Aapo Stenhammar, Topi Miettinen and Julia Salmi, researchers at Hanken School of Economics, have been awarded funding from the OP Pohjola Research Foundation for a research project examining how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming companies, the labour market, and innovation in Finland.

Brand activism is becoming increasingly common as companies take a stand on societal issues. However, activism is not without risks. In a new study, researchers have analysed how the plant-based food company Oatly managed the criticism that followed its high-profile milk campaign in Finland.

When Hanken alum Marcus Räder realised that companies renting out holiday properties lacked the right technology, he sensed a business opportunity. Together with two co-founders, he created Hostaway, which has since grown into a billion-euro company with operations around the world.

In autumn 2025, a new master’s programme in sustainability reporting and financial analysis was launched as a collaboration between Hanken in Vaasa and Umeå University. It is Finland’s first one-year master’s level programme at university level.

Hösten 2025 startade ett nytt magisterprogram i hållbarhetsrapportering och finansiell analys som ett samarbete mellan Hanken i Vasa och Umeå universitet. Det är frågan om Finlands första ettåriga magisterprogram på universitetsnivå.

Finland aims for 75 percent of international students to stay in the country and enter the labour market after graduation. This is also something Hanken is actively working towards.

The professors of practice at Hanken form an important link between working life and academia. Among them are Juhana Vartiainen and Shadia Rask, who use their different areas of expertise to help students gain a deeper understanding of today’s labour market and societal challenges.

Hanken School of Economics has seen a significant rise in applications to its English-taught Bachelor in Business programme, clearly surpassing last year’s figures. This year, the programme attracted 1,237 applicants (2025: 1,020).

How can institutional investors better balance return targets with solvency risk in an increasingly complex market environment? New research shows that that using advanced cross-prediction methods makes return forecasts more accurate for both stock and bond portfolios and helps improve portfolio design and risk management.

Can prediction reshape economics? New research shows that prediction is not just a technical exercise, it can transform how we understand and apply economic principles.

How do we meet the challenges of a changing world – that was the topic as Hankendagen and Hanken & SSE Executive Education celebrated their 20th anniversary.

Students and tech enthusiasts gathered at Hanken from 9–11 October 2025 to take part in the Quantum x AI Hackathon. During the event, organised in collaboration with Ultrahack, participants developed tools that converged artificial intelligence, quantum computing, portfolio optimisation, and cybersecurity to shape the future of finance.

Hanken student Nea Backström was rewarded by the Family Business Network Finland for her master’s thesis. The €500 prize is awarded annually to master's or doctoral theses on family business or family ownership.

Hankenstudenten Nea Backström har belönats för sin pro gradu-avhandling av Familjeföretagens förbund. Priset på 500 euro delas årligen ut till magister- eller doktorsavhandlingar som berör familjeföretagande eller familjeägande.

"Buy this. Read that. Be like this." Associate Professor Mikko Vesa, together with Professor Frank den Hond, has explored so called algorithmic recommendations, specifically how AI-driven tools aim to shape the choices we make and what the consequences of this might be.

“AI requires a new kind of leadership. The biggest obstacle facing leaders today isn’t technology, it’s the mental models, the outdated ways you think about organisations, leadership and innovations”, stated keynote speaker Petri Kokko at a Hanken Insights event on AI held on 15 May.

The Mayor of Helsinki, PhD Juhana Vartiainen has been appointed Professor of Practice at Hanken School of Economics. He will be at the Department of Finance and Economics for the period 1 August 2025 - 31 July 2027.

Bloomberg returns with a pop-up training session on Wednesday, April 9th! The training will take place at Quantum Helsinki at 14:00-15:30 and is open to all Hanken students and researchers. The session will also be shared online through Teams!

Suomen Ekonomit has rewarded Faiyaz Khan for useful tips for students writing their master’s thesis. Khan studied management and organisation at Hanken and graduated 2024.

Bloomberg will hold a pop-up training session on Wednesday, March 26! The training will take place at Quantum Helsinki at 14:00 and is open to all Hanken students and researchers. Now you have a chance to get your questions about Bloomberg answered.

