The House of Innovation was built on a straightforward but demanding idea: research on innovation, digitalization, and entrepreneurship should not stay within the university. Since its inception in 2018, the focus has been on conducting research with real-world impact.

By concentrating on issues and phenomena with broad relevance, scholars at the House of Innovation aim to generate insights that reach beyond academia – to corporations, government agencies, and civil society.

SSE Executive Education operates from a similar starting point. With academic research as its foundation and close cooperation with the market, it offers programs for individuals as well as tailored programs for companies and organizations.

This shared purpose has made collaboration a natural step. Scholars from the House of Innovation regularly contribute to executive programs and are increasingly involved in developing new offerings, both open programs for individual leaders and bespoke programs designed around specific organizational needs.

Together, their work connects researchers with leaders tackling these challenges in real time. Below are some current examples of how this collaboration is taking shape.

Sebastian Krakowski has worked closely with SSE Executive Education over the years. Photo: supplied.

AI program connects research and practice 

Assistant Professor Sebastian Krakowski at the House of Innovation leads a popular SSE Executive Education program called AI for Business Leaders. The latest program started in March 2026 with an online webinar, followed by a full day at SSE’s Sveavägen campus and a two-day module at Campus Kämpasten in Sigtuna.

Krakowski’s research focuses on the organizational and behavioral implications of AI adoption, including its impact on workplace roles and skills, and how human-centered approaches can drive digital transformation.

“The aim of the program is to help leaders understand not just what AI can do, but what it requires from their specific organization,” says Krakowski. “The most important outcome is that each participant understands what AI means for their role, their teams, and the way their organization works.”

Marie Ovin contributes to SSE Executive Education programs as a guest lecturer, here at Campus Kämpasten in Sigtuna. Photo: supplied.

The program combines research-based content with guest lecturers from industry. Ann-Marie Ovin, Chief Information Officer and Head of Knowledge, Process and Innovation at Vinge, is one of the contributing practitioners. She has been involved with SSE programs in some capacity since 2019.

“For me, it is clear how important it is that academia and the business world meet, particularly now that digitalization and AI are fundamentally changing many core questions,” says Ovin.

“I am convinced that the combination of theoretical depth and practical grounding creates learning that really makes a difference.”

Ovin also highlights the value of interaction in the classroom.

“The open climate, where thoughts and questions are raised and discussed, contributes to a valuable exchange, also for me. Concrete experiences are shared, and questions are raised based on real situations, which creates mutual learning that I value highly,” she says.

The session takes place at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. Photo: supplied.

The Vasa Workshop: a decade-long tradition 

For more than a decade, Professor Mattia Bianchi, Head of the Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology, has brought executive and MBA participants to one of Stockholm’s most iconic venues for a different kind of leadership session.

The Vasa Workshop takes place at the Vasa Museum, where the 17th-century warship is on permanent display.

Built around The Fate of the Vasa, a Harvard Business Review case study by Alan MacCormack and Richard Mason, the session uses the sinking of the Vasa on its maiden voyage in 1628 as a lens for exploring leadership challenges that remain as relevant today as they were in the 17th century.

Bianchi first developed the workshop together with House of Innovation Scientific Director Magnus Mähring in 2012, but has led it independently for the past ten years.

Mattia Bianchi leads the Vasa Workshop several times each year. Photo: supplied.

“I’ve run this workshop at least 50–60 times,” says Bianchi. “It could be for MBA students or leadership teams. I recently led one for senior executives in the construction industry.”

What keeps it powerful after all these iterations, Bianchi explains, is the same thing that makes the Vasa case so enduring: the realization that the reasons innovation projects fail today are not so different from the reasons a warship sank 400 years ago.

“Technology has changed enormously since then,” says Bianchi. “But humans, not so much. We still have the same biases and tend to react in similar ways when faced with complex situations and challenges.”

He is preparing to deliver another Vasa Workshop in a few weeks, this time for visiting American MBA students.

Franzi Ewigleben (left) and Giada Baldessarelli (right) at SSE Executive Education's Campus Kämpasten in Sigtuna. Photo: supplied.

Upcoming customized programs 

Assistant Professors Nathan Rietzler and Giada Baldessarelli, both based at the House of Innovation, will lead a series of tailored programs for international companies starting this summer.

Delivered through SSE Executive Education, the programs are developed in close collaboration with participating organizations and designed to strengthen long-term strategic capabilities. Drawing on academic research while incorporating each organization’s specific context, the programs support sustained development and help embed new ways of thinking and working over time.

For Rietzler and Baldessarelli, this is an opportunity to bring research on innovation and entrepreneurship into direct dialogue with practice. By working closely with organizations, they help leaders explore how ideas can be translated into action and how innovation capabilities can be built, strengthened, and sustained in complex, real-world environments.

Sebastian Krakowski (second from left) and Nathan Rietzler (right) with colleagues and visitors at Campus Kämpasten for the House of Innovation’s annual teaching retreat. Photo: supplied. 

A partnership built on shared purpose 

The collaboration between the House of Innovation and SSE Executive Education is grounded in a shared view of academia’s role in society: research should not remain isolated but should engage with organizations and decision-makers.

SSE Executive Education is one of the most direct ways this approach becomes practice, bringing researchers together with senior leaders working on these questions in their organizations.

As more House of Innovation researchers contribute to executive education – through programs, masterclasses, and bespoke corporate offerings – the connection between research and practice continues to strengthen.