Irina Mihailova is Associate Professor of International Business at the International Business and Sales faculty. She joined University of Eastern Finland in 2019. Previously Irina worked at the Aalto University School of Business as Senior University Lecturer of International Business. 

Irina’s work received significant interest within the academic community with publications in the Journal of World Business, Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Management and Organization Review, and Management International Review, amongst others. Irina regularly present her research at leading international business and entrepreneurship conferences, and I am a member of the Academy of International Business, European International Business Academy, and Academy of Management. Irina have received several prestigious honors, including the Emerald Citation of Excellence, and Honor recognition for Best PhD thesis from Aalto University. Irina serves on the editorial board of the Journal of International Management and Emprendimiento y Negocios Internationales. 

Irina teach courses in the areas of International Business and Global Management at post-graduate and doctoral programs. She has delivered invited guest lectures and presentations at a number of leading international universities. Also, I have cooperated with firms and government agencies and have given several public speeches. Also, she have co-authored a number of teaching cases and received an excellence award from European Case Center.

I am an Academy of Finland PostDoc and Principal Investigator of Project MILESTONE at the Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, University of Eastern Finland.

Currently, I have a keen interest in finding out how entrepreneurship for sustainable development integrates social and environmental sustainability. With that interest, my current research is about the making of a socially inclusive circular economy through social and sustainable entrepreneurship and the role of business models in sustainability.

Prior to this, I have researched social entrepreneurship in rural settings, particularly on the social-market convergence, resource dependency, and ethics as practice. Occasionally, I also participate in multidisciplinary understandings related to my research by collaborating with specialists from other fields such as environmental sciences, biological sciences, sociology, and policy.

I have developed and taught courses to postgraduate students on basics of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, responsible business, and strategic management. At the doctoral level, I have developed and taught courses on qualitative research methods.