NEWSLETTER 3-18 FROM HANKEN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
Honouring academic traditions and communicating research In November, we had the opportunity of honouring valuable traditions at Hanken. Hanken Research Day (HRD) is a yearly event where Hanken’s researchers, doctoral students included, are encouraged to share their work with each other so as to enhance collaboration. HRD also disseminates research to students and staff at Hanken as well as to the general public. Regarding the proliferation of research perspectives inside Hanken, individual researchers presented research posters, and nine of Hanken’s larger research groups presented an overview of their research. When it comes to dissemination of research perspectives outside Hanken, we tried something new and different this year: to support researchers’ skills at communicating
their research to non-academic, non-researcher audiences, research pitching training was offered to researchers prior to HRD. On HRD, a pitching competition was organised, with five researchers demonstrating their upgraded communication skills in front of a jury and the audience. Finally, HRD culminated in the inaugural lectures of Hanken’s new full professors: David Grant (Supply Chain Management & Social Responsibility), Ari Hyytinen (Economics) and Petra Sund-Norrgård (Commercial Law). Perfectly in keeping with the purpose of the inaugural lectures, all three of the new professors delivered excellent talks targeting their audience - the general public. David, Ari and Petra – welcome to Hanken! J A A K KO A S PA R A D E A N O F R ES E A RC H
UNIQUE WEEK ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS Hanken’s strategy aims at educating responsible professionals and integrating sustainability in everything we do. To this end, Hanken organised a unique week on the UN Sustainable Development Goals 13-21.11.2018. “We want to be a front-runner in finding innovative and collective solutions to the world’s complexities! This is an ambitious goal requiring concrete actions from all of us,” states Rector Karen Spens. The week was kicked off with the Responsible Organising Conference #2. Through keynote presentations, workshops and a panel debate, varied issues from sustainable finance to the rights and needs of refugees were explored. An international panel discussed topics including the consequences of cutting development aid, the responsibility of companies and the call for action and responsibility for everyone. The panel concluded that a more law-based governance is needed as voluntary mechanisms have over the years proved to be ineffective and lead to free-riding. Different events took place during a week at Hanken’s locations in Helsinki and Vaasa, ranging from clothes donation day to a breakfast theme on how to reduce our chemical and plastic waste.
I n t h e p a n e l d e b a t e : Ta r j a H a l o n e n, Fo r m e r P r e s i d e n t o f Fi n l a n d, Ro e l o f v a n L a a r ( Fo u n d e r, C h i l d r e n’s R i g h t s C h a l l e n g e ) , We n d y H e i n ( L e c t u r e r, B i r k b e c k , U n i v e r s i t y o f L o n d o n ) , T i m o Vu o r i ( E x e c u t i v e D i r e c t o r, I n t e r n a t i o n a l C h a m b e r o f C o m m e r c e, Fi n l a n d ) a n d N i n a E l o m a a ( D i r e c t o r, C o r p o r a t e Re s p o n s i b i l i t y, Fa z e r ) .
GRAND OPENING OF HELSINKI GSE The new graduate school and research institution Helsinki Graduate School of Economics, had its official opening ceremony in October. Keynote speeches were held by laureates of the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics 2016 and 2014: MIT Professor Bengt Holmström and Jean Tirole, Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics. Holmström stated that money follows the best people and ideas, and Tirole expected sufficient courage from politicians to admit that preventing climate change will require financial investment. The Helsinki GSE will be an international graduate school and research unit, competing for the best researchers and students with the world’s top economic units. Once the Helsinki GSE has begun to function at its full capacity by 2022, there would be approximately 50 percent more masters and twice as many doctors in Economics graduating from the universities in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
HANKEN LAUNCHES FIRST ONLINE COURSE Hanken launched its first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in October as the ‘Principles of Service Management’ went live on the social learning platform FutureLearn. The course is led by Professor Christian Grönroos, internationally renowned pioneer in service marketing. “As part of our CSR-agenda”, commented Rector Karen Spens, “Hanken wishes to make world-class education available for everyone who doesn’t have the option of going to university.” This marked the beginning of a partnership with FutureLearn, the leading online social learning platform in Europe, which has millions of users worldwide and a wide variety of courses available. Principles of Service Management is the first course in a series of Hanken Legend MOOCs featuring professors with ground-breaking research in their field.
MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL BUSINESS SCHOOL NETWORK
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN UNIVERSUM’S STUDY
Hanken has been accepted into the Global Business School Network (GBSN), which consists of over 70 top business schools working to strengthen management education for the developing world. Membership in GBSN helps Hanken build relationships with like-minded colleagues around the globe, train and mentor peers and students, and find new opportunities to develop as a whole. Hanken’s first GBSN initiative is to offer two scholarships to students currently studying at or alumni of GBSN member schools from developing countries. The scholarships are for Hanken’s two-year master’s degree programme for the academic year 2019-2020.
