Swedish Industry Research Articles

Prevalence of problem drinking in the Swedish workforce: differences between labour market industries based on gender composition and main job activity

BackgroundIdentifying problem drinking patterns across industries is essential for addressing drinking problems in the workforce. Still, it is not well understood how problem drinking differs across industries and whether it is associated with industry gender composition. This study aimed to measure the prevalence of problem drinking (PPD) across Swedish industries and investigate possible associations between gender-typed industries and problem drinking.Methods9,155 current workers were selected from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) data collected in 2020. Participants’ work industries were identified through the Swedish Standard Industrial Classification (SNI) codes. Seven gender-typed industry categories were created based on gender composition and main job activity in each industry. Self-reported problem drinking was measured using a slightly modified Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilt, Eye-opener (CAGE) questionnaire and a cut-off score 2 was used to determine problem drinking. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was used to investigate the association between gender-typed industries and problem drinking.ResultsPPD in the workforce was 6.6%. Men (8.5%) had a higher prevalence than women (5.3%). Across industries, PPD varied from 2.3% in Water supply and waste management to 15.4% in Mining and quarrying. The highest prevalence for men was in Mining and quarrying (18.2%), whereas for women it was in Construction (11.1%). Within gender-typed industries, the highest PPD was in male-dominated Goods and Energy Production (7.7%), and the lowest was in female-dominated Health and Social Care (4.7%). In the regression analysis, both Education (aPR: 1.39, p = 0.03) and Labour-intensive Services (aPR: 1.39, p = 0.02) had higher adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) compared with Health and Social Care. However, there was no significant difference in aPR among gender-typed industries when considering the gender composition of industries only.ConclusionsPPD in the Swedish workforce varied significantly across industries, with differences observed between men and women. Problem drinking differed between industries when categorized by gender composition and main job activity, but not when categorized by gender composition only. Future research should investigate how industry-specific psychosocial factors influence individual alcohol consumption.

Joint research for tomorrow’s circular plastic systems

Joint research for tomorrow’s circular plastic systems Filip Johnsson and Henrik Thunman from Chalmers University of Technology perform collaborative research for developing circular plastics systems that can contribute to long-term sustainable use of plastics, while simultaneously reduce the presence of plastics in nature. The presence of large amounts of plastic in the world’s oceans is a growing problem, and current collection and recycling systems are inadequate. Yet society is heavily reliant on plastics, not least in the food industry, where plastics have valuable abilities to protect food, contribute to long shelf life, and reduce food waste. Chalmers University of Technology, together with Swedish industry, performs joint research for tomorrow’s circular plastic systems.

Foreign investment in Swedish industry on the eve of World War One

ABSTRACT During the half-century before World War One (WWI), Sweden was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but also one of the most indebted. While the role of foreign capital for public investments during this period is emphasised in previous research, its importance for the funding of Swedish industry is commonly de-emphasised. The conventional view is that since public investments could be financed by foreign money, this relieved pressure from domestic financial markets and made it possible to fund Swedish industry through domestic savings. Using balance sheet data for a large sample of Swedish industrial joint-stock companies in 1908 we show that, while it is true that only a small percentage of Swedish industrial shares were owned from abroad, foreign investments were much more important for new and dynamic industries (e.g. pulp and paper, electromechanics, and chemicals). Companies with foreign-owned shares were also more profitable, and had a much lower risk of bankruptcy over the ensuing decades. In fact, out of the 230 companies with foreign-owned shares in 1908, 103 (45 percent) were still in business fifty years later. This suggests that foreign capital was considerably more important for Swedish industrial development than what is commonly argued.

Investigating the impact of digital transformation on manufacturers’ Business model: Insights from Swedish industry

Digital transformation (DT) triggers a fundamental technological shift in industry enabling the creation of smart and connected factories. DT is not only a technology-driven innovation approach: it also requires changes of the Business Model (BM). Despite this, there is a lack of comprehensive studies that examine how aspects of manufacturing digitalisation align with the Business Model Innovation (BMI) process. To address this gap, this paper analyses the DT journey of several Swedish medium and large firms through semi-structured interviews with staff involved in such process. The empirical findings reveal that the BM elements addressing value creation and strategy aspects are the most affected by DT. Additionally, this study identifies the links among such elements. The findings are compiled in a holistic framework that can serve as a blueprint for practitioners seeking to adopt digital technologies in their production environments. This holistic approach aims at supporting practitioners to understand the BMI process triggered by DT and consequently aligning their manufacturing strategy with the BM’s components.

