Topic outline

  • Below is the material for the Master's Thesis Event on 14 November 2022

    Maturity test for the Industrial Engineering and Management students

    IEM maturity test instructions 1.11.2020

    Role of major and minor in selection of supervisor and evaluation

    Selection of supervisor
    As a default, the master’s thesis is written on a topic related to the student’s chosen major. The supervisor should be a professor or lecturer from the field of the chosen major (see list of supervisors below).

    Exceptions: 

    • In exceptional cases, a professor from another field may act as supervisor for a thesis in the field of the student’s chosen major. In such a case, the professor responsible for the student’s chosen major needs to approve the supervisor and confirm that the topic is in the field of the student’s chosen major (as part of topic approval).  The student should send a short summary about the thesis topic by email to the professor responsible for the chosen major (cc proposed supervisor and study coordinator Jasmin Seppälä). If the suggested supervisor is other than IEM professor or lecturer, the professor responsible for the chosen major and supervisor will also discuss the evaluation criteria (since the professor responsible for the chosen major will sign the evaluation statement).
    • If supervision would benefit from the specific expertise of a professor or lecturer who is not from the field of the chosen major, instead of acting as supervisor this person may also act as advisor. In this case the supervisor is a professor or lecturer from the field of the chosen major. He/she and the advisor agree on the actual supervision and evaluation, but the supervisor is ultimately responsible for evaluation. 
    • The student can also write the master’s thesis on a topic that is related to the student’s chosen minor. This must be marked in the topic approval form on eAge. In these cases, the supervisor must be a professor who is an expert in field of the respective minor. In such a case, the program director needs to approve the supervisor. The student should send an e-mail to program director (cc proposed supervisor and study coordinator Jasmin Seppälä). The program director will also discuss the evaluation criteria with the supervisor.
    • IEM Programme Director: Jens Schmidt
    • Professors in charge / Head of Majors:
    1. Operations Management - Lauri Saarinen
    2. Organization Design and Leadership - Jari Ylitalo
    3. Product and Innovation Management - Mikko Jääskeläinen
    4. Strategy - Kimmo Karhu

    Evaluation
    All master’s theses must be evaluated according to the SCI guidelines for master’s thesis evaluation.

    For all master’s theses written on a topic related to the student’s chosen major where the supervising professor is not a professor at the IEM department, the professor responsible for the major will need to approve and sign the evaluation form in addition to the supervising professor. 
     
    For all master’s theses written on a topic related to the student’s chosen minor, the program director will need to approve and sign the evaluation form in addition to the supervising professor. 


    Supervisors in Industrial Engineering and Management

    Strategy & Venturing / Strategy
    Robin Gustafsson: Strategic Management, Strategy, Platform Business, Platform Economy, Innovation Policy
    Mikko Jääskeläinen (Head of the Product and Innovation Management major): Startups, Corporate entrepreneurship & venturing, Venture capital, Entrepreneurship ecosystems, Innovation, Product management, Product development
    Kimmo Karhu (Head of the Strategy major): Digitalization, Platform Strategy, Digital Platforms, Open-Source, Innovation, Information Systems
    Jukka Luoma: Competitive Dynamics, Data-driven Decision Making, Analytics, Competitive Strategy
    Markku Maula: Venture Capital and Private Equity, Corporate Venturing, Mergers and Acquisitions
    Tero Ojanperä: Platform Strategy, Business Models, Strategy, Artificial Intelligence
    Henri Schildt: Digital Strategy, Digitalization, Strategic Change, Sensemaking, Industry Ecosystems, Social Organizations, Social Enterprises, Organizational Values
    Jens Schmidt: Strategy, Innovation, Business Models, Ecosystems, Platforms, Internationalization
    Timo Vuori: Strategy Formulation, Strategy Execution, Platform Strategy, AI in Strategy Process, Emotions, Cognition

    Operations and Service Management /
    Operations Management
    Karlos Artto: Project Business, Project Operations, Project-Based Firms, Project Networks and Supply Chains, Buying Projects, Selling Projects, Innovation, Product/Service Development
    Jan Holmström: Operations Management, Design Science Research, Digitalization of Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Digital Twins and Virtual Counterparts, Industrial Services, Physical Asset Management, Building Information Management
    Jouko Karjalainen: Management Accounting and Cost Estimation
    Paul Lillrank: Industrial Engineering, Quality and Service Management, Healthcare Operations Management, Health Systems Science
    Risto Rajala: Management of Service Systems, Development of Digital Services, Service Innovation and Business Models
    Lauri Saarinen (Head of the Operations Management major): Data Analytics-based Operational Management
    Timo Seppälä: Digital Operations, Platform Governance, Industrial Ecosystems
    Kari Tanskanen: Purchasing and Supply Chain Management
    Pekka Töytäri: Customer Value, Institutional Change, Business Ecosystems and Platforms, Value Based Selling and Pricing, Sales Management, Service Innovations

    Organization Design and Leadership
    Lauri Järvilehto: Startup Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development Goals, Sustainable Entrepreneurship
    Nina Nurmi: Virtual / Hybrid Work, Leadership, Work Design, Organizational Design, Virtual Teams, Teamwork, Well-Being
    Natalia Vuori:  Strategy Implementation, Change Management, Organizing for Innovation, Heuristics and Biases, Emotions and Cognition (identity, motivation, cognitive frames) in Organizational Processes
    Jari Ylitalo (Head of the Organization Design and Leadership major): Leadership, Leadership and leader development, Organizational development and transformation, Leadership in networks, Collaboration in networks and partnerships, Dialogue in organisations

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