Unknown author(Hanken School of Economics, 2013-04-19)
Hanken has defined internationalisation as one of its focus
areas. For a business school in a small, open economy, this
is a natural choice. Recently, many steps towards greater
international involvement have been taken, and the results
are emerging. The number of international refereed publications
per faculty has been steadily increasing, making Hanken
the best producing business school in Finland in 2010.
For 2011, this ratio has further improved. Our international
recruitment activities and our actions to get the AACSB accreditation
are expected to further speed up this process.
Incentives have also been initiated to motivate papers in
top publications. Finally, Hanken researchers have received
important international acknowledgements, such as Professor
Christian Grönroos’ recent appointment as a Legend of
Marketing.
Regarding student enrolment, we can note the increase in
applications to our international Master’s programmes. And
now, as the Bachelor programme students move out for their
term abroad, we can also foresee a
significant increase in the number
of exchange students at the Helsinki
and Vaasa campuses, further
internationalizing our activities on
home ground. Areas of improvement
do, admittedly, remain. Our
low international research funding
is an Achilles’ heel for Hanken,
and given its high impact on our
state funding, it is imperative for
our faculty to figure out how to
improve our international applications.
International recruitment
also remains a challenge. But on
a general level, we are well on our
way, and more than ready to compete
in an international environment.
Sarala, Riikka; Vaara, Eero(Journal of International Business Studies, 2012-09-25)
In spite of the proliferation of research on cultural differences in international mergers and acquisitions, we lack systematic analyses of the impact of cultural factors on knowledge transfer. In this paper, we argue that both national and organizational cultural differences and cultural integration in the form of cultural convergence and crossvergence affect knowledge transfer in acquisitions. We develop specific hypotheses concerning the nature of these effects, and test our hypotheses with data on international acquisitions carried out by Finnish corporations. The analyses performed show that national cultural differences provide great potential for knowledge transfer in international acquisitions. Furthermore, organizational cultural convergence and crossvergence have a significant positive impact on knowledge transfer. In particular, convergence and crossvergence moderate the impact of national cultural differences on knowledge transfer.
Vaara, Eero(Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2012-09-25)
Real-life experiences of corporate mergers often tell of disappointment in terms of the synergistic benefits that fail to appear, or the severe organisational problems that arise. Although many studies have provided empirical material on internal divisions among actors coming from the previously separate organisations, we still know little about the sociopolitical forces at work in the upper echelons of corporate hierarchies. It is suggested in this paper that an examination of the emergent role identities in the upper echelons of a new corporate hierarchy can help us to understand the nature of these sociopolitical forces. The empirical analysis concentrates on a revealing merger case where Finnish Ovako and Swedish SKF Steel first joined forces, but where their organisational marriage broke down five years later. This analysis illustrates how behaviour consistent with the enacted role identities can create contradictory sociopolitical forces, and how this can lead to increasing tension and severe open conflict. The analysis suggests that a favourable turn in the business cycle is a condition that can easily hide such divisions with dramatic consequences later on.
Unknown author(Hanken School of Economics, 2013-04-19)
The financial crisis has changed the investor’s perception of
many assets. Not only has the sound view that real estate
assets, as risky assets, can not only go up but also down, returned.
We have also been reminded that assets based on
interbank debt are only as ‘risk-free’ as the banks themselves.
Recently many previously high-rated countries lost their
triple-A ratings, leading to chain reactions for financial intermediaries.
But has the financial landscape changed in a fundamental
way? The issues above are neither new nor contrary to financial
theory, only consequences of revised perceptions on
risk. At a recent Hanken finance alumni seminar, the “buyand-
hold” investment strategy was discussed. While there is
some current support for outperforming investment funds,
there is – as before – ample evidence that the market efficiency
concept is still alive, indirectly supporting long-term
strategies. These are not aimed at
tactically beating the market, but
at harvesting risk premia in the
long term. Hanken has an extensive
investment strategy, and we
look forward to obtaining returns
on our investments both in faculty
skills and learning environments,
as well as on our financial portfolio.
