The Research Group of Industrial Management and Economics conducts research and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, with the general purpose of furthering the development of such managerial and engineering competence that contributes to the ability of industry to compete internationally and to create social value.

The group has a research program originally titled Economics and Management of Technology (EMT) with three disciplinary pillars: economics, management and technology. Within this program there are three main orientations:

1. Economics of technology, which focuses upon the interplay between technical and economic changes.
2. Management of technology, which studies how this interplay can be influenced in desirable directions on the micro (m) level.
3. Technology policy, which studies how the interplay can be influenced at macro level (M).

These three orientations and their interaction is shown in symbolic terms in the figure above (EMmT). The research strategy, for what by international standards is a relatively young and small research group, is to make use of external collaborations with universities and companies both in Sweden and abroad and to promote specialization and creativity. The research should thus be technology-oriented and industry-linked (including technology-based service industry).

There has been a focus in the past on three long-term themes (investment management, technology diffusion and competitive conditions), two technical fields (information technology and automation technology), and three regions (Europe, USA and Japan). Creativity is emphasized e.g. by providing a challenging work environment for competence development with a great deal of personal freedom.

As from 1999 the group has initiated activities in two new areas – intellectual property law and medical technology management. Thus another disciplinary pillar – law – has been added and the technical fields now comprise infocom technologies and medical technologies.

Again in symbolic terms:

Ongoing research

The “MELT-Project” – melting management, economics, law and technology is s project within VINNOVA’s program “Innovative Companies: Management of Product Innovation”. Please read more on the MELT homepage: http://www.chalmers.se/tme/EN/melt