New Professor of Corporate Environmental Management Tiina Onkila at JSBE: “I want to advance the corporate sustainability transition and business change through my research”
Tiina Onkila, D.Sc. (Econ.) has conducted a range of research throughout her career and taught in the Corporate Environmental Management programme. Since 2022, she has served as professor responsible for corporate environmental management and in that role been responsible for the international master’s degree programme Corporate Environmental Management and for research development in her field.
Onkila has also contributed to the planning, launch, and teaching of the University of Jyväskylä’s first international bachelor’s programme, Business Innovation and Sustainability, launched in autumn 2025.
“The Corporate Environmental Management programme,” Onkila says, “was established in 1995 and it has evolved significantly over the years. I have contributed to the development of the programme, for example, through curriculum development. The rapid development of sustainable business approaches has meant the programme needs to be continuously updated. New corporate standards and terms, for example, are introduced every year. The programme remains unique among Finnish business schools, as it is fully focused on environmental sustainability. Only a few similar programmes exist globally.”
Sustainability agency and corporate sustainability transition in focus
Since completing her PhD, Tiina Onkila has focused on issues in corporate environmental management. Onkila and her research group have published studies in international, multidisciplinary journals on sustainable business.
“In general, environmental management issues are viewed as technically solvable within companies,” says Onkila. “I personally, however, approach these from a different perspective, focusing on human action, stakeholder relations, and values. I want to build an understanding that environmental management issues should not be solved purely through technical means, but that human behaviour must also change.”
Onkila’s research themes include the forms that sustainability agency can take in business, the types of change agents that exist and the nature of their work, the emotions that emerge in companies when addressing sustainability issues and how these are interpreted, as well as how management approaches and either promotes or resists the sustainability transition. She also leads the BIODIFUL project’s business and biodiversity work package.
“I am interested in researching what human action is, and what it should be, to enable a sustainability transition within business at both the individual and organisational levels.”
Interactive teaching
She is a well-respected and popular teacher that has been teaching since her doctoral studies. In addition, she is an experienced doctoral supervisor and holds a docentship in corporate environmental management at the Turku School of Economics.
“At the moment I teach stakeholder relations, among other subjects, in the Corporate Environmental Management programme and research methods in the Business Innovation and Sustainability programme,” says Onkila, who favours an interactive teaching method.
“I like being with the students. It’s great when the group is international, communicative and active.”
Societal impact activities at the university and national level
Since 2022, Onkila has been a member of the Finnish Nature Panel, which operates under the Ministry of the Environment. She has also served as chair of the University’s environmental and sustainability working groups and been a member of the management team of the JYU.Wisdom School of Resource Wisdom.
“I want to continue working on large-scale research projects and expand research on sustainable business from the perspective of agency and impact, as research on agency is still not mainstream,” says Onkila. “I also want to contribute to the development of standards in the field, such as those related to sustainable workplaces.”
Tiina Onkila earned a D.Sc. (Econ.) in Corporate Environmental Management in 2009. During her long career, she has held several roles at JSBE, including postdoctoral researcher, senior researcher, and associate professor. Onkila has also been a member of the JSBE management team, as well as of research and education development groups, and served as a deputy member of a faculty council.
Tiina Onkila began her role as Professor of Corporate Environmental Management at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics on 15 October 2025.
