An “As Told To” interview by Kristaps Kovalonoks, Research Coordinator at Aalto School of Business.
This interview is part of a first-person storytelling series highlighting the personal journeys, ideas, and insights of members and friends of Aalto University’s Entrepreneurship Unit (ENTU). Real stories, told in their own words.
What can six intensive weeks as a Fulbright Scholar at Aalto University reveal about research culture, community, and the role of entrepreneurship in Finland? In this interview, Professor Theodore Khoury from Portland State University reflects on his six-week visit to Aalto University School of Business, sharing his observations on the openness of Aalto’s research culture, his interactions with students and faculty, and the personal sense of connection he felt returning to Finland. He describes the experience as warm, rigorous, and fulfilling, highlighting the intellectual curiosity and mutual respect that defined his time at Aalto.
My name is Theodore Khoury. I’m a Professor of Management at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. My PhD is in international management and organisational studies. Earlier in my studies, I trained as a mechanical and biomedical engineer before moving into business and management.
My research focuses on what I call the “underdog actor.” That can be an idea, an individual, an entrepreneur, a community, or even a country. I’m interested in how these actors survive and pursue livelihoods within the political, cultural, and social institutions that shape their options. A central question for me is the goodness of entrepreneurship, because it’s often presented as something that automatically serves communities. I try to understand when and how it actually does that well, and when it does not.
The Fulbright opportunity had been on my radar for quite some time, but it’s not always easy to step away for longer periods. The Fulbright Specialist Award was perfect because it allowed for a focused six-week visit, which made it possible for me to pursue this opportunity.
Aalto University was a goal of mine from the beginning. That was based on the faculty here and the kinds of students, both master’s and PhD, and the more I explored what was happening at Aalto, the more curious I became about learning from that community. The incredible scholars you have here in the ENTU group for instance, Ewald Kibler, Maija Renko, and Myrto Chliova, are amazing, and I love their work. Getting the chance to be close to what they’re doing in the Entrepreneurship Unit was very appealing to me.
On a personal side, when I was an undergraduate studying engineering, I lived in Tampere, when it was still Tampere University of Technology. I lived here for a summer, and it changed my life at the age of 21. I hadn’t been back since, so coming here truly felt like a return home – to a place and a culture that are very familiar to me and once took very good care of me.
One of the major things for me was engaging with the graduate programmes. Early on, I got involved with the Master’s Programme in Sustainable Entrepreneurship. I joined the foundations course and gave a lecture that represented voices from ecosystems around the world sourced from my research. Afterwards, I met with students to talk about where they see themselves fitting into their respective entrepreneurial ecosystem, whether that’s here in Finland or back in their home countries. I also spent time with PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at different stages of their work, talking about dissertation development, publishing strategies, and preparing for the academic job market.
Beyond that, I was involved in programme-development discussions and had a chance to meet with different actors across the ecosystem, including local entrepreneurs, government stakeholders working in science and technology funding, and the think tank ETLA. A big highlight for me was meeting Marco Steinberg and spending time talking with him about systems thinking and his work in Palestine, which really resonated with me.
Two things really stood out to me. The first was the openness and depth of the research dialogue. I had great conversations with colleagues such as Maija Renko, Ewald Kibler, Myrto Chliova, and Nina Granqvist, where we discussed not only research but also how our careers have evolved over time and where we see them going. It was enriching to exchange experiences and talk about new topics, publishing, and how we navigate our research processes. People are genuinely interested in ideas here and are willing to engage thoughtfully with one another’s work.
The second was the PhD student culture. I was impressed by how well students could discuss each other’s projects across different topics and stages. That speaks to the leadership and culture that foster collaboration and curiosity. Faculty are approachable, and those advisor–student relationships are strong and supportive. I felt very productive being here, especially working near the PhD students’ area, which was quiet and inspiring. It is a community that encourages exchange, openness, and intellectual growth, and that stood out to me in a big way.
There are definitely some differences, but also many similarities. What really stood out to me was how open and collaborative the environment here is. People genuinely want to engage and exchange ideas. There’s an ease in how colleagues interact, and that kind of approachability is not always common everywhere.
