Ambidexterity under digitalization: A tale of two decades of new media at a Swedish newspaper

The digitalization of the newspaper industry represents a significant challenge for incumbent companies to engage new technologies. Many companies in the industry have had to seek new markets through digital technologies to survive. This paper explores how one of the largest Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet, has strategically embraced new media and new markets. We report a decade of engaged scholarship based on interviews and archival analysis that covers 20 years of strategic acts at the company. We consider this effort as a case of organizational ambidexterity under digitalization. The analysis seeks to extend theoretical understanding of the interrelationships between strategic intent and technological choice. The paper contributes to the understanding of ambidexterity under digitalization by theoretically framing it in terms of strategic acts. The research suggests that digitalization implies a more complex ambidexterity interrelationship between old and new markets and technologies. As digitalization enables the loosening of previously tight couplings, the clear theoretical distinction between old and new, and critically, the unproblematic transition, is brought into question. The paper suggests replacing the notion of an orderly shift from the old to the new with ambidexterity under digitalization as a duality of both old and new undergoing continual reconfiguration.     

The supply side in a post-Keynesian two-sector model

Summary In order to avoid missing the wood for trees a brief summary of the results having been obtained above appears to be appropriate.Firstly, we regard it as a result in itself of the present paper to have presented a two-sector model encapsulating a Kaleckian (and Kaldorian) vision of a capitalist economy, a model in which supply conditions of primary products take up a prominent position.Secondly, it belongs to the main results of the paper that it has laid bare, through the model presented, an astoundingly simple pattern in the way economic key-concepts such as activity, employment and distributive shares are affected by on one hand the demand side (which has so far captured an excessive amount of attention in macroeconomic modelling) and on the other hand the largely neglected supply side of the economy.Thirdly, by means of an arbitrary but not implausible numerical example we have attempted to indicate how changes in activity and distributive shares caused by exogeneous changes on the demand and supply side of the economy, respectively, are in themselves crucially dependent on (the assumptions concerning) the supply elasticity of primary products.The notation applied will be as follows C consumption - C ⁰ autonomous element of the consumption function - I investment (gross) - A autonomous expenditure - S savings (gross) - U stock of the primary product - Q real output (not necessarily real income) (gross) - Y income (gross) - W wage bill - L employment - w money wage rate - p price level - mark-up factor - level parameter of the production function pertaining to the primary sector - a labour-input coefficient of the industrial sector - b raw-material input coefficient of the industrial sector - s _w marginal propensity to save out of wages - s marginal propensity to save out of profits - s (weighted) average ofS _w ands - (unit) raw material costs as a proportion of total (unit) prime costs - share of wages in total income - E _{y, x} partial or total elasticity ofY with respect toX. I am most grateful to Søren Gammelgård, Peter Guldager, Erik Strøjer Madsen, Jørgen Ulff-Møller Nielsen, Kurt Pedersen and an anonymous referee for their valuable suggestions and helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Swedish technology teachers’ views on assessing student understandings of technological systems

Technology education is a new school subject in comparison with other subjects within the Swedish compulsory school system. Research in technology education shows that technology teachers lack experience of and support for assessment in comparison with the long-term experiences that other teachers use in their subjects. This becomes especially apparent when technology teachers assess students’ knowledge in and about technological systems. This study thematically analysed the assessment views of eleven technology teachers in a Swedish context. Through the use of in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews, their elaborated thoughts on assessing knowledge about technological systems within the technology subject (for ages 13–16) were analysed. The aim was to describe the teachers’ assessment views in terms of types of knowledge, and essential knowledge in relation to a progression from basic to advanced understanding of technological systems. The results showed three main themes that the interviewed teachers said they consider when performing their assessment of technological systems; understanding (a) a system’s structure, (b) its relations outside the system boundary and (c) its historical context and technological change. Each theme included several underlying items that the teachers said they use in a progressive manner when they assess their students’ basic, intermediate and advanced level of understanding technological systems. In conclusion, the results suggest that the analysed themes can provide a basis for further discussion about defining a progression for assessing students’ understanding about technological systems. However, the findings also need to be examined critically as the interviewed teachers’ views on required assessment levels showed an imbalance; few students were said to reach beyond the basic level, but at the same time most assessment items lay on the intermediate and advanced levels.     

Farmers,Middlemen and Exporters: A Model of Market Power,Pricing and Welfare in a Vertical Supply Chain

Markets for cash‐crops in developing countries are typically characterized by a concentration of buyer power at different levels of the supply chain. For instance, small‐scale coffee farmers sell their produce to a middleman, who in turn sells the coffee onward to an exporter, often a foreign multinational, with monopsony power in the hands of the purchasers at both levels. We analyze pricing behavior and welfare with different assumptions regarding market power. In particular, we show that a more powerful exporter is likely to benefit the producers and may even lead to higher welfare for the producer country as a whole.     

