Antti Sihvonen

I started my work at the University of Jyväskylä as a fixed-term lecturer in 2021, and two years later I applied for and got a permanent post as a lecturer. I am currently working as a senior lecturer in technology and innovation management, in the subject of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE). 

My work at JYU has been diverse and challenging. I lead the international master’s level programme entitled International Business and Entrepreneurship, and I am also a member of the Faculty Council and Education Development Group. These duties have given me a chance to contribute to the university’s development as well as to students’ learning experiences. 

I appreciate JYU’s aspiring subject of Strategy and Entrepreneurship as well as the aims and research interests of my work community. In addition, our multidisciplinary university is genuinely also a part of the city, its community. 

A suitable work community supports your research interests and goals

When I was considering my study choices, I had two quite different areas of interest: after upper secondary school, I was going to apply for a study place in either marine biology or business and economics. I ended up in the latter, and eventually completed my dissertation on marketing and received my doctoral degree from Aalto University in 2014. In my dissertation, I examined Vaisala’s product development in the 1970s. 

For my first academic job, I decided to head abroad, and after some consideration I settled on Karlstad, Sweden. I think that when choosing a job, you need to consider how your goals and interests as a researcher and those of the work community overlap. How could I develop myself as a researcher in my job? My aim was to get my academic articles published in certain journals, so I noticed that I needed to find those people and communities with whom this goal could be achieved. As I looked into it, I found that the University of Karlstad seemed advantageous in this respect. 

I worked in Karlstad as a senior lecturer of industrial marketing and as the head of programmes in industrial business and management. In my research, I achieved one of my publication goals: Together with a doctoral student of mine, we published an article in one of the journals I had aimed for, and that article also brought me an award for a scientific breakthrough at the University of Jyväskylä. 

Karlstad and Jyväskylä have proved to be very similar cities. They are both compact, with the universities located in the city centre and a visible part of the community. 

Research ranging from emotions to product development

Basically, I am highly interested in how things work. I pursue qualitative process research delving into social aspects, that is, how people think and experience things. 

My research is currently concentrated on strategy, product development and creativity. With my colleagues, I am working on more traditional strategy research and, to some extent, also projects purely related to creativity, as well as on publications about business history. For example, I have studied technological competence as part of national sovereignty, specifically looking at  how our nation responded to “shocks” by developing various solutions during the Second World War. Similarly, I have studied the impact of anger in the interpretation of past events. My latest publication relates to the elaboration of ideas at the initial stages of product development. 

As for my research themes, the University of Jyväskylä is already a long-standing acquaintance of mine: Professor Juha-Antti Lamberg from JSBE was my opponent in my doctoral defence, and in the context of business history, I have also become acquainted with Rector Jari Ojala, whose academic background is in historical research. 

As a researcher, one must be courageous since there is no success without failure. Indeed, the best parts of my work are the “Aha!” moments, like when I’m teaching and see that a student realises something or when I myself come up with something new through research. Moreover, if you never fail, you’re probably not trying enough. A researcher must dare to move away from their comfort zone because that is what enables scientific breakthroughs.