At Portland State University, we have a long legacy of experiential learning and community partnerships. For decades, we’ve been doing projects where students work directly with entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and NGOs that can’t afford consultants. In my own teaching, for example, students do outreach and provide free strategy consulting to small businesses and social enterprises that need support. That experience shaped how I viewed Aalto. Here, I saw a strong emphasis on theory development and research dialogue, but also a real curiosity about connecting research with practice.
At the same time, there are shared values between Aalto and my home institution in Portland. Both have a strong commitment to community, to inclusion, and to creating spaces where students feel supported. In that sense, my time at Aalto felt complementary, bringing together two different but equally important ways of engaging with entrepreneurship and education.
Academically, I think my visit brought a different training and set of experiences into shared spaces where students and colleagues were working through their research and career decisions. My ideas were acknowledged and appreciated, and I learned a great deal from how faculty at Aalto work with PhD students, support postdocs, and engage master’s students. Those experiences gave me a lot to reflect on, especially in terms of how I relate to graduate students at my home institution.
On a personal level, I think my temperament fits very well with Finnish culture. I attribute that to certain attributes of mine, like introspection, modesty, having a quiet nature, and a strong connection to the land and to nature. The days were long and full, but I felt relaxed here because of that cultural fit. It made it easy to focus and enjoy the work. I absolutely plan to come back, and I hope we can formalise a longer-term collaboration.
I loved hearing all the brilliant ideas from the PhD students and the postdocs. I loved watching them take care of each other, look out for each other, and help each other. That was really beautiful to see – the collegiality that I experienced at the faculty level really being animated among the graduate students here.
I also loved seeing how approachable the faculty were and how supportive they were toward the students. That, for me, was something truly special about this Fulbright experience. Outside of that, there were all these intangible things, like walking between the School of Business and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture and constantly being surrounded by creative pursuits and people working with their hands. I loved all those spaces in between meetings; they had a great effect on me, just being in that environment every day.
And I have to say, Ewald Kibler got me into Tuesday morning futsal. I hadn’t played since I coached my kids when they were young, so it was a return to that. Luckily, I’m leaving without injuries. It was great fun to have something to look forward to each week, and it helped me meet new people too, which was wonderful.
For master’s students, I’d say there are so many ways to plug into entrepreneurship here at Aalto, in Helsinki, and across Finland. You don’t always have to start your own venture. The ecosystem has many actors, and there are different ways to engage with it – whether through research, incubators, clubs, investor relations, or brokerage roles that connect entrepreneurs and funders. Entrepreneurship isn’t just about being an entrepreneur; there are many ways to contribute.
For PhD students, my advice is to open up your thinking about how entrepreneurship is animated in what you study. It can be expressed in so many ways. Don’t feel you always have to use the same definitions or terms you’ve read in your training. Find your own lenses and ways of seeing the phenomena you study. Your fresh eyes and critical perspective are valuable.
Warm, rigorous, and fulfilling.
Warm, and certainly not the weather, but truly the culture of the experience. Having sat down with Timo Korkeamäki, the dean, and talked with students at the master’s level and everyone in between, there’s this common thread of thoughtfulness and warmth that runs through the university. It’s great to see anywhere, but particularly in a business school. The warmth of the culture here is something that will always have me wanting to come back.
Rigorous, because we did a lot in six weeks. I was involved in supporting students, helping with the Small act, Big changes: Connecting Everyday and Social Entrepreneurship conference that happened last week, and some of the courses that were being taught. People here are doing rigorous and interesting work, and you can see and feel that everywhere you go. People are deeply engaged in their research and putting real time and thought into it, and I found myself inspired to match that while I was here.
And fulfilling, because it’s not just about the work, it’s relational. There’s a lot of respect in the workplace here, and that enhances the meaning and fulfillment you feel in your work. Over these six weeks, I was eyes wide open the whole time, trying to take it all in and understand how things work here. I can’t turn off that observational side of my research, and I really tried to study how things operate. I come away feeling fulfilled by the experience, because the relationships here have depth, real function and purpose, and yet they happen in such a natural way.
