Projects
Funding: The Government of Finland’s research, analysis and assessment activities
Project start: 2020
Status: Funded
Description: The purpose of SIHTI is to obtain a comprehensive and in-depth overview of how Finnish companies are fulfilling their human rights responsibility, i.e. how they have implemented the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The information is relevant to policy makers and authorities, companies themselves, and other stakeholders such as researchers, investors, and NGOs. The methodology of the project is the international Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB).
The SIHTI project focuses on three research questions:
1. What is the status of the human rights responsibility among the Finnish companies under review?
2. What are the main challenges for companies to publish information on the fulfilment of their human rights responsibilities?
3. How suitable is the CHRB methodology as a monitoring tool in the Finnish context?
Visit the project website and follow @ProjectSihti on Twitter!
Contact: CCR's director Nikodemus Solitander at solitander@hanken.fi
Funding: Academy Project Funding
Project start: 2019
Status: Funded
PI: Prof. Frank den Hond
Description: The project Political Action of Corporate Social Responsibility (PAROL) advances knowledge of how disparate actors organize collectively in multi-stakeholder networks that seek to induce regulatory change for sustainability. The proposed research focuses in particular on collective action and managerial decision-making in engaging with corporate political activity (CPA, the direct efforts by firms to shape government policy). We approach this phenomenon from two main perspectives: 1) firms’ non-market strategies and the organization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as political activity, and 2) the role of temporality in organizing collective action. Our overall aim is to investigate how disparate actors organize collective action in a multi-stakeholder initiative to mobilize support for regulatory change and how organizational actors form perceptions and take decisions with regards to engaging with political activity. The proposed project makes scientific contributions to the political CSR literature and to the emerging literature on temporality and institutions in the neoinstitutional stream of management research.
contact: for more information contact CCR's director Nikodemus Solitander at solitander@hanken.fi
Funding: CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica)
Project start: 2018
Status: Funded
Description: An academic collaboration network between CCR and NIES Centre (Chile) focused on the approach and discussion on socio-environmental conflicts and policies in the forest sector. The network seeks to strengthen scientific exchanges between both Centres linked by the specific experience in the forest policies, specially focused in specific programmes of the forest companies and communities. We explore research topics related to the following themes: - Forms and characteristics of socio-environmental conflict in forest environments. - Governance of corporate community relations in the form of policies and strategies developed by forestry companies for their insertion and establishment of links with the community. - Effects and consequences of this kind of actions in local territories.
Contact: For more information contact Dr Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes at maria.ehrnstrom@hanken.fi
SUSMINO - Sustainability challenges of mining in the Nordic countries: the business, politics and society
Funding: Ekon. dr Peter Wallenbergs Stiftelse för Ekonomi och Teknik
Project started: 2017
Status: Application process
Participants: The project is a cooperation between Centre for Corporate Responsibility (CCR) at Hanken, Finland; Centre for Sami Studies at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway and the Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
About the project: Sweden and Finland are currently experiencing a renewed mining boom in their northern territories. Many local communities in these areas are economically and culturally dependent on reindeer herding and other land-based livelihoods. While mining operations may boost rural economies, they may also have an adverse impact on the environment and regional livelihoods. This creates a risk of social and political conflicts, which can question the sustainability of mining, affect the companies’ performance and reputation negatively, and produce cross-border political instability. There have been various research projects on the complex social, cultural and political drivers, contexts and impacts of mining in the Nordic countries. By organizing three research workshops in 2018-19, the SUSMINO project seeks to build a synthesis on the research findings of previous projects to identify the key sustainability challenges and ways to tackle them in Nordic mining. The project promotes networking between Nordic scholars in social sciences, humanities and business studies as well as with business practitioners and stakeholders. One of the workshops is dedicated for connecting Nordic junior researchers with broader international research networks and key stakeholders of Nordic mining, facilitating interdisciplinary and cross-border collaboration in doctoral supervision, and identifying further research opportunities especially for junior researchers.
Contact: For more information contact consortia leader Dr. Ville-Pekka Sorsa at ville-pekka.sorsa@hanken.fi
Towards an Entrepreneurial Welfare State? The Practices of Challenge-Driven Innovation Policies
Funding: Business Finland - Innovation and Growth Research
Project start: 2021
Status: Funded
Description: The entrepreneurial welfare state project explores the feasibility of pursuing challenge-driven innovation policies in the context of Finland, a small Nordic welfare state. Through co-creation activities with practitioners, and case-studies of leading challenge-driven initiatives, the project investigates and systematises the dynamic capabilities required from public organisations, businesses and other innovation intermediaries to design, implement, evaluate, and fund challenge-driven policies. The project seeks to significantly enhance our understanding of the practical tools and instruments through which welfare states can pursue an entrepreneurial role as envisioned in recent academic, policy, and business debates. Concurrently, the project determines the extent to which pursuing such a role requires a re-thinking of the Finnish welfare state, its associated mindsets, functions, capabilities, and administrative practices.
Research team
Dr Martin Fougère (PI) is Associate Professor in Management and Politics at Hanken School of Economics.
Dr Ville Takala (Co-PI) is Project Researcher in Management and Organisation at Hanken School of Economics and Research Associate at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
Dr Emma Nordbäck is Assistant Professor in Management and Organisation at Hanken School of Economics.
Dr Caroline Sundgren is Project Researcher in Management and Organisation at Hanken School of Economics.
Advisory board
The project is supported by a distinguished international advisory board.
Pirjo Kutinlahti (Chairman of the advisory board) is Ministerial Advisor within the Innovation Policy Department of the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
Antti Pelkonen is Science Specialist at the Prime Minister’s Office in Finland.
Roope Ritvos is Director of Research Operations at Demos Helsinki.
Iina Koskinen is Research impact lead at Demos Helsinki.
Riina Pulkkinen is Leading Specialist in Societal Training and Development at the Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra.
Kalle Nieminen is Leading Specialist at the smart city company Sitowise.
Rainer Kattel is Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
Tuukka Toivonen is Director of MA Innovation Management at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Jesper Christiansen is Co-founder and Director at States of Change.
Paula Laine is CEO at the Finnish Climate Fund.
For more information on the project, please contact Dr Ville Takala or Dr Caroline Sundgren.