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Solveig WikströmProfessor emerita

Om mig

Solveig Wikström is Professor emerita of Business Strategy and Consumption at Stockholm Business School, and a former professor of Marketing and Consumer Affairs, Lund University.  She is an experienced thesis advisor, a former head of the FA-institute for interdisciplinary research on business and work, a member of several research councils and a number of public company boards. She is also  a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Finnish Society of Sciences and the Royal Society of Letters at Lund University.Two of her books have won the award Marketing Book of the year by the Swedish Marketing Federation,  and she has been conferred the scientific Söderberg award for her contribution to consumer research.  

Research

Solveig Wikströms’s research deals continuously with firms’ business and marketing strategy and end-users’ consumption activities, and in particular with the match between the two parties. An often asked question in her research is, why does the match often fail, and what can be done to mitigate this mismatch? At present her research deals with consumer value creation and how to transfer this type of knowledge to firms. Examples of her research interest and her theses advising philosophy over the years are  her research programs. 

In 2003 – 2006 she conducted the research program “Tide - Tangible/Intangible dynamics in the digital Economy" in cooperation with Royal School of Technology involving five PhD students and focusing on how to combine Internet and personal based elements for developing new service channels for complex services. In particular the progam addressed the emergence of new  hybride channels. 

In 1996-2002 she pursued the research program “Consumers in Cyberspace" together with four PhD students. The program addressed consumers' attitudes to and use of the the new  Information and comunication Technology (ICT). The result showed that the consumers needed much more support than what the service providers actually offered. 

Publikationer

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

  • A clash of modernities

    2016. Solveig Wikström, Håkan Jonsson, Patrick L'Espoir Decosta. Journal of Consumer Culture 16 (3), 824-851

    Artikel

    This study addresses the enduring problem of the mismatch between firms' offerings and consumers' desires. It combines the general framework of modernity theory with the concept of regimes and uses the food area as the empirical context. Our cultural analytical study of consumers' and firms' articulation of values of food and meal demonstrates that firms are largely entrenched in the modern era, characterized by rationality, resource efficiency, and progress as means to improve human lives by providing more and better products. The consumers, on the other hand, have shifted to the late modern era, identified by risk aversion, local production, naturalism, hedonism, and a focus on identity and everyday life. The study concludes that the dichotomy in values and the structural constraints inherent within the contemporary food system explain much of the mismatch between firms and consumers in the Swedish food market. Another reason is that firms have difficulties to respond to new consumer demands. Our results are summarized in a conceptual model of differences in values between firms and consumers. They provide guidelines on how firms can rethink the present structure and better understand consumers.

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  • Channel integration

    2005. Daniel Österlund, Solveig Wikström, Ali Yaklef. International Journal of Financial Services Management 1 (1), 26-40

    Artikel
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  • From e-channel to channel mix and channel integration

    2005. Solveig Wikström. Journal of Marketing Management 21 (7-8), 725-753

    Artikel

    Based on longitudinal research, this paper elucidates the evolution of the e-channel. The results show that that the e-channel is still of limited importance in many areas, when measured by market share. However, the new channel is an important source of information boosting both consumer power and capability. Another important result is that firms, as well as consumers, still perceive the e-channel as promising. One reason is that today’s time-pressed consumers are increasingly in need of affordable services to make their everyday life easier, which puts pressure on firms for developing an e-channel capable to perform cost efficient services. An additional result is that the e-channel and the physical channel do, in fact, complement each other rather than only compete. Therefore, to utilise the potential of the echannel, a service provider strategy of channel mix and channel integration is suggested.

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  • In search for viable e-solutions

    2005. Solveig Wikström, Bo Lennstrand, Christian Persson. Consumer driven electronic transformation, 111-127

    Kapitel

    In this paper, we explore the criteria for successful e-commerce. This is done by taking our previous research results on the benefits and shortcomings consumers experience from the e-channel, and compare it with ongoing results on the service qualities of successful e-companies. By integrating these findings, we can identify qualities that characterize e-solutions useful for the consumers and profitable for the firms. We conclude with suggesting two solutions. First, in order to improve the functioning of the website, images of the traditional physical channel should be inserted into website. Second, we propose a strategy where firms integrate the e-channel with the traditional channels, i.e. develop a multi-channel strategy.

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  • In search for viable e-solutions

    2003. Solveig Wikström, Bo Lennstrand, Christian Persson.

    Konferens

    There is quite extensive research available on how consumers experience the e-channel.  However, there are still aspects that are difficult to interpret and fully understand.  In this paper, we will explore this issue by taking our previous research results on the benefits and shortcomings consumers experience from the e-channel, and compare it with ongoing results on the service qualities of successful e-companies.   By integrating these findings, we can identify qualities that characterize e-solutions useful for the consumers and profitable for the firms.  We conclude with the solution to combine the physical elements of the real world with the virtual elements of the e-world.

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  • From real world to mirror world representation

    2002. Solveig Wikström, Camilla Carlell, Maria Frostling-Henningsson. Journal of Business Research 55 (8), 647-654

    Artikel

    Offerings on the Net are assessed using two well-established perspectives on consumer buying behavior — a cognitive decision-making perspective and an emotional experience-seeking perspective. Three models of virtual representation are discussed — the mirror model, the synergy model, and the virtual model. These models, in combination with empirical illustrations of Swedish consumers' virtual buying behavior, indicate which aspects of a virtual representation the consumers perceive as crucial for participation in a new buying behavior and which aspects turn them off. Managerial implications of the assessment are also discussed and questions for future research are posed.

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  • Shopping on the net

    2002. Solveig Wikström, Camilla Carlell, Maria Frostling-Henningsson. Global e-commerce and online marketing, 141-154

    Kapitel
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  • Sweden

    2001. Solveig Wikström, Christian Persson. The ECR Journal, International Commerce Review 1 (1), 27-35

    Artikel
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  • How is value created? - Extending the value concept in the Swedish context

    2018. Solveig Wikström, Patrick L' Espoir Decosta. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 40, 249-260

    Artikel

    This inductive study elaborates on the value concept and unpacks the process of how value is created in the Swedish food industry by combining the theoretical tool of goal hierarchy with the methods of network analysis. Through real world insights, on how consumers and retail firms act and coordinate their activities to fulfill their roles in consumer value creation, this study proposes a differing perspective that extends the value-in-use concept by identifying four sequential consumer activities. They are (i) reflections about what is important (value) in the specific consumption situation (the focal goal), (ii) the starting point of value creation (selection and application of means), (iii) the process involved in providing and enjoying holistic solutions, and (iv) ultimately its contribution to life fulfillment in the sense that value creation is meaningful. Thus, consumers create value by setting clear differential hierarchical goals that include the identification of resources and consumers’ own capacity before choosing the products and using them. The network analyses also reveal an additional space for supporting value creation: firm to firm interactions which add more resources to providers’ support of consumer value creation. The paper provides new real world insights on how consumers and firms act to fulfill their roles in consumer value creation. This knowledge helps retailers to better identify and manage value creation tools to support their customers in value creation.

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