AI-Management is a theme under the Centre for Transdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence for the Good of All (TAIGA) at Umeå University. The theme focuses upon how AI can be used as a resource in organizational settings. AI management is organized by research environments at the Department of Business Administration and www.scdi.se at the department of Informatics. More information about TAIGA at www.umu.se/en/centre-for-transdisciplinary-ai.
Audit quality
A central research issue is to understand the underlying factors determining the audit quality and demand for audit services. The key topics of the research include, inter alia, influential factors affecting, for example, the characteristics of an auditor signing an audit report, as well as the structure and roles of an audit team. Other topics have to do with the ways in which investors and creditors react towards different audit quality levels and different types of external attestation, auditors' salaries, factors affecting audit fees, and whether information contained in audit reports and management reports can be used in order to predict bankruptcies.
Financial decisions and risk-taking by individuals
The research focuses on individual financial decisions and risk-taking as well as on factors governing individual decisions relating to financial risk. The main topics include, for example, understanding of pension savings outcomes, individual participation in financial markets, as well as the role of financial accounting information in individual decision-taking.
PIN - Projects, Innovation and Networks
Research in the field of PIN focuses on the profound challenges faced by society when trying to expand the organizational and business sector boundaries in order to make effective preparations for uncertainty and change in order to promote innovation and boost competitiveness. PIN consists of five partially overlapping research programs: Business incubation and business development, Extreme Environments - Everyday Decision (TripleED), Open innovation, Competition, Temporary Organization.
ROBUST - Research Institute for Organization and Business in Sustainable Transitions
Research in business sustainability focuses on ethical, social and environmental issues and how these affect the surrounding community. Our research seeks to improve our understanding of problems and issues encountered by individuals and organizations over time. Sustainability in business consists of several research projects involving both senior researchers and doctoral students. These projects can be found in all the business administration sub-disciplines, and have to do with, for example, sustainable business models and entrepreneurship, social innovation, sustainable consumption and reporting.
The research program Extreme Environments – Everyday Decisions (TripleED) does research on so called extreme contexts – settings where people may get hurt or killed – with the aim of improving society’s capability to handle current and future crises. The research program is interdisciplinary and international. The research team consists of researchers from pedagogy, computer science, sociology, and business administration; with their base in Sweden, United kingdom, and Canada. To reach the aim the research, for instance, explores organizational routines, leadership, sensemaking, collective action, change leadership, diversity and inclusion perspectives on settings such as the Police, Armed Forces, County Administrative Boards, mountaineering expeditions and rescuers, ski guiding and health care. TripleED organizes the ”Organizing Extreme Contexts” network. The network consists of more than 700 researchers from around the world. (www.organizingextremecontexts.org). More information about TripleED at www.tripleED.com.
Economics
CERE - Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics
CERE is an interdisciplinary research center involving collaboration between Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in the field of environmental, energy and natural resources economics. The center is located at USBE at the Department of Economics. CERE's research team belongs to one of the most prominent in Europe as regards issues concerning natural resources, green accounting, valuation methods of non-market goods and services, conflict resolution and policy design in the areas of environment, climate and energy. They hold seminars and workshops in the subject area, link together various research groups and act as a platform for creative and strong research in the area.
Economic policy has been a common theme for much of the research in Economics at Umeå University during the last two decades. It also represents a research area which the university prioritizes and which has received additional grants from Umeå University by means of a five-year start-up professor package. Researchers belonging to the network study economic policy approaching a wide range of issues relating to different areas, such as public economics, behavioral economics, markets where public and private actors meet, labour market economics and empirical methods.
Research at the Department of Statistics focuses on developing statistical methods and software for the analysis of large and complex collections of data. This research is of great importance to society, and the researchers collaborate with various government authorities which perform evaluation studies based on registry data. Among interesting research projects can be mentioned those evaluating labour market employment policy programs, quality of medical care, large-scale proficiency tests and international knowledge assessments.
Stat4Reg - Statistical research laboratory for the analysis of registry data
Stat4Reg is a research laboratory at the Department of Statistics, being run in collaboration with partners from other university units, for example, CEDAR (Centre for Demographic and Aging Research) and Umea's SIMSAM Laboratory which offers the world's most unique research infrastructure for registries. Registry-based research is a high priority research area at Umeå University, and Stat4Reg is financed by university grants by means of a five-year start-up professor package as well as external funding from the largest Swedish research financiers.
In addition to our own research environments our researchers are also active in other research environments, such as CERUM (Center for Regional Science), CEDAR (Center for Demographic and Aging Research), CiiiR (Centre for Inter-Organizational Innovation Research), USGS (Umeå Center for Gender Research), RSAI (The Regional Science Association Sweden) and UFBI (Umeå Center for Functional Brain Imaging).
