Media, Management and Transformation Center - MMTC

26/10/2026

A recent study by MMTC researcher Fatih Cura and colleagues Mehmet Akif Gündüz and Sercan Demir examines how European logistics companies are putting sustainability goals into practice.

Looking at 55 logistics service providers across eight European countries, the researchers found that readiness for the green transition varies considerably between companies. Alternative fuels emerged as the top sustainability priority, alongside digitalisation, greener warehousing, and more efficient transport operations.

Published in the journal "Transport Policy", the research offers a framework for understanding how well logistics companies are aligning their operations with the European Green Deal and where further progress may be needed.

📖 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104425

22/10/2026

Exploring digital transformation in human resource management

Digital transformation is changing human resource management, but technology alone doesn't explain how it happens. What other factors are involved, and how do they interact?

At yesterday's MMTC seminar, Rocío Usero López explored these questions, presenting a conceptual model based on existing research to better understand the factors shaping HRM digital transformation.

Rocío is a PhD student from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain, and is spending five months at MMTC through EULiST and Erasmus+.

Research visits like Rocío's create opportunities for mutual learning, new perspectives and international collaboration.

🌍 Interested in visiting MMTC?

Our Visiting Doctoral and Visiting Scholar programmes offer PhD candidates and researchers opportunities to develop their research, exchange ideas and connect with MMTC colleagues.

Find out more:

Visiting Doctoral Programme: https://mmtc.se/center/mmtc/visit-us/mmtc-visiting-doctoral-program.html

Visiting Scholar Programme: https://mmtc.se/center/mmtc/visit-us/mmtc-visiting-scholar-program.html

21/10/2026

MMTC researchers and students at DAMI Day 2026

Yesterday, MMTC participated in DAMI Day 2026 at Karlstad University, where researchers and practitioners met to discuss challenges facing industry and society.

Representing MMTC through the IndusBridge 5.0 project were researcher Carla Gonçalves Machado, Master's students Toukir Hossain and Lucius Dinto Pramudyo, and visiting PhD candidate Prince Appiah (Concordia University).

The team contributed to discussions on how to strengthen the resilience of critical raw material supply chains. The visit was also an opportunity to further develop the collaboration between MMTC and DAMI, two research centres working on questions related to digitalisation and industrial transformation.

20/10/2026

Can starting a business help narrow the gender pay gap?

Women still earn less than men in many professions. But could entrepreneurship offer a different path?

A study co-authored by MMTC member Lucia Naldi (Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, MMTC-affiliated researcher Tiantian Yang (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), and Olenka Kacperczyk (London Business School) explores how starting a business affects earnings for women and men.

Using Swedish employment data from 1990 to 2020, the researchers found that women see larger relative earnings gains than men when moving from salaried employment into entrepreneurship. The gender earnings gap does not disappear, but it is smaller in entrepreneurship than in traditional employment. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship may offer women opportunities to earn greater returns on their skills and experience, particularly where career advancement in salaried employment is limited.

The study was published in the Strategic Management Journal.

📖 Read the research: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.70065

08/10/2026

MMTC member Olof Brunninge, together with Philemon Nshimiyimana (University of Rwanda) and Tibor Mandják (ELTE University, Budapest), has published new research in the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Their article, “Mutual knowledge: indigenous knowledge meets business knowledge. Evidence from the Rwandan handicraft industry,” explores what happens when different forms of knowledge meet through interactions among traditional African artisans, customers from highly industrialised countries, and local intermediaries.
Drawing on cases from Rwanda’s pottery, basketry and woodcraft industries, the study challenges the idea that knowledge is simply transferred from one party to another, potentially with supposedly superior Western knowledge replacing indigenous knowledge. Instead, the researchers find that knowledge can be transformed through interaction. The result is the emergence of what the authors call “mutual knowledge” – new knowledge jointly created through interactions between actors from Africa and the Global North.

The research also highlights the important role of local intermediaries in bringing different forms of knowledge together and facilitating this process.
🔗 Read the article:

Purpose. This paper aims to investigate how mutual knowledge emerges in heterogeneous triadic interactions in the Rwandan handicraft sector, where indigenous and business knowledge intersect. The concept of mutual knowledge is introduced to capture transformation rather than transfer in interorganiz...

07/10/2026

How are manufacturers building more resilient supply chains?

Global uncertainty, trade tensions and supply chain disruptions are leading more companies to rethink where and how they source materials and components.
MMTC member Carla Machado, Assistant Professor at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, recently spoke with Dagens industri about the growing shift towards local and regional sourcing.