Do Immigrants Affect Firm‐Specific Wages?*

We propose and test a novel effect of immigration on wages. Existing studies have focused on the wage effects that result from changes in the aggregate labour supply in a competitive labour market. We argue that if labour markets are not fully competitive, immigrants might also affect wage formation at the most disaggregate level – the workplace. Using linked employer?employee data, we find that an increased use of low‐skilled immigrant workers has a significantly negative effect on the wages of native workers at the workplace – also when controlling for potential endogeneity of the immigrant share using both fixed effects and instrumental variables.     

A push to cycling—exploring the e-bike's role in overcoming barriers to bicycle use with a survey and an intervention study

In Norway, as in many countries, there is a political goal to increase bicycle use. The electric bicycle (e-bike) is a promising tool for achieving this goal, given the hilliness of the country. However, little is yet known about the deterrents of cycling in Norway in general, and in particular how the purchase of an e-bike could be stimulated.

In the current study, 5500 respondents from a convenience sample among car owners were asked about their perceptions of bicycling in general, and of e-bikes in particular as well as their willingness to pay (WTP) for an e-bike. Randomly selected participants (N = 66) were given access to an e-bike for a limited time (2 or 4 weeks). A second questionnaire captured the same perceptions and WTP post-intervention. The results were compared with a control group (N = 214).

The results showed that those who cycle the least were most interested in buying an e-bike and that prior knowledge of the e-bike corresponded with a higher desire to buy one. Pro-environmental values did not predict interest in e-bikes, neither did norms and attitudes toward cycling. The WTP for an e-bike increased after having experienced the benefits for those who used an e-bike compared to those who did not. Price reduction of the e-bike (e.g. VAT exemption), spread of knowledge among the wider population, and actions to offer an e-bike experience may therefore be effective strategies for further expansion of the e-bike in the transport system and thereby to increase bicycle use in Norway.     

Living Labs as an Approach to Strengthen Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems

Climate and ecosystem changes, economic and policy imperatives, food system pressures, and multiple societal expectations pose complex challenges for sustainable farming. A key problem is determining an effective and efficient approach to enable innovation in complex, multi-stakeholder settings. One approach currently receiving much policy attention and investment in the EU is ‘Living Labs’ which bring together public and private stakeholders to co-create, validate, and test new services, business ideas, markets and technologies. However, the analysis, monitoring and evaluation of Living Labs and their effectiveness and policy value in different contexts is limited. The AgriLink Living Labs were undertaken between 2018 and 2021 in Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Spain to co-create innovation support for improving agricultural sustainability. Our evaluation suggests that four inter-related critical conditions are needed for the success of Living Labs. These relate to the complexity of the challenge, the enabling environment, the proficient facilitation and the energy to move. These conditions influence the functioning of the Living Lab and we discuss the implications for policymakers and practitioners for the deployment of Living Labs in agricultural settings.     

Perceived Determinants of Well-Being and Enjoyment Level of Leisure Activities

Two facets of leisure, perceived determinants of well-being and enjoyment of common leisure activities, were investigated in 388 participants. For well-being, a principal components (PCA) analysis yielded five components: competence, relatedness and health, wealth, personal values, and freedom of choice. For the enjoyment of leisure activities, another PCA generated seven components: wellness, sedentary leisure, intellectual leisure, social leisure, routine activities, self-realization, and inner peace. Different leisure enjoyment of young adults (18–30 years old) in contrast to adults and seniors was attributed to social transformations as also predicted by several theories of social change. The relationship between the determinants of well-being and enjoyment of leisure activities was statistically significant but meaningfully debatable.     

Good Cop–Bad Cop: Trust,Control, and the Lure of Integration

Based on a longitudinal case study of four interorganizational product development collaborations, this paper identifies a lure to cross‐functional integration that has hereto been neglected. In particular, findings suggest that when the buyer firm separates the Research and Development (R&D) Department from the Procurement Department, the two departments play a good cop–bad cop strategy toward the supplier. Thereby, they are able to foster a high level of goodwill trust between R&D personnel of the collaborating firms, while procurement personnel maintain a high level of formal control. Using an intricate sample design with polar cases, the study shows that cross‐functional integration of the two departments hampers interorganizational goodwill trust at the benefit of formal control. The findings offer a way forward for managers seeking to reap the benefits of collaboration, while limiting their exposure to the associated risks.