Every year the Swedish enterprise Universum conducts a study called the company barometer where students in the Nordics disclose how satisfied they are with their university, their career services and their employability. This year, for the first time, Universum revealed the top five universities in these categories in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Around 57 000 students participated in the survey. Hanken came in second on university satisfaction among business students, right after Stockholm School of Economics. Hanken’s career services took third place after Stockholm School of Economics in first place and Aalto University (Finland) in second place.
HANKEN ON THE RISE IN FINANCIAL TIMES’ RANKING Hanken’s master’s programme has been ranked 65th in the Financial Times’ annual Masters in Management ranking. This is a significant step forward compared to last year (ranked 71st). In total there are some 14 000 business schools in the world. Of these, only 100 are ranked on the Financial Times list. Six Nordic business schools have made it on the list. Two of these are Finnish. The Top 3 consists of University of St. Gallen (1), HEC Paris (2) and London Business School (3). “We are very pleased that our position in the ranking improved despite the fact that more universities were added. The result proves that Hanken’s master’s programme is of a high international standard”, says Maj-Britt Hedvall, Director of the Centre for Research and International Affairs.
MARIA EHRNSTRÖMFUENTE’S PHD THESIS AWARDED Researcher Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes from Hanken has won first prize in the annual EDAMBA Thesis Competition 2018 for her thesis ”Legitimacy in the Pluriverse: Towards an Expanded View of Corporate-Community Relations in the Global Forestry Industry”. From this autumn on Maria has been working with her Academy of Finland post-doctoral project about how grassroots activism incurs sustainable change where movements are building alternatives from below. The European Doctoral Programmes Association, EDAMBA, is a European association for doctoral education within Management and Business Administration with about sixty membership universities in Europe.
THE ANNUAL “HANKENDAGEN” The annual homecoming day “Hankendagen” attracted a record amount of participants this year. Over 160 Hanken alumni gathered to hear topical talks and mingle at Hanken in Vaasa. Keynote speakers were Tomas Ek, the man behind the success story of OBH Nordica, Roger Holm, who is revolutionising the shipping industry at Wärtsilä Marine Solutions, and Linus Nyman, the expert on digital mayhem. The alumnus of the year was also announced management consultant Mikael Still.
BONNIE BUCHANAN VISITING FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR Professor Bonnie Buchanan from Seattle University is visiting Hanken as a Fulbright scholar until the end of January 2019. Professor Buchanan is the Howard Bosanko Professor of International Economics and Finance at Seattle University. Her current research covers CSR, corporate governance, securitisation and now also FinTech. During her stay at Hanken she plans to examine the evolution of the Fintech sector in the Nordic region and how it has differed from other financial markets. The data for this project will be both qualitative and quantitative. “I want to explore what the essential characteristics for Fintech innovation are in Finland and which companies are using them. Furthermore, I’d like to find out if there is a “commons” in the Fintech sector where the goals and interests of data scientists, risk managers and business development professionals coincide”, explains professor Buchanan.
CEIPI PROFESSOR TAUGHT AT HANKEN In November, Hanken’s Intellectual Property Law specialisation track at the master’s level hosted a visit from Professor Christophe Geiger. Geiger, the director general of CEIPI at the University of Strasbourg, France, visited to teach International and Comparative Intellectual Property Law. His lectures focused on human rights, ethics and the philosophical foundations of IP. CEIPI and Hanken/IPR University Center have signed a cooperation agreement in 2016. CEIPI is one of the leading research organisations in intellectual property rights in Europe. The cooperation includes research and student exchange and several educational programmes in IPR.
NEW BILATERAL EXCHANGE AGREEMENTS Hanken has signed a new bilateral exchange agreement. Our new partner is: Monash University Monash Business School.
THIS IS HANKEN Hanken School of Economics is a leading internationally accredited Finnish university with operations in Helsinki and Vaasa, Finland. We are one of the oldest business schools in the Nordic countries, with over 100 years experience in education and research in economics and business administration. We combine tradition with a dynamic and innovative approach to research, teaching and learning.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Academic excellence is at the core of everything we do. Cuttingedge research, effective research-based education and the development of global competences help our graduates manage global complexity.
FACTS & FIGURES »» Founded in Helsinki 1909 »» Operations also in Vaasa since 1980 »» Research and teaching in Swedish and English in five departments »» Students enrolled for bachelor’s and master’s degrees – 2428 »» Number of doctoral students – 121 »» Academic staff – 123
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