Department of Management Studies

International Business - cutting edge in research and teaching

The unit of International Business focuses on developing strategic and managerial capabilities needed to succeed in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global environment.

Our Mission

The unit of International Business focuses on developing strategic and managerial capabilities needed to succeed in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global environment.

We strive to be the leading International Business unit in Europe.

Our Past and Present

Since 1989 our faculty has pioneered business education in Finland by offering a full-fledged M.Sc. programme taught entirely in English with real life teaching cases and engagement of international business professionals.

We continue this pioneering spirit by developing cutting-edge teaching and research in International Business. Combining strong research with the multicultural background of our faculty and students enables us to educate professionals with competences and skills needed to anticipate and respond to global challenges in a creative and responsible manner.

Our international network

We work in close cooperation with leading international companies and other public, private and non-profit organizations. We encourage strong international cooperation among scholars, and an open, cooperative atmosphere within the community of IB faculty and students.

We have several international scholars visiting and working with us every year. Furthermore, our own faculty and doctoral students are active in international research networks, such as:

Multidisciplinary research in global context

Research in the International Business Unit focuses on international management, cross-boundary collaboration and methodology.

Our current research areas include:

people management in international context
language sensitive research in international business
cross-sector and cross-border collaboration
international entrepreneurship
research methodology
sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Our faculty hosts regular international research seminars and is actively engaged in research collaboration with other top international scholars.

Cutting-edge research

Our faculty is well known for their cutting-edge contributions to international human resource management, led by Kristiina Mäkelä, to language in IB research, led by Rebecca Piekkari, and to cross sector collaboration between corporations, nonprofits and governments, led by Tiina Ritvala.

Furthermore, our expertise is world class in the field of qualitative methods, particularly the use of case studies in IB research, led by Rebecca Piekkari.

Publications in top journals

Our unit is one of the leading International Business units in Europe which reflects in awards given to our faculty, as well as in publications in top journals, such as: