By cultivating innovation sensitivity and driving experimental development, we aim to create commercially successful innovations that are fully aligned with EU strategies, further boosting SME growth and competitiveness. Our group is uniquely positioned to spearhead new approaches to commercialization, thanks to our strong partnership with other research organizations in Finland and abroad.
Members of the research group
Pirjo Rautiainen
Pirjo, a Chief Specialist, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.). Pirjo specializes in the development of products, services, and organizations in companies' research and concept development projects. She has studied various aspects of customer experience, employee experience, customer understanding, and value creation for over 25 years. She examined the application of anthropological knowledge in business environment in her dissertation.
» ORCID
Riitta Forsten-Astikainen
Principal Lecturer (Commercialization), D.Sc. (Econ. & Bus Adm), MBA, student (M.Sc. (tech) in Industrial Engineering and Management: entrepreneurship and business management). Riitta teaches commercialization and serves as an expert in management training programs. She is particularly interested in commercialization maturity models for companies and organizations from the change management perspective. Additionally, Riitta's research interests include growth strategies for businesses, strategic management and human resource management.
Jaani Väisänen
Principal lecturer, digital business, Ph.D. Jaani studies data utilization and modeling in the context of the commercialization process. Data-based testing, validation and design processes, as well as UX research, are of particular interest.
Martti Mäkimattila
Development Manager, D.Sc (Tech), is interested in systemic innovations and socio-technical change, especially how value is created in collaboration with various actors during the system transition and in a responsible manner.
Sami Heikkinen
Senior lecturer, business. MA, M.Sc (Econ). Sami is interested in the role of customer experience as part of commercialization and is particularly interested in combining a quantitative and qualitative perspective to form a comprehensive customer understanding to support the commercialization process.
» ORCID | Linkedin | Scholar | ResearchGate
Olga Bogdanova
Olga Bogdanova, MBA, is an RDI Specialist at LAB and is a PhD student at LUT. Olga’s research interests encompass entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, university-industry collaboration, and entrepreneurial skills. She brings a wealth of experience from the industry, particularly in investment management and consulting.
» ORCID | ResearchGate | Linkedin
Jyri Hänninen
Jyri Hänninen, Senior Lecturer in Business Administration (MSc,MEd) Focused on the commercialization of AI and value creation. His PhD research explores competitive advantage through AI-human interaction. Extensive experience as an entrepreneur and in entrepreneurial organizations. Commercialization and the creation of business networks as a specialization in funding applications.
Alexander Matrosov
M.Sc. (Tech) in Industrial Engineering and Management, Project Manager, Technology Department Specializes in transforming research into structured project proposals focused on securing funding. Expertise in commercialization, electrification, robotics, circular economy, and digital transformation, bridging innovative research with real-world impact.
Sofia Ramos
Sofia, MSc (Econ. & Bus Adm), is an RDI Specialist with expertise in commercialization of innovations and entrepreneurship. Her previous experience is in high-tech innovation and business development. She is interested in participating in projects with a societal and environmental impact.
Outi-Maaria Palo-oja
Outi-Maaria, a Chief Specialist, D.Sc. (Econ. & Bus Adm), Principal Investigator, specializes in science commercialization and university-industry collaboration. She is particularly interested in how individuals and organizations can work together effectively in innovation processes, despite having different goals and approaches.
Anu Kurvinen
Senior lecturer, International Business, MSc. (Econ). Anu is interested in research related to innovation and R&D activities in companies, harnessing research-based information for business development, commercialization of new sustainable technological solutions and development of business in different value networks.
» Linkedin | ResearchGate
Publications
Aromaa, Eriksson, Hirvonen & Palo-oja 2024. Societal entrepreneurship and university–industry collaboration: a case study of an academic research community (pdf).
Halonen,... Forsten-Astikainen.. 2024. Mikroyritykset erikoisajassa–opit ja oivallukset koronakriisin vaikutuksista muutoskyvykkyyteen.
Heikkinen et al. 2024. Sequence analysis and process mining perspectives to goal setting: What distinguishes business students with high and low self-efficacy beliefs?
Mäkimattila, Palo-oja & Rinkinen 2024. AI: Fostering Tool or Challenging Actor for Innovation
Matrosov & Elo 2024. Material Cluster Enhancing: Role of Universities and Approaches.
Palo-oja 2024. Power dynamics in research commercialization.
Palo-oja & Juvonen 2024. Enhancing Cooperation in HEI Mergers.
Väisänen 2024. Micro-organizations balancing between the digital and human customer experience.
Projects
INNOVATE
The INNOVATE project is part of the national Innovation and knowledge networks theme, and its actions promote the creation of knowledge-intensive business ecosystems, increase research activities connected to business life, and support business life-oriented renewal of skills and thus the growing business of companies.
Contact info
lab [dot] fi