Barriers and Facilitators for Usage of Self-Compacting Concrete—An Interview Study

Workers in the construction industry must endure different weather conditions, long working hours, and engage in repetitive and strenuous jobs with unrealistic deadlines. Sick leaves, caused by accidents and by work-related diseases, are common in the construction industry. Hand–arm vibration from hand-held power tools is a cause of significant ill health (disorders of the blood vessels, nerves, and joints). Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a fluid concrete and does not need to be vibrated. Despite the health advantages of SCC, its market share in Sweden is lower than in comparable countries. The aim of this article is to describe views, opinions, and knowledge concerning the work environment and health in concrete casting and to identify barriers and facilitators of SCC usage. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 interviewees from the construction industry in Sweden. The answers were analysed from a human–technology–organisation (HTO) perspective in order to identify barriers and facilitators for a broader usage of SCC. The results indicate that knowledge about SCC is low within the Swedish construction industry, including educational institutions; when SCC is chosen, it is chosen exclusively due to its technical characteristics, and not because it eliminates vibrations. Barriers to a broader usage of SCC comprise an incomplete knowledge base, clients who never choose it, recipes that are said to be too demanding, and workplace traditions. Facilitators comprise large companies investing in knowledge development about SCC and engaged persons promoting it. This study used an HTO-based model (BTOH) to identify barriers and facilitators for a broader usage of SCC, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of reasons for the low usage of SCC and ways of increasing it.

Cost-optimal CO2 capture and transport infrastructure—A case study of Sweden

This work applies a mixed integer cost-minimisation model to identify cost-optimal carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure systems. The modelling applies two types of incentives for CCS implementation: carbon pricing, and binding emissions budgets. Both incentive schemes are applied with and without accounting for CO2 capture from biogenic emissions sources. In the case of CO2 pricing, biogenic CO2 capture is implemented by letting each ton of biogenic CO2 captured generate value for the model equivalent to the cost of emitting one ton of fossil CO2. In the case of emissions budgets, biogenic CO2 capture is included by allowing the model to use both biogenic and fossil CO2 capture to stay within the budget. The main fossil and biogenic emissions sources in Swedish industry are used as a case study.The results show that incentivising carbon removal has a significant impact on the design and development of the cost optimal system for CCS if there are suitable biogenic emission sources available for implementing biogenic CO2 capture. The timing for investments in carbon capture is highly dependent on the discount rate - increasing the discount rate in the modelling from 5 % to 15 % delays the first investments in CO2 capture by three years. To facilitate technology development and timely implementation of CCS on biogenic and fossil sources, it is important to consider that inclusion of carbon dioxide removal into the policy regime controlling fossil fuel emissions, might result in that the cost optimal strategy will be a delay in fossil fuel mitigation.

Competence Challenges and Strategies in Swedish Family SMEs – The Role of Industry Affiliation and Location

In recent decades, it has become increasingly difficult for rural firms to attract workers with specialised skills, and employment rates have decreased. A majority of rural firms are family SMEs. Family SMEs are, therefore, important contributors to employment in rural areas. In spite of this, little attention has been given to rural family SMEs in terms of competence management, geographical location and comparative industry affiliation. Thus, the aim of this qualitative multiple case study of two labour-intensive industries in Sweden is to explore how industry affiliation and geographical location affect competence management in rural family SMEs using the resource-based view. The findings show that irrespective of industry affiliation, rural family SMEs face similar competence challenges as a consequence of their rural setting, and the examined industries employ similar yet different strategies to moderate the negative effects of these competence challenges. Due to the scarcity of internal competencies, rural family SMEs rely on coopetition, local networks, and mutual industry-specific recruitment to make ends meet. The finding that rural family SMEs gain a competitive advantage by cooperating with competitors contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the resource-based view, where competitive firm resources are mainly managed internally in the firm.

