The Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy is a strategy-oriented department based on modern organisational economics. The Department's research field is the "organisation of economic activities."

The primary purpose of the Department is to contribute to an understanding of the economic organisation of society and in particular how and why activities are organised in markets, enterprises, business sectors and other "institutions."

By way of example, the Department examines why much biotech research takes place in small dedicated enterprises and more rarely in large pharmaceutical enterprises, and why so far musicians have entered into separate contracts with record companies and concert promoters instead of overall contracts covering both activities.

The Department hosts a number of comprehensive, externally funded projects such as DRUID, COMBI and "Kunst, Kompetence og Konkurrenceevne i den Danske Oplevelsesøkonomi" (Art, Competence and Competition in Danish Experience Economy) and participates actively in the Biotech Business, Imagine and LEFIC centres.

The Department researchers teach MSc. in Economics and Business Administration (IES hosts the MIB line), BSc. in Economics and Business Administration, BSc. in Business Administration and Commercial Law, BSc. in Business Administration and Organizational Communication and BSc. in Business Administration and Psychology, FT-MBA and Summer School programmes.

The Department has an active PhD environment and offers a number of permanent PhD courses.

The Department has a total staff of about 45, of whom 16 are permanent associate professors/full-time professors.

Highlights of 2005

In June, DRUID held its 10th anniversary conference at Solbjerg Plads.

The Department received a grant of DKK 6.2 mill. from the Tuborg Foundation for the three year project on "Art, Competence and Competition in the Danish Experience Economy."

The Department arranged six PhD courses drawing a large international audiences.

Academic profile

The Department conducts strategy-oriented research with its academic basis in modern economic theories, including, among others, transaction cost economics theory, principal-agent theory, contract economics and information economics, all covered by the broad term of "organisational economics." It is also strongly inspired by insights from sociology, psychology and geography.

The Department's research field may be described as the "organisation of economic activities." Researchers recognise the dynamic nature of all kinds of organisations. What is optimal at one point in time will not necessarily be optimal at another. Thus, the Department's research has an important dynamic dimension and definitely belongs to the field of research called "industrial dynamics."

Research at IES is characterised by an interest in understanding the reason for the organisation of economic activities in various forms of organisations with their special structures of knowledge and incentives.

The Department's contribution to CBS' profile therefore lies in the strategic area: how are enterprises organised and what are their limits to obtain maximum competitiveness? It is implemented by way of competition strategy, technology strategy, human resource management, knowledge management or – with a new term – organisation strategy.

The Department's research is therefore often conducted against a highly concrete, empirical background with a view to understanding real-world phenomena. Thus, the Department has a long-standing tradition of research in innovation and technology-related topics, and these areas remain a major element of its research field.

One of the strengths of the Department is that it has deep and detailed empirical knowledge of the research fields addressed, based on combinations of interviews, surveys, register data and many types of secondary sources. As a result, the Department has competences in a wide array of empirical methods from case-based research to pure econometrics.

The Department's research can be categorised into the research areas below.

The research areas are categorised according to research topics, and all Department researchers contribute to more than one area. The Department centres are placed under the relevant areas. Nevertheless, because of its more general nature, DRUID has not been included under a particular category.

A. Innovation studies

? Organisation of innovation

? Appropriability of innovations and intellectual property studies

? Institutional environment for innovation

? University-industry relations

? Innovation management and strategy

? User-producer relationships

Related business research centre: Biotech Business

B. Industrial dynamics

? Industry analysis

? Regional studies, industrial clustering and agglomeration studies

? Labour market dynamics

? The dynamics of market organisation

? Project-organised industries

Related business research centre: Imagine - Creative Industries Research

C. Types of organisations

? Make-or-buy decisions

? Outsourcing

? Corporate/technology strategy

? IPR strategy

? Theory of the company

? Resource-based theories

D. Law and Economics

? Contract theory

? Industrial economics

? Intellectual property theory

Related business research centre: LEFIC

E. Research methods

? Theory of science

? Economic modelling

? Statistical/econometric methods

? Case studies

Research strategy

The Department regards research activity relevant as the ultimate criterion for good research. Society should benefit from its Its research results in one way or another. In a university department this should be achieved primarily through teaching. Yet, the Department is increasingly presenting research results directly to players in the business community and the wider society – a fact which may serve as a source of inspiration and stimulation to research activities.