Unknown author(Hanken School of Economics, 2013-04-19)
So here we are again. Just as the fear that the financial crisis
of 2008 would turn out to be a “double-dip” was starting to
fade, the markets fell.
On the surface, this crisis looks different. This is not
a question of defaults in complex instruments, but fear of
country defaults in very simple instruments. There is, however,
at least one similarity: banks are again involved. For
many countries, saving Greece is mostly a question of saving
their own national banks.
It also seems different because now the countries that
last time played a crucial role in supporting the financial system
are themselves weaker. As a professor in Finance, I feel
much more in the mist now; there don’t seem to be any neat
solutions - only very tough ones.
For higher education in Finland, these tougher times have
meant cuts in public funding. It is unfortunate that the educational
system, which would benefit from predictability and
stability, has to live with the markets. Fortunately, thanks to
our very successful fundraising
campaign, Hanken
has a robust balance
sheet. So, despite the mist
in the financial markets,
we can look to the future
with confidence.
Unknown author(Hanken School of Economics, 2013-04-19)
Design is with us at all times, and this year it has
played a special role for many of us, not least
because of Helsinki being the World Design Capital
2012. At Hanken, and to me personally, design
entails many things, but I want to highlight
two perspectives in particular.
Firstly, we at Hanken focus on the design of our
study programmes and service offerings, from
bachelor to doctoral studies, and furthermore to
executive education. This involves long-term development
of content and learning methods, but
it also requires a dynamic capability to create
tailor-made solutions for our partners.
Secondly, Hanken has hosted several international
conferences this year. As it happened,
the theme of the 28th EGOS (European Group
for Organizational Studies) Colloquium 2012 in
Helsinki was design. This conference brought
almost 1,800 leading organisation scholars to
Hanken and Aalto University to reflect upon the
meaning of design in organisation theory and
practice. As the former chairman of EGOS, and
as a representative of one of the organisers, I felt
really proud of Hanken. I believe this is what we
want and need to do to remain as a leading international
business school.
Vaara, Eero; Whittington, Richard(Hanken School of Economics, 2012-05-21)
This article reviews research in Strategy-as-Practice (SAP) and suggests directions for its development. The power of this perspective lies in its ability to explain how strategy-making is enabled and constrained by prevailing organizational and societal practices. Our review shows how SAP research has helped to advance social theories in strategic management, offered alternatives to performance-dominated analyzes, broadened the scope in terms of organizations studied and promoted new methodologies. In particular, it has provided important insights into the tools and methods of strategy-making (practices), how strategy work takes place (praxis), and the role and identity of the actors involved (practitioners). However, we argue that there is a need to go further in the analysis of social practices to unleash the full potential of this perspective. Hence, we outline five directions for the further development of the practice perspective: placing agency in a web of practices, recognizing the macro-institutional nature of practices, focusing attention on emergence in strategy-making, exploring how the material matters, and promoting critical analysis.
Monin, Philippe; Noorderhaven, Niels; Vaara, Eero; Kroon, David(Hanken School of Economics, 2012-05-21)
The objective of this paper is to elucidate how justice in general and distributive justice in particular is given sense to and made sense of in post-merger integration. Drawing on a longitudinal real time analysis of a recent merger, we identify a pattern where the focus moved from equality to equity to less emphasis on distributive justice. To understand the dynamics involved, we develop a process model that explains how actors reconcile pressures of value creation and socio-political concerns in dialogical sensegiving and sensemaking processes that lead to the enactment of specific norms of justice. This analysis adds to research on M&As by facilitating our understanding of the crucial role that norms of justice play in post-merger integration, of the way in which they change over time as integration processes unfold, and of the inter-group dynamics through which these norms of justice are enacted. By uncovering the micro-dynamics of dialogical sensegiving and sensemaking processes, we also contribute to research on organizational justice, sensemaking, and process studies.