Professor Glynn Lunney from the Texas A&M University School of Law is visiting Hanken during spring 2025 as Fulbright-Hanken Distinguished Chair.

Hanken School of Economics’ Bachelor in Business programme in English has 1001 applicants in the first joint application. Hanken's Master's programme in English has 769 applicants.

A new book in Finnish, Vastuullinen vuokranantaja (Eng. The responsible landlord), delves into landlord responsibility from all ESG perspectives: environmental responsibility, social responsibility, and good governance. The book is written by Hanna Silvola, associate professor of accounting at Hanken School of Economics and journalist Kati Valjus.

A new one-year master's programme in sustainability reporting and financial analysis will start as a cooperation between Hanken School of Economics in Vaasa and Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics. This is Finland’s first one-year master’s programme on a university level.

Hanken School of Economics will confer 60 doctoral degrees and nine honorary doctorates in connection with the solemn conferment of doctoral degrees on Friday 1 November 2024.

Ett nytt ettårigt magisterprogram i hållbarhetsrapportering och finansiell analys inleds som ett samarbete mellan Svenska handelshögskolan i Vasa och Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet. Programmet är det första ettåriga magisterprogrammet på universitetsnivå i Finland.

Quantum has a ”Bloomberg equity research” event on Friday 20.9 9:00-12:00.

Quantum har ”Bloomberg equity research” evenemang fredagen 20.9 kl 9-12.

AI has been a hype since important advances were made in machine-learning, huge data sets became available, and speed of computing power steeped up. In a blog post, Professor Frank den Hond explores the question: What do humans lose when we let AI decide.

Hanken student Robin Perälä was awarded a prize of 5000 euro for his master's thesis "Forecasting Stock Returns with Supervised Learning: The Battle
Against Data Snooping" from Suomen Arvopaperimarkkinoiden Edistämissäätiö.

Firms with strong improvisational abilities are more likely to learn and succeed when entering new markets, a new study from Hanken School of Economics shows.

Hanken School of Economics' new strategy, Hanken 2030 - For an international Finland and a sustainable world, has been approved by the Board of Hanken on 13 December 2023.

"I have a tradition of visiting business schools in various places. The combination of societal interest, entrepreneurship, and economics in business schools holds much of the great future. This was emphasised by Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson during his visit to Hanken School of Economics on Monday, November 27.

– Jag har en tradition av att besöka handelshögskolor på alla möjliga platser. Handelshögskolornas kombination av samhällsintresse, entreprenörskap och ekonomi, där ligger väldigt mycket av den stora framtiden. Det konstaterade Sveriges statsminister Ulf Kristersson då han besökte Svenska handelshögskolan (Hanken) måndagen 27.11.

There are upcoming training sessions for the databases Capital IQ, Factset, Orbis, Refinitiv (LSEG) Workspace and WRDS during the weeks 41-42. Check the times and links in the post!

Det kommer skolningar för databaserna Capital IQ, Factset, Orbis, Refinitiv (LSEG) Workspace och WRDS under vecka 41-42. Kolla tiderna och länkarna i posten!

Hanken’s calculated carbon dioxide emissions from 2022 are 463 CO2 metric ton.

The Board of the Hanken Support Foundation has appointed Mia Bengts as Ombudsman for the Foundation from 1 August 2023. Mia Bengts is a Hanken alumna and has a law degree from the University of Helsinki. The Foundation's current Ombudsman Paul Taimitarha will retire on 1 September 2023.

Styrelsen för Stiftelsen Svenska handelshögskolan har utsett Mia Bengts till ombudsman för Stiftelsen från den 1.8.2023. Mia Bengts är ekonomie magister från Hanken och jur.kand från Helsingfors universitet. Stiftelsens nuvarande ombudsman Paul Taimitarha går i pension den 1.9.2023.

Companies within the EU need to take greater responsibility to prevent social and environmental problems. This is also the case in developing countries, where the majority of production takes place. For that reason, a number of EU corporate responsibility regulations are being prepared.

