About

The digital wonder in Swedish advertising – network culture, entrepreneurial network, and system of innovation is a two-year research project funded by the Knowledge Foundation’s programme Young Network Cultures. The project is based at Chalmers University of Technology and organised jointly with the University of Gothenburg, the Swedish Association of Communication Agencies, and Hyper Island.

The purpose of the project is to create a better understanding of the so-called Swedish wonder in digital advertising – in other words why Swedish advertising agencies have been so successful in adopting the internet as a medium for communication, and winning awards in the digital/cyber-/internet categories at international competitions. We approach this question at different levels:

• looking at entrepreneurship and creativity at the level of the individual and the firm (mainly using oral history methods)
• looking at the relationship between the advertising industry, its customers, and information technology (using a variety of sources)
  
• looking at the macro environment for IT-related innovation in Sweden over the last 15 years (using statistical data and business press)
  

Towards the end of the project we hope to have thrown considerable light on the nature of the digital wonder, on the transformation of the advertising industry, and on the temporal links between the macro environment for IT-related  innovation and individual entrepreneurship and creativity.

The project has appointed a scientific reference group with the following members:

• Micael Dahlén, Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics
• Marcus Gianneschi, Centre for Consumer Science, School of Business Economics and Commercial Law, University of Gothenburg
  
• Ylva Hasselberg, Department of Economic History, University of Uppsala
• Annika Rickne, University of Lund and University of Gothenburg