PhD defence: Lene Tolstrup Christensen

In order to obtain the PhD degree, Lene Tolstrup Christensen has submitted her thesis entitled:

State-owned enterprises as institutional market actors in the marketization of public service provision:

a comparative case study of Danish and Swedish passenger rail 1990-2015

The doctoral thesis conceptualizes the SOE as an institutional market actor (IMA) which creates analytical clarity about SOEs in contemporary public governance by focusing on their roles in marketization. It is based on an explorative comparative case study of DSB SOV and SJ AB in the marketization of passenger rail in Denmark and Sweden respectively from the 1990s to 2015 and informed by a historical institutionalist perspective on gradual change. The argument is unfolded in two ways. First the introductory paper presents the theoretical foundations of the IMA. Second, the four articles present the case study and contribute with new empirical insights about Denmark and Sweden and to the literature on hybridity in the public sector by reintroducing 100 percent SOEs and via analysis of hybridity over a longer period of time.

Primary Supervisor:
Professor Carsten Greve
Department of Business and Politics
Copenhagen Business School

Secondary Supervisor:
Senior Researcher Claus Hedegaard Sørensen
Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute

Assessment Committee:
Associate Professor Susanne Boch Waldorff (Chair)
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Professor Per Lægreid
Department of Administration and Organization Theory
University of Bergen

Professor Chris Skelcher
Institute of Local Government
University of Birmingham

Thesis:
The thesis will be available from http://openarchive.cbs.dk

Reception:
The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence at Steen Blichers vej 22, 2000 Frederiksberg.