Företag inom EU behöver ta ett större ansvar för att förebygga sociala och miljömässiga problem. Det gäller även i utvecklingsländerna där den största delen av produktionen sker. Därför bereds nu en rad EU-bestämmelser om företagsansvar.

What’s the hardest part of decision making? Many leaders focus too much on the risk of a bad result, and when we do, we risk being less innovative and creative, stated Mona Riabacke, Ph.D. in Risk and Decision Analysis. Riabacke spoke at the biggest annual alumni event at Hanken School of Economics, Hankendagen, in Helsinki.

Assistant Professor of Marketing, Mekhail Mustak, has co-written a research paper exploring the threats and opportunities of deepfake technology.

“We are still at an early stage in a complex digital world of finance. There are huge opportunities for making finance cheaper, faster and safer”, says Bengt Holmström, Nobel laureate in economics and Hanken Foundation Distinguished Fellow Professor.

Adopt more systematic recruitment processes, quickly implement the EU directive on gender quotas, and a proactive attitude among women. These are some of the recommendations in a new study on how to increase the proportion of women on boards and management teams of publicly traded companies.

The Academic Council at Hanken has recently approved some structural changes to the master’s programme in English. Starting from the autumn 2023 Hanken offers nine master’s programmes (MSc Economics and Business Administration) in English.

Akademiska rådet vid Hanken har nyligen godkänt vissa strukturella förändringar i magisterprogrammet i engelska. Från och med hösten 2023 erbjuder Hanken nio magisterprogram (MSc Economics and Business Administration) på engelska.

Since 2020 climate-related disasters are the number one cause for displacement in the world rather than conflicts - and a lot of conflicts these days are also climate induced. The Do no harm-mandate in the humanitarian context should include environmental issues but is still neglected all too often, new research shows.

Gustav Medberg, Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Marketing at Hanken, gives us an overview of what Grounded Theory (GT) is all about in his blogpost.

CERS was represented in the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference in Montery, AMA SERVSIGS conference in Glasglow and Frontiers in Boston this summer.

Virva Tuomala, Anna Aminoff, Gyöngyi Kovács and Helleke Heikkinen from the subject Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility at Hanken School of Economics were awarded for their papers at the NOFOMA conference in Iceland.

The universities will decide on the reform of the scoring model for certificate-based admission in 2023. The new model will be introduced in 2026. The aim is also to increase collaboration related to entrance examinations among universities.

Dr. Daniel Pasternack has on 1.10.2021 been appointed Professor of Practice at Hanken for a period of three years. Pasternack has a background as an entrepreneur and is the CEO of the asset management company Elite Alfred Berg.

The amount of misinformation related to COVID-19 is disproportionately high compared to content produced by fact-checkers on Twitter. Misinformation also lives longer online. This is shown by results from an ongoing study on online misinformation about COVID-19.

New digital technologies such as 3D printing, 3D modelling and scanning technologies and AI technologies is changing how designs are created and digitalising thewhole creation process. New research points out that not all works created digitally deserve intellectual property protection in the EU.

Owned media publications present business sustainability frontrunners actively. Sustainability communication can go beyond managing legitimacy and reputation and guide firms to adopt sustainability-related practices and discourses. Meri-Maaria Frig (M.Sc.) discovered this in her doctoral thesis, which examines business sustainability communication in media.

In Hanken’s third year of participation in the Aim2Flourish initiative, and after three nominations in previous years and four nominations this year, one of our student teams has received the Flourish prize for 2021.

Ett team bestående av studenter från Hanken har tilldelats pris i Aim2Flourish-tävlingen 2020 för innovativa berättelser om affärsverksamhet som stöder förverkligandet av FN:s globala mål för hållbar utveckling.

Researchers at the Helsinki Graduate School of Economics have found that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines protect both vaccinated individuals and their unvaccinated adult household members against SARS-CoV-2 infections.

This 2020-2021 Hanken Vaasa mentor-mentee relationship is – if not a match made in heaven – then clearly one that is full of respect, warmth and learning. Mikael Still (65) and Silas Magana (34) hit it off from day one last September.
So, what is their secret? What does it take to be a good mentor? And mentee, for that matter? Could you consider becoming one?

Professor Kaj Storbacka blir ny prorektor för fortbildning och näringslivsrelationer vid Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan. Som prorektor ansvarar Storbacka för utvecklingen av Hankens relationer till näringslivet och medelsanskaffning.

The topic “Sustainability In The Banking Industry” was of great interest to researchers, alumni and students on Hanken’s Finance Day this year. The annual event was held online for the second consecutive year on 17th March 2021 and fully booked.

Ämnet ”Hållbarhet inom bankindustrin” väckte stort intresse bland forskare, alumner och studenter när Hanken ordnade det årliga Hanken Finance Day den 17 mars 2021. Evenemanget hölls online för andra året i följd och var fullbokat.

The number of bankruptcies last year in Finland was lower than during the years leading up to the crisis. Thus, it has previously been predicted that a wave of bankruptcies could strike in the spring of 2021.

MOT Kielipalvelu® includes the language tools you know from MOT – but completely modernized and with a lot of new content. You will be able to use the service easily on all of your devices, also outside of the university network.

There is a method for examining how Finnish companies are fulfilling their human rights responsibilities on a yearly basis.

The majority of Finnish companies are generally committed to respecting human rights. However, only a quarter of companies systematically and publicly assess the impact of their business activities on the realisation of human rights.

Michael Seelen, 41, graduated from Hanken in Vaasa in 2003 with Computational Finance as his major. Now he lives in Middleton, Wisconsin, where he works as a Director of Risk Management and Data Analysis at Hy Cite Enterprises.

A group of students, who presented a solution to how the indigenous community Wayuu in South America could secure access to safe water for hand washing and hygiene, have won the science competition organised by the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics.

En grupp studenter, som presenterat en lösning till hur ursprungsfolket Wayuu i Sydamerika kunde säkras tillgång till tryggt vatten för handtvätt och hygien, har vunnit första pris i en vetenskapstävling arrangerad av Hankens HUMLOG-institut.

After Class with Jesper & Dennis is a brand new podcast by Jesper Haga and Dennis Sundvik who teaches finance and accounting. The remote teaching and the corona situation made both Jesper and Dennis think that there was room for a podcast.

After Class med Jesper & Dennis heter en rykande färsk podd av Jesper Haga och Dennis Sundvik som undervisar i finansiell ekonomi respektive redovisning. Distansundervisningen och coronasituationen gjorde att både Jesper och Dennis kände att det fanns utrymme för en podd.

Kaj Storbacka, som specialiserat sig på marknadsstrategier, har tillträtt som professor på Hanken den 7.9.2020. Han kommer att arbeta deltid under åtminstone en treårsperiod fram till 2023.

Kaj Storbacka, who is specialized in marketing strategies, has joined Hanken as a professor on 7 September 2020. He will be working part time for at least a three-year period until 2023.

How does one become an entrepreneur or a business person in general? Experiential learning, which basically means learning by doing (and reflecting on what you did), or simply “getting out of the building” in this context, is perhaps the strongest single paradigm in entrepreneurship education at the moment.

The HUMLOG Institute is coordinating a research project where the researchers are investigating how different countries have handled the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic impact and how to tackle social media disinformation.

Empirical case studies and economic analysis of law might be the answer we have been looking for.

Hanken School of Economics, FIANT Consulting Oy, 3bility Consulting and The Human Rights Centre (HRC) implement a research project called SIHTI (Status of Human Rights Performance of Finnish Companies). The aim of the project is to obtain comprehensive overview of how Finnish companies are fulfilling their human rights responsibilities in relation to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

New research discusses that the politics put forth in times of disaster tend to represent the interests of the powerful actors, rather than those of the marginalized people worst affected by the disaster.

The project highlights Finland as a solid example of effective and timely policy decisions due to availability of data. The aim is to support fast decision making amid the coronavirus crisis.

Researchers within a project focusing on Syria and Ukraine are studying in which form aid should be delivered to population in needs. The project aims to create guidelines for humanitarian organisations operating in conflict zones.

Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance (JAAF) Conference will be arranged at Hanken, Helsinki 15-18th June 2020. The paper submission period for both the plenary sessions and concurrent sessions has now started and goes on until 31 January.

Konferensen Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance (JAAF) ordnas vid Hanken i Helsingfors den 15–18 juni 2020. Inlämningsperioden för material till både föredrag och parallella sessioner pågår till den 31 januari.

Hanken arranged the conferment of doctoral degrees 25 October, where 47 doctors and 10 honorary doctors were conferred. Behind the PhD and the doctoral hat is an extensive education.

Torkel Tallqvist and Pekka Sääskilahti have been appointed Professor of Practice at Hanken. Tallqvist is an expert on management and entrepreneurship, and Sääskilahti is an expert on economics of intellectual property rights,competition and pricing.

Artificial intelligence for the growth agenda was one of the themes on Hanken's International Alumni Day in Stockholm in May.

Imagine a world in which management without reflection implements decisions recommended by complex algorithms. These algorithms have evolved into black boxes beyond managerial cognition; yet business requires them to remain competitive.

Föreställ dig en värld där ledningen utan eftertanke förverkligar beslut som rekommenderas av komplexa algoritmer. Algoritmerna har utvecklats till ”svarta lådor” bortom ledningens fattningsförmåga.

Två bilder av Jyrki Ilva, Nationalbibliotek, visar att Hanken är en av de ledande open access institutionerna i Finland.

Two slides by Jyrki Ilva, the National Library of Finland, indicate that Hanken is one of the leading open access institutions in Finland.

This year Hanken received 454 applications to the Master's degree studies in English. An exceptionally high number of the applicants, 45 %, fulfilled the general eligibility requirements.

I år mottog Hanken 454 ansökningar till magisterprogrammet med studier på engelska. Av de sökande uppfyllde 45% de allmänna behörighetskraven, vilket är rekordmånga i jämförelse med tidigare år.

The Helsinki Graduate School of Economics (Helsinki GSE) works to increase the quantity and quality of economic education and training in Finland, as well as promote cooperation between economics and other academic fields.

By matching foreign students with mentors at local companies, the Hanken International Talent initiative is a win-win for business in Finland.

Hanken is involved in two building projects and now the first house is ready and accepted new tenants from 1 February 2019. There are still apartments available and open for applications.

Read the summary from the Academic Council meeting on 3 October 2018

Dr. Maj-Britt Höglund at Hanken’s Language Centre in Vaasa and Dr. Marinella Rodi-Risberg, University of Jyväskylä are to be published in the international journal Discourse, Context & Media (Elsevier).

Summary of the decisions made during the meeting on 11 April 2018.

Läs referatet från AR-mötet den 11 april 2018.

The Governing Board of Helsinki Graduate School of Economics has selected Professor Otto Toivanen from Aalto University to be Academic Director and Professor Hannu Vartiainen from the University of Helsinki to be Academic Deputy Director.

Erkki Liikanen, the Governor of the Bank of Finland has agreed to serve as the chair of the board of the Helsinki Graduate School of Economics (Helsinki GSE).

Helsinki Graduate School of Economics (Helsinki GSE) will gain new professorships funded by the Bank of Finland and the VATT Institute for Economic Research, which is governed by the Ministry of Finance.

The next issue of the Hanken magazine includes an article about Hanken Professor of Practice Peter Sarlin and his research project concerning high frequency data analysis.

One of the most inspiring visitors at CERS this fall has been distinguished Professor Leyland Pitt from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. He spent a couple of weeks with us in Helsinki in October.

Peter Sarlin has been appointed Professor of Practice at Hanken as of this autumn. Dr. Sarlin specializes in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), with a special interest in applications for financial, economic and societal disciplines.