But regardless of whether the research results are communicated through teaching or more directly to the users, as a general rule they must be subjected to "quality control." In view of the uncertainty as to the applicability of research results, it is crucial that the research results are of top quality. In light of the increasing specialisation of research, the quality control will often be conducted in the international research environments. To present research results in international research forums and to publish them internationally is thus a crucial prerequisite of documenting research quality. International publication is therefore a necessary part of the Department's research obligation.

Hence, the overall, long-term research objective of the Department is to obtain a position as an internationally recognised department in the fields of organisational economics and strategy. Publication in internationally recognised journals is the most important means of achieving this objective.

Of the journals on the Faculty's TOP 60 Quality List, the Department considers Research Policy and Industrial and Corporate Change to be highly suitable academic publication channels, but it also wishes to contribute to broad-spectrum, top business economics' journals such as Academy of Management Journal and Strategic Management Journal and to other relevant and highly ranked journals.

The Department's objective is to keep publication at a level of at least one article published in an international journal per year for permanently employed researchers.

The Department's research is organised as a combination of individual projects, joint authorships and major projects, typically with external funding.

External funds finance projects with independent research plans adapted to and supporting the Department's research profile. The Department aims to pursue a high degree of external funding, particularly in order to be able to retain a fair number of PhD students.

In 2005, the Department portfolio of externally funded projects included the following major projects:

* COMBI (Competence, Organisation and Management in Biotech Industries) funded by LOK/SSF, is conducted under the auspices of the Research Center on Biotech Business

* The "Biotechnology Innovation in the Oresund Region" island research programme is conducted under the auspices of the Research Center on Biotech Business

* RIPE (Setting up an International Junior Faculty Network for the Research on Intellectual Property Economics) financed by SSF

* "Hovedstadens Kreative Kapital" (Creative Capital of Copenhagen) financed by the Danish VAT foundation, is conducted under Imagine

* Technology, Talent and Tolerance in European cities: A Comparative Analysis, financed by the National Agency for Enterprise and Housing, is conducted under Imagine

* "Art, Competence and Competition in the Danish Experience Economy", financed by the Tuborg Foundation, is conducted under Imagine.

In 2005, the Department hired a PhD student who is co-financed by the Nordisk Film Foundation and the Danish Producers Association.

In 2005 the Department had external research funds for more than DKK 6.1 mill. at its disposal. By way of comparison, the CBS research allocation amounted to approximately DKK 5.3 mill.

Research results

For many years IES has maintained a stable rate of publication, notably in the English-language reviewed journals that the Department favours over media such as books and chapters in books. Over the past seven years, the number of such articles averaged 15 per year. Thus, the Department is among the Faculty's top departments, particularly in the light of the modest size of its internal research grant.

Yet, Department researchers do not only act as authors in the international research community. In addition to writing their own articles, they also assess the manuscripts of colleagues as reviewers for international journals. Add to this the extensive review work performed in connection with the organisation of major international conferences (the DRUID conferences in particular).

The Department is in charge of the editorship of the Industry and Innovation journal, which will contribute significantly to its visibility in the area of Industrial Dynamics.

Research relations to practice

As mentioned under the academic profile, to a wide extent the Department's research is aimed at real-world, practical issues of organising activities in the business community and society in general. The Department's research activities are thus inspired by research itself and by its surroundings. The Department's researchers have a long-standing tradition of collaborating with enterprises and other organisations, primarily to identify relevant issues and to retrieve data. This type of activity often leads to invitations to participate in the strategic considerations of such players.

In 2005, the Department's most important contribution to this collaboration came from the two new centres: Biotech Business and Imagine. Both centres have a very close dialogue with central business players.