Research shows that 35% of Swedish manufacturing companies have already increased their use of local and regional suppliers. But as Carla explains, resilience is about more than simply sourcing closer to home. Companies also need to understand the dependencies that run through their entire supply networks.

The article looks at how manufacturers are adapting their sourcing strategies in response to a more uncertain global environment, including lessons from the strong local supplier networks and traditions of collaboration found in the Gnosjö region.

🔗 Read the full article in Dagens Industri (in Swedish): https://www.di.se/nyheter/inkop-i-naromradet-har-blivit-en-overlevnadsfaktor/

01/10/2026

How do we study change when it happens little by little?

This week we welcomed Iulia Ciurea and Petre-Cornel Grigorescu from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies for the MMTC seminar “Instrumenting policy change, 1% at a time.”

Drawing on Iulia’s research into sustainability measurement and Petre’s work with AI and machine learning in financial and economic crime, the seminar brought together two quite different research contexts and methodological perspectives. The presentations provided a starting point for a lively discussion that moved across research methods, policy, technology and the challenges of studying change in practice.

For MMTC, seminars like this also provide an opportunity to consider how different research approaches can help us understand processes of change and transformation – including changes that may be gradual, difficult to observe, or only become visible over time.
Iulia and Petre are visiting MMTC through our Visiting Doctoral Program. We regularly welcome researchers from around the world through our Visiting Scholar Program and Visiting Doctoral Program, offering opportunities to spend time at JIBS and engage with the MMTC research environment.

Would you like to visit MMTC? Researchers and doctoral students from other institutions are welcome to apply to our visiting programs. Find out more at mmtc.se

Thank you, Iulia and Petre, for sharing your work with us!

30/09/2026

What do professional gamers use social media for – beyond promoting their games?

A new study by MMTC member Adele Berndt, published in the Journal of Media Business Studies, explores how professional gamers use Twitter/X and the different roles the platform plays in their professional and personal lives.

In “Professional gamers on Twitter/X: tweeting for change,” Adele analysed more than 23,000 tweets from South African professional gamers. The study identifies familiar motivations such as social interaction, sharing information and promotion – but also highlights personal opinions, entrepreneurship and gaming-related issues as important reasons for posting.

The findings show professional gamers using social media not simply to communicate with fans, but to build professional identities and careers, create commercial opportunities, and draw attention to wider issues and causes. Posts addressed topics including toxicity and racism within gaming as well as charitable and social causes.

The research offers an interesting perspective on the transformation of esports and media: as gaming has developed from recreation into a professional industry, players themselves have become content creators and media actors, shaping conversations both within and beyond gaming communities.

📖 Read the open-access article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2026.2730778

28/09/2026

What happens to legal education when AI can do some of the work future lawyers traditionally learn through?

MMTC researcher Yuliya Khvatsik, Assistant Professor in Law at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, recently participated in IE Lawtomation Days 2026 at IE Law School in Madrid.

Yuliya co-organised the panel “AI as a Legal Clinics Killer?” with colleagues from Spain, Poland and Lithuania, exploring how generative AI is changing pro bono work and clinical legal education. Drawing on an exploratory survey of legal-clinic participants and examples of emerging AI-enabled clinical models, the panel considered both the opportunities and challenges. While AI can increase efficiency and potentially improve access to legal assistance, it may also change how future lawyers develop critical thinking, professional responsibility and legal judgment.

One particular concern was a potential “apprenticeship gap”: if AI takes over more of the research, drafting and revision traditionally undertaken by students and junior lawyers, what happens to the learning that occurs through doing that work?

The discussion reflects a broader transformation across professions as AI reshapes not only how work is performed, but also how expertise and professional judgment develop. As the panel asked: If AI removes the work through which novices become experts, where will the next generation of professional judgment come from?

21/09/2026

Innovation in news media does not only come from the top – it can also grow from within the organisation.

A recent article by MMTC affiliate Sari Virta and her coauthors Nando Malmelin, Matti Pihlajamaa, and Johanna Strandholm examines how employees in news media organizations generate, develop, and implement new ideas in their daily work.

Published in Journalism Studies, this research examines intrapreneurship—entrepreneurial activities occurring within established organizations—at two Finnish news media companies. The findings show that renewal is shaped by interconnected practices at the individual, team and organisational levels. Ideas may begin with individuals, but whether they develop further depends on collaboration and on the wider organisational environment that supports them.

The study provides another perspective on media transformation, showing how change takes shape through everyday practices inside organisations as they respond to continuing pressure to innovate and renew.

Read “Intrapreneurial Practices in News Media Organisations: A Multi-level Analysis”: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2026.2728655