I am Professor of Management and Organisation at Hanken School of Economics. Research, teaching, executive education, and writing for popular audiences is what I do. My areas of interest include strategy work (i.e., how strategy is done in companies and other organizations); mergers and acquisitions; media, social media, and branding; and gender, diversity, and inclusion. I am also interested in how management and appearances are performed in mediatized society, and how new technologies and artificial intelligence impact upon management. I'm learning more about questions of responsibility and sustainability, especially in top management of companies.
I am proud of the book "Moomin Management: Redefining Generosity," co-authored with Dr. Paul Savage, which is now out. Moomins are amiable troll creatures who live with their friends in the Moominvalley. They have delighted children and adults across the world since the 1940s. Published by Bristol University Press, our book turns the gaze to management of the Moomin business and traces the journey from Tove Jansson’s creations to a global art-based brand and growing ecosystem of companies. It highlights generosity as a key management practice at Moomin, based on the conviction that openness to difference, taking care of people and showing respect to them are crucial for retaining a resilient organization. Generosity is based on values of love, equality, and courage, and it underpins not only the Moomin brand but its strategic partnerships, strategy work, and engagement with technologies and the virtual world. Based on a unique ethnographic study in the Moomin ecosystem, this book redefines generosity by offering insights from managing a business that is committed to bringing people comfort and joy.
I’m involved in many projects that study organizations and management in-depth. Over the years, my research has focused on financial services, media, and management consulting as well as on universities and cities, to name a few examples. My passion is to look around the corner in management. I want to learn more about the new generations entering working life, with their new expectations and ideas. I have supervised over 300 master's theses.
I co-edited with Dr. Maria Sandberg the book “Transformative actions for sustainable outcomes: Responsible organising,” published by Routledge in 2022. This is a unique collection of short, clear, concise, and compelling chapters by scholars affiliated with Hanken. Targeted at academic and reflective practitioner audiences alike, this book offers a comprehensive understanding of responsibility, sustainability, and equality in the contemporary global economy. It focuses on how different actors can organize in multiple ways for transformative action towards sustainable outcomes, as expressed in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Another example of my work for broader audiences is a book co-authored with professor Susan Meriläinen. “Johtaminen ja globaali talous” (Management and the global economy) was published by Alma Talent in 2021. This is the most comprehensive book ever written in the Finnish language on management in conditions of the global economy. Written for teaching and management education purposes, this includes a lot of new thinking on responsibility and sustainability, among other things.
I have been Senior Editor for Organization Studies, Associate Editor for Organization, and Editor-in-Chief of Scandinavian Journal of Management. I currently serve on editorial boards of Organization Studies, Organization, Journal of International Business Studies, Critical Perspectives on International Business, and Management Learning.
Over the years, I have published some 100 articles in refereed international scientific journals (please see Google Scholar for citations, h-index 54).
