The project explores how family enterprises can best strengthen their international network, enabling the usage of their unique strengths.
The project explores the best modes of international operation in various circumstances.
Family enterprises are human, long-enduring and responsible enterprises with a personal touch and, hence, desired partners all around the world.
Hello! I’m Tanja Leppäaho. I lead a research project on international family enterprises, IFE. Contact me to join the project.
Project
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PI Tanja
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Publications
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Outcomes
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Collaboration
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Spin off
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"Enabling Internationalization Excellence for Family Enterprises" IFE, 2017 |
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Tanja –
June 14, 2021
THE PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF FAMILY FIRM INTERNATIONALIZATION NOW AVAILABLE!The Palgrave Handbook of Family Firm Internationalization has been published! The book can be accessed and purchased through here:
Until the 2nd of July 2021 you can get 20% off the book price. Just insert the discount code p85nMkF7YyDyjxT when purchasing the book.
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Project
In our project focusing on exploring the specific features and heterogeneity of family enterprises in the process of internationalization, we aim to be relevant both in theory and practice.
Family enterprises make up more than 80% of Finnish firms and they are the most common type of organization around the world. Family firms are one of the focus areas of the current Strategic Development Programme of the Finnish Government.
On our way to a theory on the family firm internationalization process, we have produced several academic articles and book chapters with the leading journals / publishers in the world. Some project-driven publications are listed in the outcomes-section on the project. We also provide with some practical tips for family entrepreneurs in the end of the same sub-page.
Our studies are based on archival data, case studies, and survey / panel data, with a special focus on the international pathways and network ties within the internationalization process.
We have two post-docs and and a research assistant in the team in addition to the team leader Tanja Leppäaho, who is one of the world’s most active researchers on the internationalization of family enterprises. She is currently the scholar with the largest number of publications in this area.
Jaakko
Jaakko Metsola (Dr. Sc.) works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at School of Business and Management in LUT University. Jaakko defended his doctoral thesis exploring the family firm internationalization process in 2020. Tanja Leppäaho acted as his supervisor and his data came from the IFE project. Please see the doctoral thesis here. Currently, Jaakko continues with the IFE project research, but is also involved with other research projects and teaching at LBM. Prior to starting academic career, Jaakko worked in Finnish fast-growing ICT companies in sales and customer management positions.
Satu
Satu Korhonen (Dr. Sc.) works as a researcher and lecturer at LUT University School of Business and Management. Her primary research and lecturing topics comprehend the individuals in and social dimensions of entrepreneurship and internationalization of small firms. Satu is also involved in other research projects in addition to the IFE project. Satu’s doctoral thesis supervised by the project leader Tanja Leppäaho is partly based on the IFE project data. Please see the doctoral thesis here.
PI Tanja
Tanja
Like obvious from the above, I am Tanja Leppäaho and lead the research project on international family enterprises, here abbreviated as IFE. The project is based in LUT University, and it will last until 2022. I also lead the spin off of the IFE project, International family firms: networking strategies and crisis responses.
I started writing my doctoral thesis in 2008, defending it publicly in 2011 at the University of Jyväskylä. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey of writing my work on the internationalization pathways of family firms, findings myself in the middle of several international conferences and research visits, too. In addition to several international conferences each year, I was fortunate to finalize my doctoral thesis at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Currently, I work as Research Fellow, a prestigious grant (with a 4-percent acceptance rate in 2019) funded by the Academy of Finland; hold a tenured Professorship in Growth entrepreneurship and act as Vice Director for LBM Doctoral School, LUT University, Finland. I have visited EMLyon Business School and Lancaster University Management School during the IFE project.
Previously I worked in a tenure track in international business and entrepreneurship at the University of Jyväskylä in between 2014 and 2017 and as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK in between 2012 and 2016. In line with my current IFE project “Building Theory on the family business internationalization process” running in 2017-2022, my core areas of interest are the internationalization process of firms through times, networking and family ownership. According to Pukàll and Calabro (2014), I am the leading scholar on family firm internationalization on a global scale.
My list of publications can be found through Orcid, Google Scholar and the project pages. I have published in various journals including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Family Business Review, Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, and International Business Review. I have supervised five doctoral theses, visited several leading universities, given speeches in recognized societal-level organizations and events, and among others been granted, together with Professor Sarah Jack, the best paper award by the leading conference in entrepreneurship, Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference. I have also co-edited the first ever Handbook, Palgrave Handbook of Family Firm Internationalization (published early 2021). Please see information on the academic outcomes of the project on the Outcomes section.
I grew up in a family firm in a rural area in the Eastern Finland and lived a simple life helping out my parents at the farm, but also playing instruments, singing and doing athletics. While I learned to appreciate a simple life in the countryside, I became extremely interested in foreign languages and cultures and at school I selected as many languages as possible, getting my baccalaureat in 1997.
In my first university degree, Master of Arts (2002) from the University of Jyväskylä, I studied English language and culture, Roman philology (French and other Roman languages and cultures), German language and culture, and Nordic philology (Swedish) – and some Latin and Italian – and graduated as a language teacher. During my studies, I spent time working and studying abroad – in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden – becoming even more fascinated by and also familiar with foreign languages and cultures. I especially enjoyed observing how people meet people from other cultures.
While I liked my work as a language teacher I did for a couple of years, I knew I was meant for something else and studied entrepreneurship and marketing, graduating as Master of Economics in 2004, also from the University of Jyväskylä. With my interest, I wanted to study how entrepreneurs internationalize and inspired by my Professor Matti Koiranen, I started studying family enterprises in special for my Master’s thesis. While I became more familiar with family entrepreneurs and their internationalization narratives, I was more and more fascinated by the hard and innovative work they pursue generation after generation, as well as their persistency and human nature among others.
I also saw how important family enterprises are to communities and to Finland and Europe as a whole. I wanted to understand their internationalization more in-depth and even more longitudinally and find ways of making them more effective. That is how I started writing my PhD thesis on the same topic in 2008, after my Professor Matti Koiranen asked me for the third time. The first two times I was interested but unable to start, since the first time I had just given birth to my dear son and the second time I was just about to give birth to my sweet daughter – well, family issues here.
2011 PhD (Econ.), University of Jyväskylä (JSBE), Finland; Thesis title “Internationalization pathways of family SMEs“; graded 5/5; Supervisor Matti Koiranen
2004 MSc in Economics, University of Jyväskylä (JSBE), Finland
2002 Master of Arts, University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Humanities, Finland
Professor of Growth Entrepreneurship and Co-Head for Doctoral School, School of Business and Management, LUT University, Finland
Research Fellow, a prestigious personal grant (1.9.2017-30.9.2022) from the Academy of Finland. Project name: Building theory on the family business internationalization process: pathwyas and networks in focus
2019 Visiting Researcher, Lancaster University Management School, UK (two months)
2018 Visiting Professor, EMLyon Business School, France (two months)
2014-2017 Tenure track Professor, University of Jyväskylä (JSBE), Finland
2012-2016 Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK
2008-2013 Senior Assistant, University of Jyväskylä (JSBE), Finland
2010 Visiting Researcher, University of Adelaide, Australia (two months)
2017-2022: Grant of 604 842€; Academy of Finland (grant number 308667)
2017: Bertarelli Family Best Paper Award from BCERC (Babson College), USA, for Leppäaho, T. & Jack, S. (2016). “Imprinting, embeddedness and social network ties in the internationalization of small- and medium-sized family enterprises”.
2017: Best Paper Award from the 8th BAMDE Conference, 6-9 June 2017, Varna, Bulgaria, for Leppäaho, T., Jack, S., Arenius, P., & Paavilainen-Mäntymäki, E. (2017). “Getting Embedded for and during Internationalization”.
2017: #1 most downloaded article in Family Business Review in 2016 for Leppäaho, T., Plakoyiannaki, E. & Dimitratos, P. (2016) “The case study in family business: analysis of current research practices and recommendations”
2018: Nominee for Copenhagen Business School Prize at European International Business Academy 2018 conference for Paavilainen-Mäntymäki, E., Leppäaho T., & Metsola, J. (2018). “Fear for Failure and Need for Longetivity – Internationalization Process Tensions within Family Businesses”.
2012: Best Paper Award, International Council for Small Business Conference, New Zealand, for Kontinen, T. & Kansikas, J. (2012). “Developmental phases in the foreign market entry of family SMEs”
2012: Award for excellent research articles in 2011 by JSBE and Kauppalaisseuran säätiö, University of Jyväskylä
Number of Postdocs: 4 / PhD Students: 5 / Master Students: 30
Doctoral theses:
1st supervisor:
2nd supervisor:
2019 – 2021 Member of Doctoral School Committee, LUT University, Finland
2014 – 2017 Member of AACSB Accreditation Committee, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
2013 – 2014 Director of MSc in International Business and Emerging Markets, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK
2012 Director of Master’s Degree Programme in International Business and Entrepreneurship, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
2020 – Member, MISUM network, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden
2013 – Member, Academy of Management
2010 – Member, Academy of International Business
2008 – Member, Advisory Board for Research, Family Firm Institute, Finland
Publications
Outcomes
Leppäaho, T. & Jack, S. (2021). The Palgrave Handbook of Family Firm Internationalization.
This book currently in print, co-edited by Professors Tanja Leppäaho and Sarah Jack, considers the internationalization of family firms—small, medium-sized, and multinational. Within 17 chapters it discusses how family firms become networked for internationalization, examining factors specific to family firms, such as bifurcation bias and socioemotional wealth. Some chapters focus on theory, while the remainder encompass a range of data—quantitative and qualitative, archival and secondary, longitudinal and cross-sectional. The data originate from both developed and emerging economies, including Finland, Taiwan, India, and Guatemala. The material is highly relevant to students, scholars, policy makers, and managers. Located at the cutting edge of family business studies, the book opens with forewords from four leading scholars in family business research, and continues with chapters from a number of distinguished professors, all of them at the forefront of their field.
Leppäaho, T. & Metsola, J. (2020): Family Firm Internationalization – A Network Perspective
Our Palgrave Pivot book Family Firm Internationalization – A Network Perspective links theories on family business, internationalization, and international networking to an empirical analysis of 24 Finnish family SMEs.
The book is suitable for both executive and master level education and managers of smaller and family firms looking for a suitable strategy to network for internationalization. The book can be purchased via the link below:
Examples of Tanja’s speeches in practice-related events during the IFE project:
Do send an invitation to Tanja would you like to invite her to give an equivalent – or a different – specialist speech!
Please see the attached file for a summary of project results.
Collaboration
Spin off
As a spin off of IFE project, we have launched a collaborative research project to study international networking and crisis responses of family firms from Asia, Southern America, India and Europe.
The aim of the project is (i) understand how international family firms with different family structures and socioemotional wealth endowments from all around the world get networked for internationalization; and (ii) to understand how international family firms with different degrees of socioemotional wealth from all around the world reply crises (Covid -19 and other relevant earlier crises).
Tanja Leppäaho
tanja@ife.fi
+358 40 1919 448
firstname@ife.fi