organisation forms and links this framework to an elaborated theoretical analysis based on new institutional economics and other fields of organisation theory. The theoretical analysis is based on the four co-coordination mechanisms authority, rules, price and ideology. The organisational development is analysed as a stepwise development where forms develop from one level to another with time and increased scale. At the first level the Simple hierarchy  and the Adhocratic form is identified. At a second level the U-form and the Professional form follows. At the third level, the M-form and H-form of large enterprises are identified. Finally, at a fourth level a new form, the W-form, is identified. The development is explained by identification of situational factors and by the use of different co-ordination mechanisms. As the idealised evolution continuous, more sophisticated forms develop which modify and extend the use the co-ordination mechanisms of earlier forms.

Theories of co-ordination are partial and confuse mechanisms and forms. This paper suggests a theoretical integration based on New Institutional Economics (NIE) extended by contributions from Organisation theory. A distinction is made between co-ordination mechanisms, fundamental alternative options for obtaining coordination, and co-ordination forms, idealised descriptions of institutionalised coordination- solving devices in the economy. Co-ordination forms contain combinations of various mechanisms and one mechanism can occur in various forms. Four co-ordination mechanisms are identified; Price, Ideology, Authority and Rules. Price   refers to exchange between autonomous parties, Ideology to shared systems of values and beliefs, Authority to differences in rank and commands of a superior, and Rules refers to formal regulations and instructions. The choice of mechanisms is explained by contractual scale advantages, teamwork situations, asset specificity, transfer of knowledge, degrees of complexity, environmental stability and human motivation. The theory for price and authority is based on NIE, whereas the theory for rules and ideology is based on Organisation theory. The quadripolar set of four co-ordination mechanisms adds new perspectives to the theoretical analysis of market forms, as well as hierarchical forms and other forms. Finally, different forms are briefly analysed as combinations of these four mechanisms.

This paper analyzes insufficiencies in UN negotiations and identifies a set of characteristics that would make a complementary institutional design efficient. A coalition among nations with high climate ambitions is suggested. Such a coalition should introduce measures that leaders can control and be accountable for—measures that are short-term and fewdimensional, and that incentivize efficient reductions, prevent leakages to outside nations, and sanction non-compliance. A coalition should also provide incentives to outside emitters and encourage new members. A Climate Coalition that harmonizes minimum national carbon prices (i.e. carbon taxes), introduces a common carbon tariff, and welcomes new members would meet the criteria and have the potential to emerge at a global level.

Institutional theory of the firm focuses on firm boundaries and the activities firms internalize within their hierarchies. However, an examination of disintegrated firms that influences activities beyond the scope of their hierarchies suggests that firms also perform other economic functions. By analysing these functions, the aim of this paper is to suggest a theory of the firm that goes beyond internalization. Sometimes firms specialize in the economic functions of product design and value web orchestration. With large markets, complex and composite goods and complementarities among producers, firms reap advantages of skill and scale by pooling demand and realizing complementary positive externalities. Hence, firms are able to make products that customers never knew they would demand and that suppliers never knew they would be part of supplying, and that is more efficient than if customers and individual suppliers performed these functions. Case material from Nike, a large and highly disintegrated firm, illustrates the analysis.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a synthesis of transnational tendencies in multinational enterprises (MNEs), to theoretically analyse the result and to study whether managers in MNEs have experienced the predicted tendencies.

Design/methodology/approach - The synthesis is based on an extensive literature review which is analysed by transaction cost economics. Identified tendencies are studied in a survey of managers in MNEs.

Research limitations/implications - The study provides an overview of a fragmented research area and suggests explanations for new tendencies described in the literature. The empirical study suggests that some tendencies have been more prevalent than others.

Practical implications - The survey was conducted with MNEs with substantial activities in Sweden. It investigates how managers perceive changes that have occurred during the past several years.

Originality/value - The paper analyses a synthesized view of transnational tendencies in MNEs and the results of a survey of how managers have perceived the tendencies described in literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse cultural influences on the choice of coordination mechanisms. Based on the Globe report, propositions are developed on how different cultural dimensions affect the choice of coordination mechanisms. Market mechanisms are proposed to be preferred in cultures characterized by a high level of performance orientation, assertiveness, in-group collectivism and low levels of institutional collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Societies with the opposite profile are expected to have a bias in favour of hierarchical mechanisms. Based on the propositions, the cultural clusters identified in the Globe report are analysed and categorized according to their relative preferences for market or hierarchical mechanisms. Finally, an experimental study was performed to study cultural biases in choice of coordination mechanisms. In the experiment, two groups of students of Swedish and Chinese origin performed roles as principals and agents in a multi-task situation. According to the previous analysis Swedish students were expected to show a strong preference for hierarchal mechanisms whereas Chinese students were expected to have preference for market mechanisms. The result supported these predictions.

Until the late 1990s researcher described a new strategy and organization for MNCs. The new MNC was omnipotent in character, striving for many new competitive advantages. This paper reviews the literature and synthesizes the ideas behind this Omnipotent MNC. General themes and key organizational characteristics are identified. A survey among large Swedish companies illustrate that many of the identified changes has occurred during recent years. Finally, we discuss why this kind of research more or less vanished.