Digital transformation of the wood construction supply chain through building information modelling: current state of practice

PurposeThis study aims to present a state-of-the-art review of building information modelling (BIM) in the Swedish construction practice with a focus on wood construction. It focuses on examining the extent, maturity and actual practices of BIM in the Swedish wood construction industry, by analysing practitioners’ perspectives on the current state of BIM and its perceived benefits.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was selected, given the study’s exploratory character. Initially, an extensive review was undertaken to examine the current state of BIM utilisation and its associated advantages within the construction industry. Subsequently, empirical data were acquired through semi-structured interviews featuring open-ended questions, aimed at comprehensively assessing the prevailing extent of BIM integration within the Swedish wood construction sector.FindingsThe research concluded that the wood construction industry in Sweden is shifting towards BIM on different levels, where in some cases, the level of implementation is still modest. It should be emphasised that the wood construction industry in Sweden is not realising the full potential of BIM. The industry is still using a combination of BIM and traditional methods, thus, limiting the benefits that full BIM implementation could offer the industry.Originality/valueThis study provided empirical evidence on the current perceptions and state of practice of the Swedish wood construction industry regarding BIM maturity.

Analysing transitions in-the-making: A case study of aviation in Sweden

The aim of this paper is to analyse contemporary transitions in the aviation industry in Sweden. We take a durational perspective to consider narratives as coordinating mechanism in sustainability transitions. We find that industry actors are constructing narratives for alternative aircraft fuels and technologies as they seek to maintain aviation's societal function whilst mitigating its climate impact. By reconciling memories of the past with their expectations for the future, narratives act to coordinate actors’ transition activities in the present. In this way, narrative are more than an initiator of transitions, but constitute paths in-the-making, highlighting the agency of actors in enacting change in the present and shaping sustainability transitions of the future.

Moisture gradients in sawn timber during aggressive kiln drying investigated with X-ray computed tomography

ABSTRACT Reducing the time for drying sawn timber to a certain moisture level without deteriorating its quality is increasingly important for an economic and energy-efficient industrial timber-drying process and to support the transition to a sustainable society. It is, however, crucial to ensure that the quality of the timber, i.e. the degree of distortion, cracking, discolouration, and moisture variation within and between the pieces in a drying batch, is not compromised. Drying-simulation software tend to be too conservative in drying-rate recommendations, which has been observed in practise particularly for large cross-section timber of Norway spruce. This study investigated the drying rate and checking occurrence of centre-yielded Norway spruce planks when dried with more aggressive schedules than normally used in practise, i.e. using higher dry-bulb temperatures and/or lower relative humidities than recommended in the conventional optimisation programmes used in the sawmill industry in Sweden. The objective was to investigate the possibility to considerably reduce the total drying time without compromising the quality of the dried timber. The quality of the planks was indirectly assessed by estimating their moisture-content distributions, calculating the moisture gradients and monitoring checking. This was achieved with 4D (3D + time) X-ray computed tomography and a recently developed image processing algorithm based on elastic image registration. The key findings in this study suggest that Norway spruce timber can be dried with significantly higher temperatures and lower relative humidities than suggested by simulations, leading to reduced total drying time without inducing checking. This methodology can help to improve the design of drying schedules to reduce drying time and energy consumption while maintaining timber quality at a level accepted by the customers.

240 years of Swedish terms of trade – structure, volatility, and connection to economic growth

In this paper we present new foreign trade- and price data to analyze Swedish terms of trade in the very long run, from 1780 to 2018. We examine what influenced the trend in the terms of trade in the long run, particularly in how it related to the general trade structure. We also analyze the volatility of the terms of trade, and discuss how it might have affected economic growth in Sweden. The index improved slowly but substantially over the century from 1850 to 1950, which was likely connected to another poignant trend, a steadily increasing share of manufactures and finished goods in the export basket. In comparative perspective, Sweden had more industrial exports and lower export concentration than most of the rest of the European periphery, as well as much lower terms of trade volatility. We find that the growth trend and low volatility of Swedish terms of trade was positively connected with economic growth, but only really so from about 1850 to 1913. During this period the development of the terms of trade was particularly connected to increasing investment in new industries. The years from 1914 to 1960 were on the other hand characterized by high volatility in the terms of trade, and was still connected to high growth rates, such as during the interwar period. Hence, we conclude that while low volatility was connected to the onset of Swedish industrialization, it was also possible to maintain high growth rates during periods of high terms of trade volatility.

