Annika Rickne

Annika Rickne is a scholar of innovation research and her current research can be divided into three research areas; 1) the evolution and commercialization of new technologies and industries, 2) indicators of the production and commercialization of research, and 3) firm innovation and growth in new industries.

First, in the research area on the evolution and commercialization of new technologies and industries the underlying issue of interest is what time scales, what experimental activities and resources can be expected to be required in order for a new science-driven field to reach successful commercialization. Previous work include a Ph.D. thesis on the evolution of the field of biomaterials in Sweden and two regions in the USA; theoretical and methodological contributions on operationalization of innovation systems and on functional analysis with among others professors Bo Carlsson and Staffan Jacobsson, a paper on the emergence of mobile internet in Sweden, and a rather recent book on the biotech industry with professor Maureen McKelvey and associate professor Jens Laage-Hellman. The theme on biotech industries and their policy issues are being pursued in further publications with McKelvey and Laage-Hellman.

A current project (financed by the Swedish Research Council) is based on the case of the technological area of stem cells, and scrutinizes the barriers and enablers to the evolution of a new technological field, as well as the commercialization process of this emerging technological field. Thus, it involves issues of university technology transfer, financing of early results as well as international diffusion and competition. The project is run with Associate Professor Lars Bengtsson at Lund University and Assistant Professor Anna Nilsson at Karolinska Institute and ITPS Washington.

Another main project on the emergence of new industries, scrutinizes, in an international perspective, Sweden’s position and opportunities within the field of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM). It involves a global mapping of firms, research groups and other actors, leading to a functional analysis of the innovation system at hand. The project is financed by VINNOVA and run with Dr. Anna Sandström at VINNOVA. Closely related to this project on TERM is a project on regulatory environment and IPR institutions to support the emergence of the same field. From an international outlook, specific comparisons are made between Sweden and Germany, and theoretical and empirical investigations include how institutional change is shaped as a process of negotiation. This is a PhD project by Astrid Szogs.

A fourth project related to the emergence of new industries follows over time the activities and development trends as regards research, commercialization and industrial activities in biomedicine in a specific regional area, Western Sweden. In this, issues of the functional patterns of the Regional Innovation System, the blocking and inducement mechanisms for regional development as well as the specific mechanisms of knowledge development and diffusion are of particular importance. The research is part of a 10-year development program as co-financed by VINNOVA and industrial actors (VinnVäxt) and the social science research is undertaken in a team with Jens Laage-Hellman, Chalmers University of Technology.

A second dominant theme of Rickne’s work focuses on scrutinizing and developing indicators of the production and commercialization of research performed in academia as well as in industry. Empirically, the aim is to assess the picture for the specific case of Sweden, drawing on and perhaps questioning what has been labeled the “Swedish paradox’, where it is claimed Sweden has a strength in research production, but is poor in using this strength for the creation of economic gain. In particular, the apparent strength of Swedish academia is contrasted with poor performance of Sweden in terms of a low share of R&D-intensive products, insufficient technology-based entrepreneurship and poor economic growth. A completed project with professor Staffan Jacobsson focused on measuring the academic strength of Sweden, where some dominant beliefs were counter-proofed. Also, as a part of research program involving ten countries (led by professor Charles Edquist) Sweden’s national innovation system is analyzed with this potential paradox in mind.

Third, the research area of firm innovation and growth in new industries builds a better understanding of how and why firms are formed, evolve and grow into world-class organizations through the creation and exploitation of technological innovations. Thus, the research aims to increase the insight of how innovation actually comes about in the firm context, what determines innovation and which effects and outcomes innovation may lead to for the firm. This type of analysis involves understanding of internal growth processes and problems in new high tech enterprises, and aspires to improve the conceptualization and evidence on network activity of high tech enterprises. A current project with James Utterback discusses growth patterns of biomedical firms in Massachusetts, building on a longitudinal data set. Also, a project on firm strategies and networking activities on regional, national and supra-national levels to reap opportunities in fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. Based on a thorough analysis of the global technological and product development and its actors, specific analysis of the dominant firms and their strategic behavior in relation to applications, networks and learning is assessed. This is a PhD project by Stian Nygaard.

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