SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Department of Business and Economic Studies, University of Gävle

Postal address: Företagsekonomi, Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi, Högskolan i Gävle, SE- 801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Visiting adress: House Embla, Kungsbäcksvägen 47
Web page: http://www.hig.se/Organisation/Akademier/Akademin-for-utbildning-och-ekonomi/Avdelningar/Avdelningen-for-ekonomi/Foretagsekonomi.html

Contact persons: Professor Akmal Hyder, phone: +46 (0)26 64 86 31. Personal web page
                            Associate professor Maria Fregidou-Malama, phone: +46 (0)26 64 86 87

South Asia related research

Akmal Hyder is professor and chair in Business Administration. He has earned his Ph.D. in 1988 from Uppsala University. After the completion of the doctoral examination, he served as a researcher in Forestry Marketing for five years at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Later he joined Mid-Sweden University and had been in charge of graduate and undergraduate courses and theses in business for a couple of years. At the University of Gävle, where he is at the moment serving, became associate professor in 1999 and full professor in 2006.
Professor Hyder leads two research projects. One project deals with sustainable business relations in culturally distant countries. This study explores the impact of cultural differences on forming and applying business relation-ships within international business establishments. It aims to develop network theory by introducing the concept of cultural differences and also examine the applicability of a cultural network model in describing how networks are built, developed and sustained in culturally distant countries. The other project looks on the post merger situation in Nordea. The major issues discussed in the project include organizational culture, adaptation and competence development.

Collaboration project with Bangladesh

The Dept. of Business and Economic Studies is involved in a Linnaeus Palme exchange programme with the American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) in Dhaka. Initial support was provided by the International Programme Office for Education and Training (Internationella Programkontoret) in March 2009, for the period 1 July 2009 – 30 June 2010 (more information).
The contact person on the Bangladeshi side is Professor Anwar Hossain, Pro-Vice Chancellor at AIUB.
As part of the exchange programme, Prof. Akmal Hyder and Dr. Fregidou-Malama went to Bangladesh to visit AIUB in October 2009. The purpose of their visit was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AIUB on collaborative research projects, academic development programmes, exchange of researchers, academic staff and students, and exchange of publications, reports and other academic information. During their stay in Bangladesh Prof. Hyder and Dr. Malama attended several meetings with the top officials of AIUB. More information.
A reciprocal visit was made by Prof. Anwar Hossain to Gävle University in April 2010.

Students from the department have been on Minor Field Studies tours to Bangladesh. During April-May 2011, the students Marlene Ruth and Elham Nikkhah made a field study on ”Microfinance – a positive or a negative impact on the women in rural Bangladesh”.