I started my research career in 1988 at the DM center at Örebro University. It was a time when the first Apple computers had recently been launched and would have significant consequences on both marketing practice and theory. The DM Center was one of Europe’s first research initiatives to analyze the development of how computers could be used for customer search and relationship marketing. Strategic information management and analysis of the surrounding world, not least searches in external databases, was the second research theme. The center was financed mainly by Posten, Apple and IBM. Among the studies that were done can be mentioned “Strategic information management in biotechnology companies” which i.a. included companies active in biological water treatment and soil remediation.

In the doctoral dissertation, a theory about external processes was developed based on a study of the development of DNA science. In addition, the research has dealt with external analysis, innovation, marketing, models for knowledge production, renewal in the culture and experience industry and the connection between economics and nature. The research has largely been based on case studies (of everything from high-tech companies to companies that conduct innovative processes of the more odd kind). A major project in 2012–13 was the “Ninth Innovation Office” (on the importance of inventions). In recent years, the EU project Global Vision was also important. It was about innovation and business development in environmental technology companies and I was responsible for the Swedish part of the international project.

One research goal has been to develop new models and a new visual descriptive language to describe the development of companies and organizations over time. Not least, the research has been about understanding the interplay between innovative processes and concept development on the one hand and external impulses and changes in the external environment on the other. Central is to make “X-factors” into endogenous variables, i.e. to treat X-factors not as a residual but as central and natural parts of the core of the models. X-factors are defined as “external factors with significance for a specific activity but which are not central to traditional economic models”. In principle, this refers to factors in addition to customers, competitors, suppliers and substitutes. Natural factors are a category X factors – but there are many more categories.

A central part of my current research is i.a. focused on developing a natural economic reference framework for innovative processes and the internationalization of cleantech companies. In 2013, I conducted i.a. an activity where lectures were interspersed with a photo exhibition of environmental problems by Mathias Klum. My journey towards a natural economics theory began as early as 1996 when I realized that Linnaeus’ most famous book had not been translated from Latin into Swedish or English. This led to research questions: What did he actually write? Are there myths surrounding Linnaeus because so few people have read the original texts? The first phase of the project involved the world’s first translation of “Systema Naturae”, a work that was made possible in collaboration with the Latin expert Bertil Aldén. Based on the translation and other of Linnaeus’ works, not least Iter Laoopnicum (The Lapland Journey), a new analysis of Linnaeus could be made. The result is published with the book “Linnaeus in a new light” in 2007. The image of Linnaeus and his work that emerged differed from the accepted one and created great attention in scientific circles. Some took it badly when the accepted Linnaean image was disturbed. The analysis showed that Linnaeus was not primarily a flower king as many believed and still believe today, but rather an innovation economist. The basic idea behind his research was to improve important industries in the country such as agriculture and mining through innovative processes with the aim of laying the foundation for sustainable economic development. These new interpretations of Linnaeus inspired the outline of a new modern theory of natural economics.