Jenny Lindén Urnes took part in the official opening of the new Centre for Aesthetics and Business Creativity (ABC) and establishment of the Ulf G. Lindén Professorship at Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM), on the 19th of November 2024.
Lindéngruppen deepens a long-term engagement and partnership with Lund University and LUSEM with a donation for the creation of a unique research centre and a dedicated professorship in aesthetics and business creativity. Daniel Hjorth is the Lindén Professor of Aesthetics and Business Creativity and the founder of the ABC centre, which supports and advances humanities- and arts-oriented business administration research and education.
“As a lifelong advocate for the roll of art and humanities in business, I am absolutely delighted that Lindéngruppen can support this pioneering and interdisciplinary research centre at Lund University. Art can inspire and challenge. Art awakens emotions and can with practice enable important non-cognitive skills like curiosity, courage, creativity, empathy and resilience. Essential skills for changemakers and for driving transformation towards a sustainable world”, says Jenny Lindén Urnes, Owner and Chair of Lindéngruppen.
“The establishment of the ABC Centre at Lunds University is exciting for us and for the research field. The ‘Lindén Professorship’ is a central part of this new effort and pursuit of research and education in an area considered to be of strategic importance for future education and business practice where Sweden thereby can build novel innovative strengths. We are well-situated to take a lead in this exciting, timely and truly multi-disciplinary development”, says Prof. Dr. Daniel Hjorth, Centre Director.
“It is highly fitting that the professorship is named after my father who was an entrepreneurial industrialist, always focused on quality and innovation, together with a passion for art and craftmanship”, says Jenny Lindén Urnes.
The founder of Lindéngruppen Ulf G. Lindén had a long commitment to research and higher education and played a crucial role in the establishment of the Lund University School of Economics and Management. He was also the first chair of its advisory board and the initiator of Stiftelsen Partnerskap (partnership foundation), which serves to strengthen ties between LUSEM and the business community.
Lindéngruppen has had a deep and fruitful cooperation with LUSEM ever since and Jenny Lindén Urnes serves on a number of advisory councils to the University.
The Centre for Aesthetics and Business Creativity (ABC) is an interdisciplinary platform, a lab, and a playground that, while making aesthetics more central, also reimagines its role in research, education and practice in the field of business.
The ABC centre seeks to intensify a conversation between aesthetics and economy, to be added to the ongoing relationships to technology and sustainability. An existentially more sustainable life is thereby achieved - fostering creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation for a more meaningful and beautiful future together.
By becoming a dynamic hub that blends aesthetics, ethics and business creativity, it will continue to inspire new ways of thinking and doing.
About Daniel Hjorth
Daniel Hjorth is the Ulf G. Lindén Professor of Aesthetics and Business Creativity at Lund University School of Economics and Management. He leads the Centre for Aesthetics and Business Creativity (ABC), which supports and advances humanities- and arts-oriented business administration research and education. His research interests include the organisational conditions for creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation within multiple societal contexts.
