Eini Haaja profile picture
Eini
Haaja
Research Manager, Pan-European Institute
Postdoctoral Researcher, Pan-European Institute
Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS)
Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS)

Contact

+358 29 450 4714
+358 50 446 0085
Rehtorinpellonkatu 3
20500
Turku

Areas of expertise

• International opportunity recognition and joint internationalisation of SMEs
• Competitiveness of industries (e.g. maritime sector) amidst megatrends
disruptions and geoeconomic developments
• International business-policy dynamics
• Business opportunities and political risks for foreign investors in Russia and in the Arctic
• Years of practical experience in project planning
application of external funding and project management (e.g. Interreg BSR Programme
EMFF
Business Finland
various foundations)

Biography

D.Sc. (Econ.) Eini Haaja is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Pan-European Institute (PEI) and in Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS). Haaja has been working at PEI since 2008 in various research, teaching and administrative positions. She has specialised in International Business with an emphasis on the business development in the Baltic Sea and Barents Sea regions. Business opportunities and networks in maritime and offshore industry are of particular interest to her. She has been involved in several research projects and has published articles concerning business prospects, risks and collaborative dynamics, most recently focusing on the internationalisation, digitalisation and sustainability in the maritime sector.

Currently Haaja is the Principal Investigator in MUUTOS-project funded by the Foundation for Economic Education. As an example of her prior research projects, she successfully coordinated a project application process for the ECOPRODIGI project which received co-financing and the flagship status from the EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. The project started in late 2017 with a budget of 4,2 million euros with the aim of increasing eco-efficiency in maritime sector processes through digitalisation. Previously she has also worked in SusCon project (co-financed by Business Finland) and SmartComp project (co-financed from EU Interreg Central Baltic Programme), for instance.

Teaching

Through her previous positions at Turku School of Economics, Haaja has years of experience in supervising master's thesis students and also some Bachelor's thesis students. She has also organised and taught basic and advanced-level courses in International Business concerning the business environments in Eastern Europe and the Arctic region. Haaja has also completed some university pedagogical courses to strengthen her teaching skills.

Research

Currently Haaja is conducting a Postdoctoral research project at Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS). The project is titled "Agents of sustainable industrial transformation – exploring the multilevel dynamics in maritime industry" and it focuses on understanding how different actors in shipbuilding industry context drive, and could drive, the whole industry ecosystem more sustainable. Besides literature on international entrepreneurship and business networks, which are already familiar to Haaja, the project seeks to benefit from new, multidisciplinary approaches, including futures research methods.