Sickness absence after work injuries and post-traumatic stress among white-collar workers

Abstract Background There is very little knowledge about sickness absence (SA) and disability pension (DP) after work injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among white collar workers. The aim was to examine diagnosis-specific SA and DP after healthcare due to a workplace injury and PTSD, respectively, among white-collar workers in the wholesale and retail industry in Sweden. Methods A prospective population-based cohort study of all 192,077 such white-collar workers (44% women) in Sweden in 2012, using linked microdata from three nationwide registers covering 2012-2016. We identified individuals who had specialised out- or inpatient healthcare due to a work injury (n = 1114) or to PTSD (n = 216) in the years 2012-2016. Their average number of net days of diagnosis-specific SA and DP was calculated for the 365 days before and 365 days after the healthcare visit. Results 64% of women and 45% of the men had at least one new SA spell during the 365 days after healthcare due to a work injury. On average, women had 14 SA/DP days the year before the injury and 31 days after; corresponding days for men were 9 and 21 days. SA days with fractures and with other injuries increased most, while SA days with mental diagnoses increased slightly. In the PTSD group, 80% of women and 65% of men had a new SA spell. Women's SA/DP days increased from 121 to 157 and men's from 112 to 174. SA with stress-related disorders and other mental diagnoses increased most, while DP with stress-related diagnoses and SA with musculoskeletal diagnoses increased slightly. Conclusions About half of those who had healthcare due to work injuries, and the majority of those who had PTSD, had new SA following the healthcare. SA due to diagnoses related to injury and mental diagnoses, respectively, increased most, however, SA/DP days due to other diagnoses also increased slightly. More knowledge is needed on factors associated with having or not having SA/DP with different diagnoses after work injuries and PTSD. Key messages • About half of those who had specialised healthcare due to work injuries, and the majority of those who had PTSD, had new SA in the following 365 days. • Individuals with healthcare for PTSD had more SA/DP days both before and after their healthcare visit than those with work injuries, but individuals with work injuries had a larger increase.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Swedish cement industry – logistics collaboration potentials in the Baltic area

The cement industry in Sweden is facing a major climate change. A central part of the transition is carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is to be implemented in the Swedish largest cement production site on Gotland by 2030. For CCS to be realized, a reliable cost- and environmentally efficient logistics system for CO2 is required, which for the Swedish cement production on Gotland means CO2-transport by ship. A research project has been initiated during 2023 with the aim of increasing the cement industry’s knowledge and understanding of possible CO2 logistics systems for CCS. The project takes a larger innovation system approach of CCS by mapping current knowledge about CO2-logistics for CCS and emerging industrial and logistics actors in the Baltic area and North Sea. Further, logistics scenarios from the perspective of the cement industry will be investigated as well as opportunities for fossil-free CO2-shipping and business models for the cement industry’s CO2-logistics. The Baltic area includes heavy CO2 emitting industries both from cement production as well as steel, pulp & paper, power & heat with locations nearby a port, in which there are several initiatives to apply CCS. Further research will investigate how different types of cross-border collaborations could influence the efficiency of the CO2-logistics system. The project supports the cement industry's decisions regarding processes for the design of CO2-logistics arrangements for CCS.

Evidence of Unrecognized Indoor Exposure to Toxic Chlorophenols and Odorous Chloroanisoles in Denmark, Finland, and Norway

