Creating The Most Business-Friendly City In Europe - A case study with the region of Gothenburg - A collaboration with Business Region Göteborg

Sammanfattning: Business Region Göteborg, an organization responsible for the business development in the city of Gothenburg as well as a representative in business issues for the 13 municipalities in the Gothenburg region, has developed a strategic business program with the overall objective that the Gothenburg region should be Europe’s most business-friendly city by 2035. Because the program needs approval in each of the 13 municipal councils the program is constructed in a way so that it can be modified as deemed most suitable and relevant for each municipality. Elaborating on this topic, this report aims to examine how the 13 municipalities are working practically with two of the focus areas of the program, business climate and innovative power as well as investigating what is needed in order to achieve the regional goals by 2035. Thus, the business manager for each of the 13 municipalities have been interviewed to gather a wide range of qualitative data from every municipality in the region. The empirical data gathered from the interviews have been coded, analyzed, and discussed in relation to existing studies and literature on theoretical fields such as open innovation, business climate, innovation, and managing for a higher purpose. In terms of the focus area business climate, the municipalities are found to be measuring their performance on business climate primarily through rankings such as the one conducted by Svenskt Näringsliv, meaning that their measures primarily include more company visits. The findings from this report rather suggests that creating a stronger and more attractive offering for new establishments as well as a clearer profile in certain industries could be more impactful long-term solutions. Regarding innovative power, it becomes evident that there is a lack of common understanding on this term, meaning that the municipalities’ approaches are very diverse, with many taking next to no direct actions. Thus, this report finds that there is a need to align all stakeholders and work to find a shared view and overall vision for this area. Additionally, increased communication and collaboration is found to be one concrete measure through which the innovative power can be increased. Drawing on the scope and focus of this report, possible areas of future research were identified as examining this program and its realization through the lens of the private companies within the region, further exploring which role public procurement can play in facilitating and promoting innovation, as well as analyzing and applying the concept of open innovation in the public sector.