HELLO THERE! Karin Berglund – new professor of sustainable business at Örebro University – “Don’t want to get frustrated”

With around 10 years left in her working life, she decides to leave Stockholm University. Karin Berglund longs to work more closely with the local community. On January 1, 2025, she will start her professorship in sustainable business at Örebro University.

Congratulations on your new position! What will you fill your research on sustainable business with?

– Thank you very much! Yes, that’s a good question. I’d like to explore what sustainable business might mean, because it’s a complex concept. But one that can have a big impact on the ‘doing’ of sustainability in concrete business practice. Much of my research so far has been about what we can give meaning and significance to entrepreneurship, and I see an opportunity here to investigate whether sustainability can contribute to more constructive development through entrepreneurship.

– Today, many people think of entrepreneurship as starting a business. But I think it also means breaking new ground and creating new patterns for how we “do” business in a society that needs to be transformed.

You mean entrepreneurship is linked to development and seeing new opportunities?

– Well, maybe not development in terms of doing things better. Rather, that entrepreneurship can actually quite radically lead to a sustainable transition at the system level.

Spontaneously, it sounds like your professorship at Örebro University will be more practice-oriented than at Stockholm University? How do regional actors have an important role in the transition?

– They are the ones doing the sustainable business. If we don’t understand what companies and other organizations, both non-profit and public, are struggling with in this transition – how can we connect with and support them? It is this practical aspect that I long to work with.

– And because the transition is so complex, the research spans several disciplines. It’s exciting! I’m really looking forward to working across disciplines in a concrete environment.

Sustainable entrepreneurship is about ensuring that business and entrepreneurship are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. What questions might be relevant in your practice-oriented research in Örebro?

– It’s one thing to talk about social, economic and environmental sustainability. Sometimes it’s just words… Another thing is to see what you can do. What can you challenge yourself to do in order to make such a transition? And is it even possible to prioritize any of these values, and if so, how? I think we need to understand this better by studying different practices and learning from them to understand what can really contribute to the green transition.

– One thing that is being widely discussed now is the issue of preparedness. How do we manage our preparedness in a crisis if we do not have sustainable local production of food? Or a national and easily accessible production of medicines? Today, there is a big trend in taking production back to the local community. Creating together a sustainable infrastructure around the communities where people live.

You are moving from a very large university to a much smaller one. What attracted you to apply to Örebro University?

– When I saw that the position was open, I asked myself what I wanted to do with my last 10 years of professional life. As an academic, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and end up getting a bit frustrated. I don’t believe in that, but felt strongly that I want to do something new that challenges me.

– I am really looking forward to working in a smaller university where I can do more work with new colleagues and in collaboration with the local community.

Contact karin.berglund@sbs.su.se