Ove Granstrand

Sven Ove Granstrand (born 11 August 1944) is a Swedish economist and management scholar known for his contributions to the field of industrial economics, particularly on technological change, innovation and intellectual property rights.

In 1986, Granstrand was appointed as Regius Professor in Industrial Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology. He was also the founder and chairman of the Center for Intellectual Property Studies. In 2000, he co-founded the European Institute of Technology and Innovation Management. In 1993, he was elected a member of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a lifetime fellow at Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge in 2019.

Granstrand has held many visiting professorships at various institutions including Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex (1990), MIT Sloan School of Management (1985–1986), and Akademia Nauk in Moscow. Granstrand has also hosted international symposia in Scandinavia, such as the three Wallenberg Symposia on 'Economics of Technology' in 1991, 'Economics, Law and Intellectual property' in 2000, and 'Medicine, Technology and Economics' in 2007.

During his influential academic career Granstrand has served on many expert committees for the European Commission and on various boards in academia and industry.

His doctoral dissertation 'Technology Management and Markets' from 1979 (published by Pinter Publ. in 1982) was one of the first worldwide in the then new field of Technology Management. Exploring R&D management and innovation in industrial organizations and the economics of technological change led him to conclude that quasi-integrated innovation systems (later termed as open innovation) was conducive to innovativeness.

As an emeritus he returned to mathematics and operations research and resumed studies for another PhD degree at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Chalmers.

Academic contributions and influence Granstrand's research interests span a broad range of topics in economics and management of technology, innovation and IP. In particular, he has studied technology management, corporate strategy and diversification in multi-technology corporations in Europe, Japan and the US, as well as various issues related to R&D, intellectual property and intellectual capital more generally. He has also worked with mathematical modelling and simulation He has also contributed to the economics of technology and innovation by developing a theoretical framework for techno-economic analysis of the dynamic and uncertain relations between technological bases, technical performance parameters, innovations and economic performance with models of compound buyer-seller diffusion, He contributed to the theorizing about the formation of intellectual capital and emergence of intellectual capitalism, much driven by ICTs, lowering transaction costs and enabling intangible products, in conjunction with strengthened IPRs enabling trade in intangibles. and game theory.

Granstrand published over 200 articles and reports and authored or edited nearly 20 books. His book "The Economics of Management of Intellectual Property– Towards Intellectual Capitalism" remains a highly cited pioneering and comprehensive work and a go-to reference even after being published more than 20 years ago. Some of his other books are: Evolving Properties of Intellectual Capitalism – Patents and Innovations for Growth and Welfare (Edward Elgar, 2018) Industrial Innovation Economics and Intellectual Property (Svenska Kulturkompaniet Publ., 2018) Economics, Law and Intellectual Property. (Editor), (Kluwer Academic Publ., 2003) The Economics and Management of Technological Diversification. Co-edited with Cantwell, J. and Gambardella, A. (Routledge, 2004) Bringing Technology and Innovation into the Boardroom. (Palgrave Publ., 2004) (Chapters and editorial contributions to a book co-authored with the European Institute of Technology and Innovation Management). Economics of Technology. (Editor) (Elsevier Science Publ., 1994) The Race to European Eminence: who are the coming tele-service multinationals? Elsevier Publ. Co-edited with E. Bohlin. (North-Holland Publ., 1994) Technology Management and International Business: Internationalization of R&D Technology, Co-edited with Håkansson, L. and Sjölander, S. (Wiley, 1992) Technology, Management and Markets: an investigation of R&D and innovation in industrial organizations (Pinter Publ., 1982)

Granstrand, O. and M. Holgersson "Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition", Technovation, Volumes 90–91, February–March 2020.

Granstrand, O. "Towards a theory of the technology-based firm" Research policy 27.5 (1998): 465–489.

Granstrand, O., P. Patel, and K. Pavitt "Multi-technology corporations: why they have "distributed" rather than "distinctive core" competencies" California Management Review 39.4 (1997): 8-25.

Granstrand, O., and C. Oskarsson "Technology diversification in "MUL-TECH" corporations" IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 41.4 (1994): 355–364.

Granstrand, O., E. Bohlin, C. Oskarsson, and N. Sjöberg "External technology acquisition in large multi‐technology corporations" R&D Management 22.2 (1992): 111–134.

Granstrand, O., and S. Sjölander "The acquisition of technology and small firms by large firms" Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 13.3 (1990): 367–386.

Granstrand, O., and S. Sjölander "Managing innovation in multi-technology corporations" Research Policy 19.1 (1990): 35–60.