Fredrik Tell

My present research involves strategic temporal work and the relationship between the future and the present, development of organizational knowledge and capabilities, patent history, intellectual property rights and markets for technology, digitalization and changing organizational routines, temporary and distributed organizational forms in innovation, and multinational management during change. Currently I serve as a co-editor of the scientific journal Industrial and Corporate Change.

Since 1 September, 2015, I am Professor and Chair of Business Studies at Uppsala University. At the department I am chairing the scientific council, convene the higher seminar and teach courses mainly on master and doctoral level, primarily in strategy and research methods. My teaching experience covers all three cycles (undergraduate, master, doctoral) involving courses in organization, strategy, innovation, knowledge management, business history and scientific methods. I have acted on the advisory team for 14 PhD students that have completed their degrees, and am currently co-supervising two PhD students. I am Deputy Chair of the National Research School in Management and Information Technology (MIT). In my work at the department, I have been responsible, together with David Andersson and staff at the Swedish Patent Office (PRV) for enabling a searchable historical database denoted Swedish historical patents, 1746-1945.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), the The Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala (KVS) and the IMIT Foundation. I served as President of The Swedish Academy of Business and Management (FEKIS), 2018-2020.

Previously I was Professor in Business Administration at Linköping University, where I also completed my undergraduate and post-graduate education (Ph.D., 2000). I have been a founding member of five research groups: KITE (Knowledge Integration and Innovation in Transnational Enterprise, with Professor emeritus Christian Berggren); DRIM (Developing Research and Innovation in Multinationals: The case of Sweden and Brazil, with Professor Roberto Sbragia, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil); EPOK (Enterprising by Projects and Organizational Knowledge, with Professor emeritus Lars Lindkvist and Professor Jonas Söderlund, Linköping University); MEKA (Managing External Knowledge Acquisition, with Professor Nicolette Lakemond, Linköping University); Patent History Research Group (with Professor emeritus Mats Larsson, Uppsala University).

During my years as an academic researcher I have been very fortunate to be able to work as a visiting scholar/fellow at the following institutions (in chronological order): IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Vienna, Austria, SCANCOR (Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research), Stanford University, USA; SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex, UK; Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK; Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, Canada; Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, Canada.

I am currently involved in the following ongoing research projects:

SWEDISH PATENT HISTORY AND MARKETS FOR TECHNOLOGY
Extended title: “Micro dynamics of markets for ideas: Patent trade, costs and litigation during the industrialization of Sweden” (Funded by Jan Walllander and Tore Browald's Foundation, "From invention to innovation: Novelty, impact and value of patents in 20th century Sweden" (Funded by The Lars Erik Lundberg Foundation for Research and Education)
Collaborators: David Andersson (Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University), Matti La Mela (Department of ALM, Uppsala University), PhD student Yunting Xie (Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University).
Summary: Aims to describe patenting behavior and the emergence of a market for technology through a new dataset covering historical Swedish and Finnish patents.

FIRMS STRATEGIC USE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Extended title: ”Buy, Sell or Keep? How do Swedish companies use their Intellectual Property Rights?” (Funded by Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius Stiftelse) and “ David and Goliath: The challenges with enforcing patents for small firms and entrepreneurs” (Funded by VINNOVA)
Collaborators: Marcus Holgersson (Chalmers University of Technology, Principal Investigator), David Andersson (Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University), PhD student Robert Heurlin (Chalmers University of Technology).
Summary: Aims to analyze the strategic use of IP by big and small firms through the study of domestic and international court cases.

DIGITALIZATION AND ROUTINE DYNAMICS
Extended title: “Digitalization and Routine Dynamics”
Collaborators: Dr Yunchen Sun (Linköping University and Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University)
Summary: Aims to show how digital technologies such as Model Based Systems Engineering influences organization of engineering work in management of innovation and manufacturing in Complex Product and Systems industries.