Postal address: Kulturgeografiska institutionen, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting address: Geovetenskapens hus, Frescati
Web page: www.humangeo.su.se
Contact person: PhD Candidate Kristina Westermark, phone : +46 (0)8 16 48 57. Personal web page: http://people.su.se/~krwe2668
Research connected to South Asia:
On the 10 October 2013, at 13:00, Kristina Westermark will defend her thesis ”Proximity and Learning in Internationalisation: Small Swedish IT firms in India”. Faculty opponent is Prof. Andrew Jones, School of arts and social sciences, City University London, and the the main supervisor has been Professor Brita Hermelin, with Prof. Charlotta Hedberg as a co-supervisor.
Abstract: The four IT service firms of this thesis set out to interact and collaborate between their offices in Sweden and in India, some more intensely and frequently than others. In the process of their internationalisation, these small service firms find ways, or go through a process of learning how to collaborate in an international setting. The qualitative exploration of the process of learning is inspired by ‘communities of practice’, and in this thesis the focus is on ways in which individuals of firms through social participation learn to collaborate across distance, and develop a common way of working together in an international setting. More information is found here.
The dissertion is a part of a major research project at Stockholm University titled ”Swedish Cities in ‘The Space of Flows’: National, European and Global Networks”, funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas for the period 2007-2010. It is led by Associate professor Brita Hermelin at the Dept. of Human Geography. The project is connected to the Globalization and World Cities – Study Group & Network (GaWC), based at Loughborough University, UK. GaWC methodologies are used to investigate how Swedish cities are developing under conditions of contemporary globalization. Full information about the GaWC project.
In collaboration with other GaWC researchers, Kristina Westermark has studied how Swedish companies within the service sector, mainly within IT/ICT, set up businesses in India, the space of flow of advanced services such as research and development (R&D) between Sweden and India, and the relation to cultural differences. The fieldwork has been carried out in India, mainly in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore.