Daniel Ericsson

My research is mainly carried out in the intersection of leadership, entrepreneurship and organization, with a special interest in creativity, management and methods.

My academic career started at the Stockholm School of Economics where I first took a MSc (1995) specializing in both Management and Managerial Economics and Control, and then acquired a PhD in Business Administration. In 2002 I won a post-doc in social science with a focus on entrepreneurship and constructionism at Växjö University (now Linnaeus University), and since 2005 I work as a senior lecturer at Växjö/Linnaeus University. I was appointed associate professor in 2008 and professor in business administration specialising in organization and management in 2020. 

During the years I have been on leave of absence to varying degrees. In 2009-2010 and 2014 I returned to the Stockholm School of Economics to work as researcher; 2010 to 2013 I worked as a visiting researcher at the Umeå School of Business and Economic at Umeå University; 2013 to 2015 I took a half-time position as visiting professor at the Department of Urban Studies at Malmö University College; and in the fall of 2017 I worked as professor in organization and leadership at Østfold University College.

Since August 1, 2022, I am visiting professor in cultural entrepreneurship at Lund University, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. 

Teaching

My teaching experience amounts to over 25000 hours, divided between approximately 10% postgraduate courses, 45% undergraduate courses and 45% executive education. Within postgraduate educational programs I have supervised two doctoral students, and developed, taught and been responsible for doctoral courses in "Qualitative Methods", "Learning for Renewal and Work Development," and "The Interpretative Tradition – Constructionist Thinking, Research and Writing"; within undergraduate educational programs I been responsible for courses at all levels, and as such developed courses, led teams of teachers and taught courses in i.a. "Organization Theories", "Organizational Change and Renewal", "Strategic Management", "Methods in Business Administration" and "Creative Management/Management for creativity "; I have supervised well over 100 thesis in Swedish as well as English (several award winning) and I have served as examiner for the master thesis in both Management and Entrepreneurship at Linnaeus University; and when it comes to executive education I have several years of experience working with strategic development of senior executives. In 2004 to 2013 I was, for example, program manager for a 32-day master program commissioned by the Swedish National Police Board, in which I supervised nearly one hundred change projects within the Swedish National Police; I have worked as ERFA-leader for a group of executives within public administrations for Institutet för Företagsledning (IFL); and I have supervised Swedish middle managers attaining programs at the Stockholm School of Economics' Executive Education Programs as well as international business leaders at the Applied International Management Program (also at IFL).

Research

In my research I have mainly directed my interest towards managerial and organizational issues related to creativity and entrepreneurship, and I have tried to show and problematize how different notions of creativity and entrepreneurship give rise to different ways of leading and organizing creativity and entrepreneurship. In my dissertation project this interest lead me to focus upon what I have called "the creativization of working-life", the puzzling circumstances that place creativity and the creative person(ality) at the center of contemporary discourses on the renewal of working-life; and my ambition was to try to understand how creativity is being constructed and organized within this process of creativization. My project however also developed in a (self) reflexive direction, and at the same my theoretical ambitions grew to try make a methodological contribution to the (social)constructionist research tradition by, on the one hand, problematizing what it means to write in a constructionist manner, and on the other to explore what it means to be a researcher in the creative and constructionist fields.

My methodological contributions were formulated partly in terms of a theory of the metaphysics of writing, partly by outlining a constructionist research paradigm based on clues (or rather "clueing"), including six constructionist research strategies. Based on these contributions I have since then continued to explore creativity and entrepreneurship in different empirical contexts and with different theoretical approaches. Worth mentioning among my major research and writing projects are Musikmysteriet – organiserade stämningar och motstämningar ("The Music Mystery - Organized Moods and Countermoods", 2007) in which I scrutinize the music industry from music-sociological and critical perspectives, and Den odöda musiken ("The Undead Music, 2010) and Scripting Creativity (2010) in which I problematize digitalization and its unforeseen consequences for cultural production and consumption. In my latest project - Tongivande Entrepreneurship ("Entrepreneurship in major", 2018) - I have followed the enactment of Smålandsoperan and try to provide a comprehensive understanding of the organizational processes that make entrepreneurship in the art field possible - but at the same time limit it.

Commissions

In terms of formal academic leadership assignments I have, among other things, been head of department at the School of Economics (Växjö University, 2003); I have, as a board member of the "Entrepreneurship Profile" (Växjö University, 2002-2005) and also for a period its coordinator, been responsible for developing and managing a research group in the long term (strategic issues) as well as in the short term (tactical issues); I have been a director for the postgraduate program in business administration and economics (Växjö University, 2005-2006) as well as elected member of the research committees at the Stockholm School of Economics (1995-1996) and Växjö University (2007-2009), Forum for Gender Studies (Linnaeus University, 2010- 2011) and the work environment committee (Växjö University, 2004-2009). 2018-2021 I acted as program director for the post-graduate program in Business Administration, and from 2021 I am head of the Management Specialisation (the Business Administration and Economics Programme). I am also member of the Stipend Committee at Linnaeus University since 2018

In 2011 I partook as expert in the Swedish Agency for Higher Education's review of the subject business administration; in 2013 I was the chairman for the group behind the report "Inquiry on an "institute "with a special focus on participatory citizenship" (Malmö Högskola); and in 2015 to 2016 I was called in as expert by the Swedish Agency for Public Management to research "Change processes in large organizations".

As an expert on organization and leadership I am also contributing as reviewer for journals such as Management Learning, Gender, Work & Organization, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Culture and Organization, British Journal of Management, European Management Review, Scandinavian Journal of Management, and Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. In 2019-2020 I was a member of the editorial board of Journal of Management,  Spirituality & Religion, and acted as the journals' book editor. Since 2021 I am a member of Gender, Work & Organization's Editorial Review Board, since 2022 I am the editor of the journal Art, Culture & Entrepreneurship, and since 2023 I am associate editor for Culture and Organization.  

Since 2018 I am a member of the International Scientific Committee for the  annual IMES-conference (Innovation, Management, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability) hosted by the University of Prague.