This autumn, Hanken launches a unique course that teaches business valuation with the help of corporate strategy analysis, growth investing and financial statements. The course combines theory and practical tasks during the startup event Slush.

Since 2015, the Academy of Finland has provided special competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles, also to Hanken.

Nari Lee, Professor in Intellectual Property Law, has been voted into the board of the European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP).

The library organizes short courses in RefWorks, information search, EIKON, Capital IQ and Westlaw.

Minister of Education Sanni Grahn-Laasonen has appointed Anne Brunila, Professor of Practice at Hanken, as Chair of a panel that will try to envisage the ever-changing needs within education.

Hanken researcher Peter Sarlin is member of the world-first global project to analyse high frequency financial data. The project team consists of researchers from the UK, France, Germany, Finland and the US.

iTRACK is a project that focuses on protecting and tracking humanitarians and humanitarian convoys in conflict zones, specifically in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. HUMLOG at Hanken hosted an iTrack-meeting on 10-12 May.

The supply of smart products is increasing at an enormous speed and is expected to reach 50 billion in 2020. Smartproducts are devices and appliances, for example refrigerators or washing machines, that are connected to the Internet.

The Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed Hanken Professor of Practice Anne Brunila as chair of a working group that is going to propose measures to strengthen the creative sector in Finland.

Undervisnings- och kulturministeriet har utnämnt Hankens Professor of Practice Anne Brunila till ordförande för en arbetsgrupp vars uppgift är att föreslå åtgärder som skulle stärka den skapande sektorn i Finland.

The Hanken foundation 'Stiftelsen Svenska handelshögskolan' has decided to award the following persons for their publications 2016

Stiftelsen Svenska handelshögskolan har slagit fast de personer som premieras för vetenskapliga artiklar.

Guy Ahonen, who is an associated researcher at Hanken, has together with Ossi Aura, Tomi Hussi and Juhani Ilmarinen published their 6th report on Strategic well-being (SW) management in Finland.

Guy Ahonen, som är associerad forskare på Hanken, har tillsammans med Ossi Aura, Tomi Hussi och Juhani Ilmarinen publicerat resultaten för undersökningen Strategiskt välbefinnande 2016.

Hanken invested in efficient self-service in the library - Your task is to borrow the books at the machine.

M.Sc. and M.Sc. Tech. Anu Torkkeli defends her doctoral thesis in Commercial Law.

The HUMLOG institute at Hanken partner in iTrack research project funded by the EU.

M.Sc. Sergey Osmekhin defends his doctoral thesis in Finance on Friday 22 April 2016 in Helsinki.

Hanken ranks 5th in the global U-Multirank university ranking and outperforms over 1 300 other universities from the US and Europe.

Hanken School of Economics has on 1 September 2015 signed an agreement to buy its properties in Helsinki and Vaasa.

Hanken's fundraising campaign will continue until 30.6.2017 and has, with this donation included, so far raised close to EUR 3,9 million.

Fundraisingkampanjen HANKEN RETURNS pågår till 30.6.2017 och har med denna donation inkluderad hittills inbringat närmare 3,9 miljoner euro.

Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation has decided to donate 1 million euros to Hanken's ongoing fundraising campaign HANKEN RETURNS.

Jane och Aatos Erkkos stiftelse har beslutat att donera 1 000 000 euro till Hankens pågående fundraisingkampanj HANKEN RETURNS.

Hanken students awarded during the annual donor evening and the Rector’s List awards ceremonies.

Studerande premierades under den årliga stipendiesammankomsten och vid utdelningen av Rector’s List-stipendierna.

Anna Wennäkoski, student at the IPL programme at Hanken received the American Resource Center Grant 2014 for her Master’s thesis.

Anna Wennäkoski som studerar vid Hankens IPL-program har fått ett American Resource Center-stipendium för sin magisteravhandling.

The HUMLOG Institute's awards for best Master’s and PhD theses in humanitarian logistics 2014 have been announced.