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Employee Profile

Fred Erling Wenstøp

Professor Emeritus - Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Biography

I graduated from the University of Oslo in 1969 as the first student to complete the new program in Cybernetics, which then was a specialization in the department of physics, probably because of the reliance on electronics in communication and control systems. The computers at that time were mostly analogue, not digital.

After graduation I joined BI which then was a very small business school, but with a keen interest in applying quantitative methods in business administration. This gave me the opportunity to apply for a Ford Foundation scholarship to pursue Ph.D. in the US, which brought me to University of California where I wrote a thesis on linguistic models of organizations based on fuzzy set theory.

Back at BI, I taught statistics and operations research, especially decision theory, and was eventually promoted to professor. I served several times as chair of my department, and started the development of BIs doktoral program where I was dean from 1995 to 2000. I have since 2015 been Professor Emeritus.

Research areas
My main area is the development and application of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), and my focus is ethical foundations of decision-making, the role of emotion and rationality in decision making, as well as the structuring of organizational values.I am now working with climate modelling in BI's Centre for Environmental Strategy.

Recent work:
Wenstøp SH; Wenstøp F. Operational reseach virtues in the face of climate change. EURO Journal on Decision Processes. 2016;4(1-2):53-72.

Randers J; Golüke U; Wenstøp F; Wenstøp S. A user-friendly earth system model of low complexity: the ESCIMO system dynamics model of global warming towards 2100. Earth Syst Dynam. 2016;7(4):831-50.

Ditlev-Simonsen CD; Wenstøp F. Attitudes towards ethical pension management among Norwegians. Beta Scandinavian Journal of Business Research. 2016;30(2):99-117. Wenstøp; Koppang, On operations research and value conflicts, Omega, Volume 37, Issue 6, December 2009, Pages 1109-1120. (With over 8,000 full text downloads since January 2009, this article, published in Omega, is currently in the top 10 most downloaded articles for the whole of ScienceDirect).

Wenstøp, F. 2005. Mindsets, rationality and emotion in Multi-criteria Decision Analysis. Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 13, 161-172.
http://home.bi.no/fag87027/jmcda/wenstop1.pdf (pdf)

Wenstøp, F. 2012. A value structured approach to conflicts in environmental management. In: Holtzman, Y. (ed.) Operations Management. Intech. Wenstøp, F. & Myrmel, A. 2006. Structuring organizational value statements (pdf), Management Research News, 29, 673 - 683.

Recent books:
Samset KF, Wenstøp FE. Smarte Valg: NKI-forlaget; 2016. 209 p.

Wenstøp, F. & Seip K. L. 2009. Verdier og valg, Oslo, Universitetsforlaget.

Seip, Knut Lehre, Wenstøp, Fred: A Primer on Environmental Decision-Making: An Integrative Quantitative Approach, 2006, Approx. 440 p., Hardcover ISBN: 1-4020-4073-3, 2006.

Area of Expertise

Publications

Randers, Jørgen; Göluke, Ulrich, Wenstøp, Fred & Wenstøp, Søren (2016)

A user-friendly earth system model of low complexity: the ESCIMO system dynamics model of global warming towards 2100

Earth System Dynamics (ESD), 7(4), s. 831- 850. Doi: 10.5194/esd-7-831-2016 - Full text in research archive

Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline Dale & Wenstøp, Fred (2016)

Attitudes towards ethical pension management among Norwegians

Beta, 30(2), s. 100- 118. Doi: 10.18261/ISSN.1504-3134-2016-02-01

Wenstøp, Fred (2016)

Flermålsanalyse som alternativ til nyttekostnadsanalyse

Hagen, Kåre P. & Volden, Gro Holst (red.). Investeringsprosjekter og miljøkonsekvenser

Wenstøp, Søren Henrik & Wenstøp, Fred (2016)

Operational research virtues in the face of climate change

EURO Journal on Decision Processes, 4(1-2), s. 53- 72. Doi: 10.1007/s40070-016-0057-5

Wenstøp, Fred Erling; deTombe, Dorien, Brugha, Cathal & Wilhelm-Weber, Gerhard (2014)

Book of Abstracts of State of the Art Workshop Barcelona 2014

Greenhill & Waterfront.

Midttun, Atle; Blomgren, Atle, Fet, Annik, Iakovleva, Tatiana, Wenstøp, Fred Erling, Staurem, Elin Jeannette & Toporowska, Elizbieta (2013)

CSR, Innovation and Value Creation in Rapidly Growing SMEs

Midttun, Atle (red.). CSR and beyond: A Nordic perspective

Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline Dale & Wenstøp, Fred Erling (2013)

How stakeholders view stakeholders as CSR motivators

Social Responsibility Journal, 9(1), s. 137- 147. Doi: 10.1108/17471111311307868

Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline Dale & Wenstøp, Fred Erling (2013)

Ledelse av samfunnsansvar (CSR) - hva ønsker de ansatte?

Magma forskning og viten, 16(2), s. 32- 38.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling (2012)

A value structured approach to conflicts in environmental management

Holtzman, David (red.). Advanced Topics in Applied Operations Management

Wenstøp, Fred (2010)

Operations research and ethics: development trends 1966-2009

International Transactions in Operational Research, 17(4), s. 413- 426. Doi: 10.1111/j.1475-3995.2009.00730.x

Wenstøp, Fred & Seip, Knut L. (2009)

Verdier og valg : verdibasert beslutningsanalyse i praksis

Universitetsforlaget.

Wenstøp, Fred & Koppang, Haavard (2009)

On operations research and value conflicts

Omega. The International Journal of Management Science, 37(6), s. 1109- 1120. Doi: 10.1016/j.omega.2008.10.001

Seip, Knut L. & Wenstøp, Fred (2006)

A Primer on Environmental Decision-Making: An Integrative Quantitative Approach

Springer.

Wenstøp, Fred (2006)

Mindsets, rationality and emotion in Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 13(4), s. 161- 172.

Wenstøp, Fred (2006)

Some viewpoints on emotion, consequentialism and multicriteria decision making

Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 13(4), s. 191- 198.

Wenstøp, Fred (2005)

Some viewpoints on emotion, consequentialism and multicriteria decision making

Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 13(4), s. 191- 198.

This rejoinder discusses philosophical viewpoints on MCDA, especially concerning the role of emotion. Central issues are: Should MCDA put more emphasis on subjectivity? What is the relation between the decision-maker?s mindset and emotions? Can one make the analysis more rational by internalizing emotions associated with virtues through extending the traditional set of decision-criteria? How can belief and values be separated? Finally, what is a suitable definition of rationality?

Wenstøp, Fred (2005)

Mindsets, rationality and emotion in Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 13(4), s. 161- 172.

This paper discusses the paradigm of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), and relates it to other disciplines. It concludes that MCDA needs a larger, not smaller, emphasis on values and subjectivity to increase rationality in decision-making. The paper bases the argument on a conciliation of ethics, philosophy, neuro-psychology and management paradigms. It observes that the MCDA ?mindset? relates to consequentialism, as opposed to virtue ethics and rule based ethics. Virtues and rules play an important role in practical decision-making, however. Findings in neuro-psychology show that reliable decision-making requires emotions. Elicitation of emotions is therefore required in MCDA value trade-off processes. This leads to a concept of emotional rationality, which defines rationality as a four-dimensional concept that includes well-founded values and breaks radically with common notions of rationality. Virtues do not easily lend themselves to value trade-off, but questions of virtue usually creates strong social emotions, as opposed to the feebler global emotions that may arise in connection conventional trade-off of end values. The conclusion is that MCDA should not be shy of subjectivity and emotion, but instead put more emphasis on it to ncrease rationality. A part of this challenge is how to deal with questions of virtue in decisionmaking.

Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild; Løwendahl, Bente R. & Wenstøp, Fred (2003)

Fra beslutning til gjennomføring

Grunnbok i strategi

Lunnan, Randi; Løwendahl, Bente R. & Wenstøp, Fred (2002)

Ekstern Analyse

Grunnbok i Strategi

Magnus, Per & Wenstøp, Fred (2001)

Value focused rationality in AIDS policy

Health Policy, 57, s. 57- 72.

Wenstøp, Fred; Wenstøp, Fred & Seip, Knut L. (2001)

Legitimacy and Quality of Multi-Criteria Environmental Policy Analysis: A Meta Analysis of Five MCE Studies in Norway

Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 10, s. 53- 64.

Wenstøp, Fred; Carlsen, Arne J., Beinat, E. & Nijkamp, P. (1998)

Using Decision Panels to Evaluate Hydropower Development Projects

Multi Criteria Evaluation in Land Use Management

Bakken, Bent Erik; Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Midtun, Atle (1996)

Rational, emotional and normfollowing actors and liberal free trade in the Norwegian electricity market

Human Systems Management, 15(3)

Strand, Jon; Carlsen, Arne & Wenstøp, Fred (1993)

Implicit Environmental Costs in Hydroelectric Development: An Analysis of the Norwegian Master Plan for Water Resources

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 25(03), s. 201- 2011. Doi: 10.1006/jeem.1993.1043

The ranking of hydropower projects under the Norwegian Master Plan for Water Resources is used to derive implicit government preferences for a number of environmental attributes described by ordinal scores for each project. We apply ordinal logistic regression to the ranks using the scores of the attributes as explanatory variables. As expected, we find that higher negative scores are generally associated with greater implicit willingness to pay to avoid the environmental damage tied to the attribute, caused by hydropower development. We derive total (ordinary economic and implicit environmental) costs for each project and find that environmental costs per capacity unit generally are lower than economic costs for projects ranked for early exploitation and higher for projects ranked for later development. Our derived implicit long-run marginal cost curve for Norwegian hydropower development is generally upward sloping, but not uniformly so.

Wenstøp, Fred; Miralles, Cristobal & Weber, Gerhard-Wilhelm (1)

Featured papers on operational research and ethics

EURO Journal on Decision Processes [Kronikk]

Samset, Knut Fredrik & Wenstøp, Fred Erling (2016)

Smarte Valg

[Non-fiction book]. NKI-forlaget.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Wenstøp, Søren Henrik (2014)

LESSONS FROM MODELING CLIMATE CHANGE WITH SYSTEM DYNAMICS

[Academic lecture]. State of the Art Workshop 10th International Federation of Conference of Operational Research Barcelona 2014.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Wenstøp, Søren Henrik (2014)

Operational Research Virtues in the Face of Climate Change

[Academic lecture]. IFORS 20.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline Dale (2014)

Hva tror de ansatte skal til for motivere til å sykle til og fra jobb?

[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Magma forskning og viten, s. 70- 82.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Løwendahl, Bente R. (2013)

Skriv gode oppgaver

[Textbook]. Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling (2013)

Experience from modeling climate change

[Academic lecture]. Satellite Workshop of The State of The Art on Problem Handling and Decision Making.

Abstract An enormous effort is going on world-wide on modeling consequences of fossil fuel use. The effort is orchestrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is due to release their 5th report in the fall of 2013. However, a leaked version of a draft report is already available on Internet . It provides a basis for a current effort at the Center for Climate Strategy at NBS led by Jørgen Randers to build a dynamic simulation model of the feedback loops involved in climate change. Although there are already a large number of climate models, only a handful uses System Dynamics as modeling tool. This presentation will discuss experiences with building a model of the earth’s energy budget

Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Wenstøp, Søren Henrik (2013)

Climate change: Righteous believers – righteous deniers

[Academic lecture]. EURO-INFORMS Rome 2013.

Abstract Science says that threatening climate change requires action now, but meaningful actions emerge only slowly. Deniers eschew actions, and believers in climate change sometimes support detrimental policies. The reason is that climate change is a new kind of challenge; a future threat we cannot see with consequences we cannot easily predict. Meaningful action requires a way of thinking, which can deal with models. But our righteous affective brain intervenes, which bases actions on “what you see is all there is”. This poses a fundamental challenge for operations research.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling & Koppang, Haavard (2010)

The Janus face of moral math

[Academic lecture]. EURO XXIV.

Wenstøp, Fred Erling (2010)

Ethical platforms

[Academic lecture]. Ethics Workshop.

Wenstøp, Fred & Myrmel, Arild (2006)

Structuring organizational value statements

[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Management Research News (MRN), 29(11), s. 673- 683.

Purpose ? The purpose is to propose a structure for corporate value statements, which is useful as an underlying organizing principle that makes them more comprehensible, and at the same time identifies values that can serve as criteria for strategic decision-making. Design/methodology/approach ? The main approach is theoretical development of value categories. It is followed up by an empirical investigation of value statements on corporate web pages to see if the proposed principles are applicable. Findings ? The paper proposes a comprehensive value system that consists of three main value categories juxtaposed on the same level: Core values prescribe the attitude and character of the organization. They are often found in sections on code of conduct, values statement, or credo. Protected values are protected through rules, standards and certificates. They are mostly found in sections concerning health, environment and safety. Created values are the values that stakeholders, including the shareholders, expect in return for their contributions to the firm. They are often found in sections on objectives and always in the annual report. Research limitations/implications ? The empirical research is limited to companies listed on two stock exchanges. Further research should include other types of organizations. Practical implications ? It is hoped that the proposed value system can contribute to making corporate value statements more comprehensible and useful for strategic decision-making. Originality/value ? It is believed to be a new idea to propose a holistic value system for value communication that can incorporate all values.

Wenstøp, Fred (2003)

Statistikk og dataanalyse, Arbeidshefte

[Textbook]. Universitetsforlaget.

Wenstøp, Fred (2003)

Statistikk og dataanalyse

[Textbook]. Universitetsforlaget.

Løwendahl, Bente R. & Wenstøp, Fred (2003)

Grunnbok i strategi

[Textbook]. Damm.

Løwendahl, Bente R. & Wenstøp, Fred (2002)

Grunnbok i strategi

[Textbook]. NKS Forlaget.

Wenstøp, Fred (2001)

Statistikk og datanalyse. Arbeidshefte med bruk av programvare og løsning av case

[Textbook]. Universitetsforlaget.

Wenstøp, Fred (2001)

Statistikk og Datanalyse

[Textbook]. Universitetsforlaget.

Wenstøp, Fred (1998)

Statistikk og dataanalyse, Arbeidshefte med bruk av programvare

[Textbook]. Tano Aschehoug.

Wenstøp, Fred (1998)

Statistikk og dataanalyse

[Textbook]. Tano Aschehoug.

Academic Degrees
Year Academic Department Degree
1975 University of California at Berkeley Ph.D.
1969 University of Oslo Master
Work Experience
Year Employer Job Title
2015 - Present BI Norwegian Business School Professor emeritus
1985 - 2015 BI Norwegian Business School Professor
2008 - 2011 BI Norwegian Business School Head of Department
1994 - 2000 BI Norwegian Business School Dean of Doctoral Programs
1990 - 1992 BI Norwegian Business School Head of Department
1987 - 1987 State University of New York Visiting Scholar
1983 - 1986 BI Norwegian Business School Head of Department
1984 - 1985 BI Norwegian Business School Associate Professor
1979 - 1984 BI Norwegian Business School Senior Lecturer
1975 - 1979 BI Norwegian Business School Lecturer
1972 - 1975 University of California Ford Foundation Fellow
1970 - 1972 BI Norwegian Business School Scholar
1969 - 1969 University of Oslo Research Assistant