NHH will conduct research on the consequences of the coronavirus for working life

Lasse lien
‘We are very happy with the grant, but not surprised. When we looked at the criteria for the grant compared to the expertise we could draw on, we felt that we would be very difficult to match,’ says Professor Lasse B Lien (photo), who leads the project together with Professor Kjell G Salvanes.
NHH By Ingrid Aarseth Johannessen

28 August 2020 11:11

NHH will conduct research on the consequences of the coronavirus for working life

The Norwegian School of Economics will receive NOK four million from the Research Council of Norway to conduct research on how COVID-19 affects companies’ knowledge competence and their new digital everyday life.

NHH is among the nine institutions to receive funding from the Research Council to conduct research on the consequences of the coronavirus for the economy and labour market.

The NHH project is affiliated to the Department of Strategy and Management and the Department of Economics. It consists of an interdisciplinary research team from the FAIR centre and Digital Transformation Hub (The HUB). The team are experts in labour economics, strategy, sociology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

‘We are very happy with the grant, but not surprised. When we looked at the criteria for the grant compared to the expertise we could draw on, we felt that we would be very difficult to match,’ says Professor Lasse B Lien, who leads the project together with Professor Kjell G Salvanes.

IN-DEPTH EXPERTISE

The project will look at how and why companies change their knowledge competence in response to the coronavirus pandemic and cyclical downturn. They will also conduct research on the consequences of cyclical downturns for the labour market and how it creates inequalities.

‘The strength of the project is based on three things in particular. We have significant experience of how crises and economic downturns affect employees and the labour market.

The second thing is that it is very interesting to see how this crisis affects and is affected by digitalisation. The initiative and expertise of The HUB give us gravitas in this area. The last thing is that we have mobilised a group with different, but complementary expertise,’ says Lien.

‘MORE DIGITALISED BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY’

The NHH professor believes that the coronavirus crisis has accelerated the digital transformation many companies are in the middle of. Future crises will increasingly take place in a digitalised business sector,’ he explains.

‘We want to generate more knowledge about how COVID-19 affects companies’ human capital (employees' knowledge and skills - ed. comm.) decisions, how this is related to digitalisation and the consequences it has for both companies and employees,’ says the professor.

The NHH researchers have entered into a cooperation with the University of Aarhus to compare results from different countries. Lien says that they are also in dialogue with other educational institutions abroad.