Martin Johanson

Martin Johanson is a professor at Uppsala University's Department of Business Studies. He teaches marketing and international business and is a thesis advisor in the doctoral program. He has a Bachelor and Master of Business Administration from Uppsala University, and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Uppsala University. Prior to his academic career he worked for many years as a diplomat and business consultant. He is a member of the consultancy company, The IM-Group, which is a company that was acquired by PriceWaterhouse in 2009.

He has published in Industrial Marketing Management, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Journal of Euromarketing, Journal of World Business and Management International Review, as well as several book chapters.

He is involved in four research projects:

Internationalization and emerging markets

This project started around 2010 and concerns foreign firms entering emerging markets and firms from emerging markets establishing business in developing economies. Data have been collected in Russia, China, Sweden and several African countries. Mainly researchers from Uppsala University participate in the project, which does also include researchers from the Public University of Navarre, Spain, and the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

Networks, opportunity and turbulence

In November 2013, a big data collection began, in which over 200 SMEs in Sweden are visited and where face-to-face interviews are conducted. The focus is on market entry and how firms recognize and exploit opportunities in market with various degrees of turbulence and different character of networks. The project does also involve the University of Halmstad and the University of Otago, New Zeeland.

Speed and acceleration in the internationalization process of the firm

One of the hottest topics in internationalization research is speed and acceleration of international expansion. In this project a questionnaire has been developed in order to analyze these concepts and their antecedents and outcomes. So far, data have been collected in China and Sweden, but the plan does also incorporate partners and data collection in Brazil and Greece.

Playing the global game

This project is based at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, and involves altogether four people. The topic is the internationalization of the Swedish computer game industry, which includes games like Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga. These firms start internationalization directly after inception and enjoy global success quickly. Product development is international to its character and takes place through various communities.