Production and use of chlorophenols (CPs) are being phased out around the globe, but with considerable lag in some highly populated countries. The process could be incentivized by leading countries sharing their experiences on problems that occurred, including the built environment. We previously reported that Swedish industry and authorities promoted CPs, including pentachlorophenol (PCP), as wood preservatives in buildings for decades. Yet, Swedish indoor research did not recognize exposure to the hazardous CPs and their odor potent derivatives, the chloroanisoles (CAs), which smell like mold and still evolve from legacy preservatives in damp building structures. We hypothesized that the toxic CPs and odorous CAs could be key players for health and odor problems not only in Sweden but also in the neighboring Nordic countries. We found no reports in scientific medical literature of CPs being used in buildings in these countries. However, grey literature shows that CPs were indeed used, even during building booms, in house exteriors, constructions, and interiors, from the 1950s up to the late 1970s (Denmark) and even the 1990s (Finland and Norway). One application of CPs was in houses erected on dampness-prone house foundations, conditions ideal for formation of odorous CAs through microbial methylation. Furthermore, our searches suggest that these problematic chemicals played hitherto unrecognized key roles when indoor air research evolved. Thus, odor became an important aspect of the “sick building syndrome” in Denmark and an early warning sign of health risks in Finland, as asthma and allergy were attributed to “dampness and mold.” None of the countries addressed the possible links between odor and health effects and exposure to CAs and CPs. In conclusion, our results suggest that unrecognized indoor exposure to toxic CPs and odorous CAs has mislead Nordic indoor air research for decades.

Design and Fabrication of a Canted-Cosine-Theta Double Aperture Orbit Corrector Dipole for the LHC

A prototype CCT dipole magnet developed by a collaboration between Swedish universities, Swedish industry and CERN will be tested at Uppsala University. This 1 m long double-aperture magnet can provide a field strength of 3.3 T at 85 A in a 70 mm aperture with an integrated field of 2.8 Tm. It is intended to replace the current LHC orbit corrector magnets which are reaching the end of their expected life due to the radiation load. The new magnet is designed to handle the radiation dose of the upgrade to the high-luminosity LHC, which will deliver about ten times the current radiation dose. It must therefore be more resistant to radiation and meet strict requirements in terms of electrical insulation while matching the original field quality and self-protective capability, mechanical volume, and maximum excitation current. This paper will present the latest of the design and manufacturing work, including the results of simulations of the mechanical field and the mechanical stress. Details of the various tests performed before machining the parts are also presented.

Relation between αS1-casein, genotype, and quality traits of milk from Swedish dairy goats

Locally produced food is becoming popular among Swedish consumers. One product that has increased in popularity is artisan-manufactured goat cheese, and although the dairy goat industry in Sweden is small-scale, production is gradually increasing. In goats, the CSN1S1 gene regulates expression of the protein αS1-casein (αS1-CN), which has been found to be important for cheese yield. Over the years, breeding animals have been imported to Sweden from Norway. Historically, a high frequency of the Norwegian goat population carried a polymorphism at the CSN1S1 gene. This polymorphism, called the Norwegian null allele (D), leads to zero or significantly reduced expression of αS1-CN. Using milk samples from 75 goats, this study investigated associations between expression of αS1-CN and genotype at the CSN1S1 gene on milk quality traits from Swedish Landrace goats. Milk samples were grouped according to relative level of αS1-CN (low: 0-6.9% of total protein; medium-high: 7-25% of total protein) and genotype (DD, DG, DA/AG/AA). While the D allele leads to extremely low expression of αS1-CN, the G allele is low expressing and the A allele is highly expressing for this protein. Principal component analysis was used to explore the total variation in milk quality traits. To evaluate the effect of different allele groups on milk quality attributes, 1-way ANOVA and Tukey pairwise comparison tests were used. The majority (72%) of all goat milk samples investigated showed relative αS1-CN content of 0% to 6.82% of total protein. The frequency of individuals homozygous for the Norwegian null allele (DD) was 59% in the population of sampled goats, and only 15% carried at least one A allele. A low relative concentration of αS1-CN was associated with lower total protein, higher pH, and higher relative concentration of β-casein and levels of free fatty acids. Milk from goats homozygous for the null allele (DD) showed a similar pattern as milk with low relative concentration of αS1-CN, but total protein was only numerically lower, and somatic cell count and αS2-CN were higher than for the other genotypes. The associations between levels of αS1-CN and the investigated genotype at the CSN1S1 gene indicate a need for a national breeding program for Swedish dairy goats.

RE-THINKING DESIGN REPRESENTATIONS IN DESIGN EDUCATION: AN INTERVIEW STUDY WITH PROFESSIONAL DESIGNERS

AbstractDesign representations are important tools for designers in the design process. To help designers choose the appropriate representation, taxonomies have been proposed based on type, degree of fidelity, and when to use them. However, Design representations may also play an important role in designers' communication with users and enabling users as co-designers. Therefore, new taxonomies, focusing on design representations’ potential mediating roles in collaborative design processes with users, have been developed. The purpose of this interview study, with twelve designers within Swedish industry, was thus to investigate how designers use design representations in communication with users in the design process. The study indicates that the designers mainly interacted with users in order for them to answer specific design questions or to evaluate design solutions. If design representations’ value for facilitating communication and collaboration with users should be emphasized, we need to shift from teaching mainly taxonomies related to fidelity levels or when to use them in the design process, and rather educate future designers about design representations inherent potential to mediate and enhance the dialogue with users.

Springboard internationalisation in times of geopolitical tensions

Geopolitical tensions and a world where state interventions are driven by national security and ideology present novel challenges for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Often, individual companies are targeted, and their corporate growth gets curbed. These phenomena are derived from non-market factors, which are generally absent in the springboard view of the international business discourse that explains the foreign expansion of EMNEs by viewing these firms as ambidextrous organisations capable of handling conflicting requirements. This research aims to understand the international expansion of EMNEs under geopolitical tensions by incorporating non-market factors into the ambidexterity model to enrich the springboard view. A case study of Huawei and its exclusion from the telecommunications industry in Sweden forms the empirical base of this research. The contributions are twofold. First, within the springboard view, the ambidexterity model can be upgraded by incorporating non-market factors that better explain the international expansion of EMNEs in changing geopolitical and business contexts. Second, the research highlights the management of EMNEs' subsidiaries while considering geopolitical tensions.

The significance of feminist infrastructure: #MeToo in the construction industry and the green industry in Sweden

AbstractTo better understand the interplay between digital activism and feminist infrastructure, this study investigates #MeToo activism in the Swedish construction industry and green industry. Both are industries in transition characterized by a dissonance between formal incentives, that encourage women and others to work in environments previously dominated by white men, and the informal power structures hosting a toxic masculinity. Based on media texts and interviews with key persons from the industries, the article situates #MeToo in a local context and shows how it was embedded in a supportive social, cultural, and technical infrastructure. In both industries, at the time of #MeToo this feminist infrastructure was already in place consisting of: an awareness of the problem of sexual harassment and abuse, knowledge of feminist explanatory models, established feminist online networks, and a supportive feminist culture, which together with widespread digital and feminist literacy became instrumental in the organization of the movement. Social media connected activists and created a critical mass by supporting the uniting of conflicting identity positions around shared differences. The established feminist infrastructure meant that the #MeToo activism, by articulating a widespread affective dissonance, pushed open doors that were already half open and forced them wide. This can explain some of the movement's success in Sweden.

Modeling the development of a carbon capture and transportation infrastructure for Swedish industry

This work presents and applies a mixed integer programming (MIP) optimization model that minimizes the net present costs for CO2 capture and storage (CCS) systems for cases with defined emissions costs and/or capture targets. The model covers capture from existing large point sources of CO2 emissions in Sweden, liquefaction, intermediate storage and transportation using trucks to hubs on the coast, followed by ship transport to a storage location (excluding storage cost). The results show that the capture and transportation infrastructure, in terms of both the sites chosen for capture and the associated transportation setup, differs depending on whether the system is incentivized to capture biogenic or fossil CO2, or both. Waste-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants are only chosen for capture at scale when biogenic capture targets and fossil emissions costs are combined, since the emissions from these sites comprise a combination of biogenic and fossil CO2. The value for the system in mitigating the costs from fossil CO2 emissions exceeds the increased cost of BECCS at waste-fired CHPs compared to larger pulp mills given the fossil emissions cost development assumed in this work. Although the cost for capture and liquefaction dominates the total cost of the CCS system, it is not the only factor determining the choice of sites for capture. Proximity to transport hubs with short offshore transportation distances to the final storage location is also an important factor. For the transportation infrastructure, it is shown that the cost for ships is the main cost driver.