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Addressing global challenges such as climate change, inequality, and resource depletion requires innovative collaborative strategies. This paper explores the concept of coopetition —simultaneous cooperation and competition among organizations — as a means to tackle these issues. We shift the focus from the commonly studied 'how much' value is created in coopetition to 'what' type of value is created. Utilizing a taxonomy of private, public, club, and common goods, we examine how different types of value influence the processes and outcomes of coopetition. Through examples in the aviation industry we illustrate how the nature of the goods produced affects the organization and effectiveness of coopetition. Our findings challenge the traditional view that synergetic value creation is necessary for successful coopetition as we propose instead that coopetition can be viable even without synergistic value. This study provides new insights into the economic underpinnings of coopetition and offers practical guidance for organizations and policymakers aiming to foster sustainable practices through innovative collaborative models.

Moving toward social and ecological sustainable business models requires collaborations in housing development. However, collaborations today between public and private housing developers are often the subject of criticism in terms of their sustainability efforts. One way of moving forward for these collaborations is to consider resilience as a desired property for sustainable business models. Thus, guided by a resilience perspective, semi-structured interviews have been conducted and secondary data has been collected to depict the barriers and enablers for public-private collaborations to move toward resilience and truly sustainable business models. The results reveal that barriers are development costs, knowledge, stepwise processes, and different perspectives, meanwhile enablers are knowledge transfer, trust, clear roles and agendas, win-win, instruments/incentives, and sustainability leadership. To overcome the barriers and leverage the enablers identified, resilience attributes such as knowledge transfer, social capital, space for disturbance, diverse forms of governance, and knowledge about sustainability need to be understood and applied to achieve sustainable business models in public-private collaborations.

Presently, there has been a discussion of a “Green Bill of Rights” in the U.S.  Two of the elements in this discussion include affordable housing and ecological sustainability, areas in which Sweden is an acknowledged leader.  That is, Sweden is perceived as sustaining a high level of competitiveness while producing a pleasant environment in which to live.  In effect, the Swedish State is involved in municipal public housing and sustainability is the responsibility of Government Offices as a whole, which produces proactive programs in these sectors.  The task of implementing Sweden’s strategy for sustainable development has illustrated a holistic approach and the State has played a major role in its development. Insofar as Sweden might be a model for other countries interested in extending their efforts in sustainable development (perhaps the U.S.), observations here provide some insights into possible approaches and results.  Put another way, the paper involves some consideration of “how did we get here and where are we going?”  The framework for this paper associates sustainability with Zhang and London’s modified Porter model and treats elements of municipal public housing, domestic airline travel and forest products in construction. 

The task of implementing Sweden's strategy for sustainable development has had a holistic approach and the State has played a major role in its development. The framework for this paper comes from a recent publication that associates sustain ability with Zhang and London’s modified Porter model and discusses current Swedish developments in municipal public housing, domestic air transportation and wood products. Insofar as Sweden might be a model for extending efforts in sustainable development, observations here provide some insight into possible approaches and results, particularly so in the U.S. current interest in a "Green Bill of Rights". 

This paper reflects some specific accommodations that have occurred in the Swedish rental sector as a consequence of Municipal Housing Companies (MHCs) complying with the Public Municipal Housing Companies Act of 2011, which required them to perform in a more business-like manner.  It was not explicitly noted, but undoubtedly assumed, that the municipal sector of housing would function much as before.  Unexpected consequences, however, have changed the competitive landscape.  Not only have MHCs been affected, but independent rental companies as well.  Further, tenants have not been particularly pleased with some of the developments.  Three cases triangulate the observations.

Business education in Sweden has been characterized as the meeting of Mercury, the god of merchants, with Minerva, the patron of science.  The understanding of corporate financing typifies that association, i.e., commerce is depicted in accepted, systematic formulations.  The course that is described herein is a master’s level finance course at Umeå University in Sweden – Advanced Corporate Finance.   The primary purpose of this course is to provide an integrated overview of the most important concepts in Corporate Finance in theory, practice and in some instances method.  The course is designed to develop students’ ability to

• assess the impact of information asymmetry on corporate financial policy decisions,
• explain the theoretical basis and applicable strategies applied in corporate control,
• compare and contrast leverage strategies in ideal versus real capital markets and ably explain the impact of alternative taxation systems on the use of debt,
• argue for optimal levels of corporate debt and be able to value an offering under different financing strategies, and
• formulate and logically defend a position in regard to current issues, which confront corporations today.

Highlighted and discussed are measures such as how business valuation can affect various stakeholders, and potential implications are related to ethics and sustainability.  A group exercise and case study analysis, used in the course, are covered in the paper.  The paper should be of interest to educators and administrators because of Michael Porter’s reflection that one of the competitive advantages of Sweden is the universally high educational level of its population. 

Purpose: This work is initiated under the premise that reliable evaluation methods are necessary to ensure investments in energy conservation, and the purpose of this paper is to contribute to that literature. It describes some pilot changes and their impact in an actual field study oriented toward upgrading municipal public housing (MPH) units.

Design/methodology/approach: The research for this paper was connected to an MPH refurbishment project situated in northern Sweden. The overall energy efficiency goal within the project was a 40-50 percent reduction in the supplied energy for central electricity, domestic hot water and space heating. In order to evaluate if these goals were feasible, a measurement system was installed in a pilot building and in a neighboring building used as a reference. The evaluation was conducted by comparing the post-retrofit performance of the pilot building with the performance of the reference building when it was kept in its initial state (a comparison possible because both buildings had initial similarities).

Findings: Impacts could be quantified insofar as a reference (control) building in the same environment was sustained for comparison purposes. A 43 percent improvement was observed in energy utilization in the pilot building compared to its reference companion (99.8 vs 174.5 kWh/m² per year). When the approach described herein was applied to new construction, the present goal of 65 kWh/m² was approached as measured by Swedish standards.

Practical implications: Results should be of interest to academics in the housing field, professionals involved in refurbishment and residents themselves, renting MPH flats.

Originality/value: This study is unique in the following ways: first, it really was a field experiment with a control, thus it did not have any exogenous interference in interpreting results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind. The second interesting characteristic was that results were subsequently used in the refurbishment of other buildings in the complex and in the construction of others. The major value of the paper may be associated with its timing. It comes at a time when the Kyoto agreement has raised concerns about sustainability, but also at a time when many buildings are facing a need for refurbishment.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain if financial observations parallel the text findings in owner directives that suggested Municipal Housing Companies (MHCs) in Sweden have complied with the Public Municipal Housing Companies Act of 2011 (PMHCA 2011) requiring them to act in a business-like manner.  Results are reported here for 19 of the original 20 companies used in a sample suggesting MPHs were acting in a business-like manner as required by PMHCA 2011.  Information for the study was obtained from the Retriever Business database, which included complete company financials for the period.  Best straight lines were constructed through individual company data from 2005 to 2010 (pre-regulation) and 2010 to 2014 (post-regulation).  A t-test of slope difference was used to indicate the significance of any change.  Sample results suggest that the industry as a whole has adjusted overall to the business-like mandate insofar as revenue generation illustrates an upturn starting in 2011.  Results for return on assets, operating profit margin and solvency did not show statistically significant results.  Results for two individual firms illustrate how extreme reactions might occur.

The course that is described and discussed is a B level finance course - Räkenskapsanalys och värdering (Financial Analysis and Valuation).  The course is designed to develop students' ability to view business information, and to use different methods and tools of financial analysis and valuation, especially in connection with business valuation.  Business coverage is used in teaching, and emphasis is placed on the interpretation of results. Various problems are highlighted and discussed; measures such as how business valuation can affect various stakeholders and potential implications are related to ethics and sustainability. Analysis is based on a social and organizational perspective, which also affects the choice of the appropriate method of approach. The analysis is motivated by the need for ongoing evaluation of the company in financial terms. During the course, spreadsheet programs such as “analysis” and “decision support” are used.  Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a tool for managing the business and enables faster, more informed decisions.

This course is offered about half-way through the undergraduate civilekonom management curriculum and it is carried out within the typical Swedish module of five weeks of conduct and is taught in Swedish.  It normally plays to approximately 80 students in the spring (and to 40 other students in the Autumn).  The students work independently and in groups of four. For the group assignment, students choose to work with one colleague and the pairs are then randomly coupled with another pair. The module is designed to develop students’ ability to absorb accounting information and to use different methods of financial analysis and assessment, especially in connection with business valuation.  Text books are currently used are Berk and DeMarzo (2014), Nilsson et al. (2002) and Hansson et al. (2006). The  latter two are currently being reviewed and will probably be exchanged or complemented with Palepu et al. (2016) and Berk et al. (2017) or corresponding in 2018. 

Course definitions are formally addressed in a Department’s permission to offer document.  An important part of this document is an expectations of learning section.  That section for this course is “after completed, students should be able to:

• review a company's accounting information and use measuring techniques to assess the company's profitability, solvency, efficiency, return and risk level,
• conduct a strategic analysis of the company's business environment,
• apply different methods of business valuation,
• analyze the pros and cons of a valuation method,
• relate environmental aspects to the company's risk and return, and
• demonstrate an understanding of how business can be used as a basis and monitor activities”

This learning is supported by lectures and tutorials, exercises, cases with seminars and labs associated with business activity monitoring. Students independently collect, process and analyze companies on the basis of annual report data and other available information.

The course that is described and discussed herein is a B level (2^nd year) finance course at Umeå University in Umeå, Sweden – Financial Analysis and Valuation (Räkenskapsanalys och Värdering).  The course is designed to develop students' ability to comprehend business information and to use different methods and tools of financial analysis and valuation, especially in connection with business valuation.  Existing corporate information is used in teaching, and emphasis is placed on the interpretation of observation. Analyses are motivated by the need for ongoing evaluations of companies in financial terms. Various problems are highlighted and discussed; measures such as how business valuation can affect various stakeholders and potential implications are related to ethics and sustainability.  A group term paper (PM) is required in the course.  The analysis within the term paper, although primarily financial, also has a social and organizational perspective, which affects the choice of the appropriate method of approach.