Patrik Ström is the Director of the European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS) at Stockholm School of Economics and Associate Professor of Economic Geography. He holds a PhD in Business Administration from Roskilde University, Denmark and an Econ Dr. in Economic Geography from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His research is focusing on the development of the advanced service industry and the transformation of economies that are becoming more service and knowledge based. The primary regional focus has been Japan, South Korea, China and other emerging markets of East Asia, as well as the Single Internal Market for services in the EU. He has been member of the EU High Level Group on Business Services and he has also worked as an expert with the European Parliament on Green Services. He has also extensive consulting experience of working with private and public sectors. 

Patrik has prior to joining the EIJS been working at the Department of Business Administration, University of Gothenburg and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in Uppsala. Patrik has also been a visiting researcher at Nippon Institute of Technology, Keio University, Hokkaido University, Stanford University and the University of British Columbia. 

Dr. Kristina Heinonen is Professor of Service and Relationship Marketing at Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. She holds a Fulbright Research Fellowship at University of Massachusetts, USA and an adjunct professorship at University of Tampere, Finland. Dr. Heinonen’s research expertise is in service marketing and management and particularly service innovation, value creation, smart service, and customer experience. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals and she is a frequent speaker on international conferences.