Markus M. Makela is Professor of Software Product Development (pro tem) at the University of Turku, Department of Information Technology, as well as Adjunct Professor at Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Software Business Laboratory, and Senior Researcher at TKK’s BIT Research Center.
    At the University of Turku, he is establishing a new major in the software product development and management area, and founding a research group that will aim at high impact research while simultaneously working in deep interaction with the global and local software industries. At TKK in 2005, working jointly with Professor Jyrki Kontio and supported by a group of junior researchers, he established the operations of the Software Business Laboratory (SBL), a unit with which he continues to work.
    Dr. Makela holds a D.Sc. (Tech.) degree in Strategy and International Business (with honors) and a M.Sc. (Tech.) degree in Industrial Management, both from Helsinki University of Technology, and a M.Sc. (Econ.) degree in Finance from Helsinki School of Economics. He currently conducts research, leads industrial projects, and advises several Doctoral and Master’s theses in the area of management in the software industry, where his research has covered a broad range of areas, including strategic management, technology management, organization, marketing, international business, entrepreneurship, finance, and research methodology. His main approaches to research are those of the resource- and knowledge-based views of the firm, industrial organization viewpoints into competition, internationalization theories of the firm, social network theory, institutional theory, and social capital theory.
    In 2004, the Academy of International Business and the Eldridge Haynes Memorial Trust awarded him the Haynes Prize for the Most Promising Scholar for a paper stemming from his dissertation research (second-authored by Markku V. J. Maula).
    Dr. Makela participates in Advisory Boards of seven software and other businesses. He is chairman or board member of various organizations, such as the alumni associations of Helsinki University of Technology Industrial Management Graduates and Stanford Business School. Previously, he has worked at e.g. the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School; Stanford University; New York University; Helsinki School of Economics; and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Company. At TKK, he has additionally worked at the Executive School of Business, Software Business and Engineering Institute, and Institute of Strategy and International Business.
    He is a member of the Strategic Management Society, the Academy of Management, INFORMS, the Association for Information Systems, the Academy of International Business, the International Association for the Management of Technology, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. His free-time interests include a range of sports, reading, photography, and enjoying music.