Public defence in Entrepreneurship, MSc Anastasia Koptsyukh
In this event, we are committed to Aalto University’s principles for a safer space.
Title of the thesis: Compassion Venturing in Times of War
Doctoral student: Anastasia Koptsyukh
Opponent: Professor April Spivack, Hanken School of Economics
Custos (Chairperson): Associate Professor Ewald Kibler, Aalto University School of Business
This doctoral thesis examines 'compassion venturing', the spontaneous, entrepreneurial responses that people, governments, and communities create to help others in the aftermath of disasters. The research is set in the context of the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
When crises strike, people often mobilize quickly to help those affected. But wars, unlike earthquakes or floods, can last for years, and the needs of those affected change over time. Previous research has focused mostly on the early days of disaster response. This thesis asks how compassion-driven ventures continue, grow, and support people over the long term.
The thesis consists of three studies. The first follows, over 19 months, a grassroots venture founded in a Nordic country to support Ukrainian refugees. The second supports a Dutch municipal initiative housing Ukrainian refugees and offers a framework for moving from emergency relief to longer-term empowerment. The third is an autoethnography, a reflective account of the researcher's own experience as a Ukrainian volunteering, campaigning, and co-founding a humanitarian initiative in Finland during her doctoral studies.
The thesis finds that compassion-driven ventures can endure and expand, but doing so requires navigating not only resource shortages but partner relations they depend on, such as those with funders, governments, and larger organizations. For instance, the thesis introduces the concept of 'political entrepreneurial resourcefulness' to describe how ventures protect their mission in these relationships. The work also broadens the picture of who engages in compassion venturing to include governments and individual scholar-practitioners, alongside grassroots teams.
The findings may be useful for entrepreneurs, NGO leaders, government authorities, and policymakers involved in humanitarian responses, as well as for academic supervisors of early-career researchers working in difficult contexts.
Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at:
Doctoral theses in the School of Business: