I am Associate Professor at BI Norwegian Business School and guest lecturer at the Universities of Cagliari (IT), Palermo (IT), Catania (IT) and OSLO MET (NO).
My research is focused on strategy, value co-creation and creative work processes.
I do supervise master thesis students and PhD candidates.
2023- I work as Global Business Development Director at Maffeis Engineering Group.
My Professional experience includes
- Head of Innovation at the AF Group, a leading contracting and industrial group, listed on Oslo Stock Exchange.
- Establishing and implementing corporate innovation strategies (Norconsult AS and AF Gruppen Norge as).
- Innovation Program Design and Implementation (Norconsult AS)
- Co-Creation Global Program Manager (Norsk Hydro ASA)
- EU's Framework Program 7, Project Management (SINTEF)
- International Business Development (SINTEF and PERA)
- PDM (Product data Management) Implementation Management (Schlumberger)
- CRM Implementation Management (Statoil ASA)
Green is good: First Run Study of a sustainable building structure.
Rybkowski, Zofia; Liu, Min & Sarhan, Saad (red.). Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC31)
The study made an account for in this paper is based on the hypothesis that introducing a climate-friendly building material to construction production may fundamentally impact project performance. In the paper, evidence is given for a prolonged, costlier process of erecting the building structure if an extremely low-carbon concrete combined with a 100 percent recycled aggregate is applied. Findings suggest various measures to be taken, to accelerate the hardening of the concrete. Otherwise, a positive environmental effect may easily diminish the overall project performance. The paper is based on a First Run Study (FRS) including a full-scale mock-up of a part of the building structure, including ground floor, wall, columns, and slab. As part of the study, data was collected about the temperature, firmness, and relative moisture of the concrete, and the effects of different actions applied to accelerate the hardening process. The impact of this study is an estimated risk reduction of 1,5 percent in the context of the project it was intended to support. The paper concludes that this type of experimentation should happen prior to actual performance to prevent construction projects from falling short of time and finances caused by unexpected results.
Sustainability as target value. A parametric approach.
Rybkowski, Zofia; Liu, Min & Sarhan, Saad (red.). Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC31)
Our time is characterized by climate changes that impose sustainability in every industrial activity, an additional objective to our design and construction processes. The classic Lean Construction approach needs to be further developed to take sufficient care of the sustainability issue. The design of modern buildings is a work process that can be set up and run with tools that secure a more sustainable final product. This study proposes to extend the classic range of objectives pursued by the Lean construction approach, as to include sustainability in the design process, in a systematic and structured way. The case of a building project is analyzed. In the early design stages, advanced structural design tools are used to explore various alternative designs of the bearing structure. The structural design tools are combined with tools used to calculate embodied carbon in the construction. The levels of embodied carbon following each of the many possible, alternative, structural solutions are estimated. These insights are provided to the owner in a very early stage of the design process. Through these design practices owners and investors can add sustainability targets to the classical project targets (cost, quality, time), and include sustainability as a part of the fulfillment of the client’s functional needs.
Service research and marketing theory have found value co-creation to be a key element in the business-to-business (B2B) context. Value can also be co-destroyed by the same actors who interact to create it. However, very few studies have examined service provider-customer work practices when value co-destruction (VCD) occurs. In this qualitative study, we approach VCD by combining social interactions and resource integration practices with a notion of value that reveals its multiform nature. We adopt a value definition that enables us to show that the notion of co-creation and co-destruction should be viewed conceptually as representing a value variation space rather than as being dichotomous or mutually exclusive. Our research allows practitioners to recognize and contrast VCD, as it emerges and impacts their B2B relations.
Is integration of Uncertainty Management and The Last Planner System a good idea?
Gonzalez, Vicente; Raghavan, N. & Varghese, Koshy (red.). Proceedings of The 26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
Berg, Ingrid Løvendahl; Lombardo, Sebastiano & Lædre, Ola (2018)
Innovation with Creative Collaborative Practices
Gonzalez, Vicente; Raghavan, N. & Varghese, Koshy (red.). Proceedings of The 26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
Lean is about solving problems related to reducing waste while maximizing value. The project team of the construction project Bispevika in Norway is working on how creative collaborative practices can be performed in problem-solving processes. This paper considers following research questions: Which creative collaborative practices are implemented in Bispevika? What are the experiences of these practices? How to improve these practices in future projects? In addition to observations on site within design and procurement, interviews of the project managers as well as a document study based on received project material is carried out to identify creative collaborative practices. A literature study on trust in collaboration, creative processes and creativity and innovation in lean is also presented. The engagement of an innovation manager as a facilitator combined with his own research on creative practices contributes to the overall vision of being an innovative project. The executed method is based on a four-phased process leading to the choice of best solution to a case. By using a strategy of creating winning teams and focusing on trust in these collaborations, the project is aiming at innovating the way projects are managed in the future. Identified creative collaborative practices with proposed adjustments are presented.
Lombardo, Sebastiano & Cabiddu, Francesca (2017)
What's in it for me? Capital, value and co-creation practices
Marketing research is increasingly concerned with the practices through which service providers and their customers interact and how these practices influence value co-creation. Applying S-D logic and drawing on practice theory developed in sociology research in past decades,we propose a definition of value in terms of the coexistence of diverse forms of capital and currency variations.We then develop a conceptual model to explain value co-creation in terms of service provider–customer interaction practices (SPCI practices). We employ an extensive, qualitative study in the context of professional service firms. Our findings reveal three general categories of SPCI practices (access to capital, capital exploitation and capital attrition) that affect value co-creation. These insights move forward business-to-business marketing theory and practice, advancing our understanding of how service provider–customer interaction practices can be used to define value propositions and assess the types and amount of value that are co-created.
Breunig, Karl Joachim & Lombardo, Sebastiano (2016)
A longitudinal exploration of ambidextrous knowledge dynamics in professional service firms
Proceedings of the European Conference on Knowledge Management, 17, s. 109- 117.
This study contributes insights on how actors cope with constraints in ill-structured problem-solving situations, and what implications this coping has for creative action. To date, most research on constraint handling has treated constraints, regardless of their nature, origin, or role, as external factors that enable or hinder creativity. In contrast, we consider constraints to be inextricably intertwined with all creative action. We focus our study on one specific practice for constraint handling: namely, shattering. Empirical data were collected for 12 projects in two engineering consulting firms, and four shattering practices were identified: protesting, proposing, betraying, and sabotaging. We discuss their enactment in various parts of the problem space and their implications for the management of creative action in organizations.
Ma, Xiaofeng; Lombardo, Sebastiano & Sciaba Stockbakk, Elisabeth (2008)
Learning mechanisms in a technology based organisational change program: an exploratory study between Chinese and Norwegian corporations
International Journal of Technology Management, 41(1/2), s. 75- 95. Doi: 10.1504/IJTM.2008.015985
The paper explores how learning mechanisms are adopted and function differently in the course of a managing technology based organisational change programme in Chinese and Norwegian large corporations. We operationalise the abstract organisational learning concepts into a series of learning mechanisms along the change programme implementation process. The results show that national culture, external environment and market status strongly impact the effectiveness of the learning mechanisms.
Co-creation and the role of the client in strategizing
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management.
Lombardo, Sebastiano & Kenett, Ron S. (2009)
The CIM Index: Measuring the Impact of Creativity and Innovation Programs
[Academic lecture]. Annual Conference of the Network for Business and Industrial Statistics, ENBIS2009.
Creativity and Innovation Management (CIM) programs are gaining popularity. Such projects take different forms and shapes. The CIM program developed by the KPA Group consists of four main elements: 1) Information, 2) Knowledge, 3) Competence and 4) Practice. It is based on facilitating on the job creativity work during real life projects and work activities. For effectively managing a CIM program, the business value of the activities in the four elements need to be shown. Metrics that appear on financial statements are of prime significance to senior business executives. It is however often difficult to describe all the benefits derived from CIM programs using only financial metrics. We will present a general approach to determine and track the bottom line impact of a CIM programs. The approach expands the classical Goal-Question-Metric paradigm linking business goals to questions and metrics used to answer these questions. Specifically we map the cause and effect relationship between the CIM program activities and organizational Balanced Scorecards. The paper we will show how to design and implement a CIM Impact Measurement Program with the approach outlined above. We will also show how to define a CIM Index for measuring the integrated impact of a CIM program.
Lombardo, Sebastiano & Kenett, Ron S. (2007)
The role of change management in IT systems implementation
Pallab, Saha (red.). Handbook of Enterprise Systems Architecture in Practice