Business Administration

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Research in business administration investigates how enterprises and public organisations function in order to enable good management and governance. A range of stakeholders benefit from the research we conduct at the department, including business owners, managers and employees.

Business administration is a multifaceted research area that includes several distinct but overlapping areas of specialisation such as strategic management, marketing, organisation, entrepreneurship, accounting, and corporate finance. They vary in the methods they employ and the theoretical traditions they connect to. Research at the department also encompasses work in the separate discipline of research policy.

Our research spans a variety of themes, theoretical orientations, methodological stances and knowledge interests. This enables a range of doctoral students and visiting researchers to find a place at the Department of Business Administration.

Research orientations at the department

Moving scientific knowledge forward

A major strength of the research conducted at our department is that it combines top-notch contributions to scientific problems with a keen attention to the practical and often thorny problems that managers, regulators, and other actors need to address. We believe in moving scientific knowledge forward, with independent projects driven by curiosity. The members of our research groups formulate solid research goals and ambitions in a bottom-up process.

Versatile research of breadth and depth

Our research faculty is methodologically versatile and can apply a range of strategies depending on the research question. Case-based, often qualitative research is a major asset of the work undertaken in business administration at Lund University School of Economics and Management. We have and have had several noteworthy faculty members who are pioneers in qualitative methodology and critical studies of management. Being a comprehensive and large department, one of our main advantages is the breadth and in-depth nature of our empirical enquiry.

Contributing to society

We contribute to society by addressing contemporary questions of an organisational, managerial and political nature, as our teachers draw upon their own research in the classroom. Society today is in urgent need of more reflective practice and practitioners. We believe that our faculty and, in the long run, students, are well-suited for delivering this to society.

The research at the department naturally aims at being highly relevant and often receives significant attention outside academia. Our researchers regularly participate in newspapers, radio and television and share their research results through social media and popular science lectures. They also have extensive contacts with the public sector, trade and industry and other researchers in national and international networks.