Maria Elmquist
Maria Elmquist (formerly Backman) is the Head of the Department of Technology Management and Economics. She also works at the division of Innovation and R&D Management.
- To book a meeting or for inquiries about the department, please contact Carina Hedberg (Support for Head of Dept.), carina.hedberg@chalmers.se, 031-772 21 76
- Welcome to the Head of Department Open office every Wednesday at 8.30 - the link can be found in the Department calendar.
Maria is a Professor (bitr. professor) in Technology Management with focus on Innovation Management at the Department of Technology Management and Economics. She is also an affiliated researcher to the Centre de Gestion Scientifique (CGS) at Mines ParisTech.
Maria Elmquist’s research revolves around management of innovation in technology-based firms, focusing on how innovation can be enabled in large organizations, how organizations can develop innovation capabilities and how innovation can be enabled through collaboration, in networks or eco-systems. Ongoing research investigates the role of design and design practice in innovation aiming to understand how innovation can be managed in contexts characterized by uncertainty and the unknown. She is currently supervising two PhD students, on the topics of innovation in emerging ecosystems and designing agile organizations. Her work has appeared in journals such as Research Policy, R&D Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. She has published over fifty scientific articles and conference contributions, a book on concept car development and several book chapters.
Read about her publications at Google Scholar.

Showing 51 publications
Innovation Theory and the (Re-)foundation of Management: Facing the Unknown
The Challenges of Using Design Thinking in Industry - Experiences from Five Large Firms
Beyond intermediation: The open innovation arena as an actor enabling joint knowledge creation
Framing Design Thinking: The Concept in Idea and Enactment
Öppna innovationsarenor: organisering av gemensamt kunskapsskapande
Exploring the use of design thinking in large organizations: towards a research agenda
Design thinking: Exploring values and effects from an innovation capability perspective
Perceptions of the value of Design Thinking in innovation in large firms
From Collaboration to Innovation: challenges and opportunities in building Open Arenas
Leveraging on open innovation: A study of why organizations engage in open innovation collaboration
Aiming at innovation: a case study of innovation capabilities in the Swedish defence industry
Implementing Design Thinking in Large Organizations
Att utveckla innovationsförmåga i stora industriella företag – erfarenheter från Volvo Personvagnar
CBIs studie om innovationsledning
Role Confusion in Open Innovation Intermediary Arenas
Developing Innovation Capabilities: A Longitudinal Study of a Project at Volvo Cars
Enabling knowledge creation among competitors: the open innovation arena
Managing Open Innovation: Exploring Challenges at the Interfaces of an Open Innovation Arena
Implications of openness: A study of (all) the growing literature on open innovation
Communities of Practice for Open Innovation - Enabling Organizational Creativity?
The value of a failed R&D project: emerging evaluation criteria for innovation projects
Triangulating relations to explore openness of innovation
Exploring the field of open innovation
The concept of interessement: The story of a power-split technology for hybrid electric vehicles
Managing learning in the automotive industry – the innovation race for electric vehicles
Exploring the management of collaborative arenas from a platform perspective
Open Innovation - Forschung in Europa
On the way to electric cars - a case study of a hybrid electric vehicle project at Volvo Cars
Managing learning strategies in the automotive industry – the race for hybridization
Managing Open Innovation: Present Findings and Future Directions
Managing Open Innovation: Present Findings and Future Directions,
Vehicles for Innovation: the case of a neglected concept car project at Volvo Cars
Enabling Innovation: Exploring the prerequisites for innovative concepts in R&D
Loud killers and already-invented-here: managing change in professional organizations
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Showing 6 research projects
Developing innovation capabilities in the emerging ecosystem of autonomous driving Phase II
Utveckla innovationsförmåga i det framväxande ekosystemet kring självkörande fordon
Hur kan Design Thinking bidra till innovationsarbete i svenska företag
The role of innovation functions for innovative product development in large firms.
Design thinking and its contribution to innovation capabilities in large firms
Managing and organising open innovation