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STOCKHOLM SCHOOL
OF ECONOMICS

Courses and Schedule

The CFR Research School consists of three academic courses and a total of 20.0 ECTS will be offered. In all three courses, participants will have the opportunity to present and discuss their research with faculty as well as practitioners. This will provide the students with a breadth of insights and suggestions for how to further improve their PhD research. Generally, the courses are structured in the following manner:

  1. Preparations and readings at the students' home institutions.
  2. 3-4 days meet-up in Stockholm for lectures, seminars and Business Collaboration Events. 
  3. Students work on assignments at their home institutions.
  4. Possible second meet-up digitally. E.g. presentations of students' work, feedback, further lectures and seminars.
  5. Students finalize course work at their home institutions. 
  6. Examination – either at CFR/Digitally (e.g. paper presentations) or at their home institutions (e.g. take-home exam or paper). 

However, due to the digital tools now being employed by many organizations around the world, this format might be tweaked for one or more of the courses in the school. Below, the three courses are described at a general level. The details are managed by the head teachers together with the research school director.

Past, Present, and Future of Retail Research (7.5 ECTS)

Course Directors: Sara Rosengren, Professor (Stockholm School of Economics) and Anne Roggeveen, Professor (Babson College, US)
Place: Kämpasten, Sigtuna
Date: August 20-23, 2024

This course introduces the retail research canon, spanning early works in in-store marketing to the latest research on sustainability and digitalization in retailing. The reading list is multi-disciplinary with a focus on articles published in the leading academic retailing journal: Journal of Retailing. The purpose of the course is to guide the participants in the many areas of retailing research, discuss the topics and their relevance, and to discover promising avenues for future research in collaboration with industry experts from companies and organizations. 

Methods in Retail Research (5 ECTS)

Course Director: Wiley Wakeman, Assistant Professor (Stockholm School of Economics)
Place: Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm
Date: October 14-17, 2024

Retail research includes many and varied methodologies, ranging from in-store experiments to big data analysis to case studies and ethnography and more. This course will cover various methods but will have a particular focus on the gathering and analysis of field data, which is increasingly used in order to heighten the relevance of retail research. The course will cover several different methodological avenues when it comes to data collection and analysis, such as experiments, econometrics, as well as more qualitative methods. To achieve this, we invite instructors from different disciplines and universities. These researchers will share their in-depth knowledge of their preferred methods and give the participants an overview of the diverse nature of retail research.

Balancing an academic career (7.5 ECTS)

Course Director: Jonas Colliander, Associate Professor (Stockholm School of Economics)
Place: Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm
Date: February 3-7, 2025

This course is centered around the concept of relevance in an academic career. However, it is not just centered on relevance in research, even though part of the course is about how to build a research trajectory that has practical and theoretical relevance. In addition, this course aims to prepare participants for other facets of an academic career. Being an academic researcher means being part of the academic community. With this comes many challenges. That includes teaching at various programs, reviewing of both conference and journal papers, as well as aquiring research funding. Navigating this landscape can be tricky, and the course aims to shed light on these aspects.

The discussions on relevance in teaching will be centered around how to reach all students in a classroom as well as the challenges of teaching students at various levels of study. It will be capped by a full-day executive education module where participants and practitioners are brought together in an session that focuses on the retail businesses' current and future performance. The purpose here is two-fold. Firstly, participants will experience a teaching format that is new to many, but that is increasing at business schools worldwide. Secondly, it helps build an understanding for contemporary retailing at the same time as it provides unique networking opportunities for both researchers and practitioners.

The parts of the course focusing on relevance in reviewing and research funding are more practical and hands-on. Participants will be taught by experienced faculty on how to improve these skills. At the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of academic life as well as a set of tangible skills that will help further their careers.