Ph.D. Students

Alessandra is a PhD student in Management at the University of Bologna. She holds a Bachelor degree in International Business with Languages from Glasgow Caledonian University and a Master degree in International Development from the University of Edinburgh. Her main research interests include sustainability management, circular economy and social innovation.  

Main supervisor: Paola Giuri

Co-supervisors: Matteo Vignoli; Clio Dosi

Nicolò Cocchi is a management engineer and currently a PhD student and academic tutor at the Department of Management, Alma Mater Studiorum–University of Bologna. He is also a member of the Open Innovation unit of Almacube, the incubator of the University of Bologna. His research focuses on innovation management, especially new product development, design thinking, and open innovation.

Main supervisor: Cristina Boari

Co-supervisors: Candance Jones (University of Edinburgh); Elisa Villani

Chiara Giulia De Leo is a PhD student in the General Management Track. She holds a B.Sc. in Economics and Management for Art, Culture and Communication from Bocconi University, and an M.A. in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She worked for four years within the art world in both museums and auction houses. Her main research interests are organizational behaviour, digital transformation in the museums’ sector, and the link between copyright and innovation in the creative industries.

Daria Demyanova is a Ph.D. student in Management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from the Higher School of Economics and a master’s degree in Fashion Studies with a Curriculum Strategy in Fashion Management from the University of Bologna. Her main research interests are related to circular economy, sustainable business models and circular ecosystems.

Main supervisor: Paola Giuri

Co-supervisors: Laura Toschi; Leonardo Corbo

Fardeen studies how social and sustainable forms of entrepreneurship thrive and succeed in poverty and bottom-of-the-pyramid contexts. He earned a first degree from Bayero University, Kano and a master’s degree from Newcastle University. Fardeen has taught entrepreneurship at American University of Nigeria and consulted for entrepreneurs, and local and international NGOs. His overarching research interests focus on understanding how entrepreneurship can best be promoted for targeted development outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ottavia Dorrucci is a Ph.D. Student in Management. She has a Master’s Degree in Innovation and Organisation of Culture and the Arts (University of Bologna) and she graduated in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice). Ottavia holds a MA degree in Piano from the Conservatory of Music of Verona and a Master’s at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She has years of experience in the music and film industries.

While staying at the Copenhagen Business School, she developed an interest in creative industries and the arts’ role in enterprises.

Her research interests vert on governance, strategic management, and innovation processes in the creative industries. 

Main supervisor: Paola Giuri

Co-supervisors: Marco Visentin; Giacomo Del Chiappa (University of Sassari)

Musa is a Ph.D. student in the Marketing area. He holds a master’s degree in service management from the university of Bologna. His academic background includes marketing, management, finance, accounting, and organizational behavior. His main research interests are related to Consumer Behavior, Service Marketing, and Tourism. His current research project focuses on customer’s perception of businesses that hire and include people with disabilities in the hospitality industry

Main supervisor: Rosa Grimaldi

Co-supervisors: Elisa Villani; Santi Furnari (Bayes Business School)

Cecilia is a Ph.D. student in the General Management track, she holds a degree in engineering from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), completed a postgraduate program in Innovation and Product Design at AOTS Institute of Tokyo, and earned a master’s degree in International Relations at the University of Bologna (UNIBO). She has worked at the Technology Transfer Office of UBA and is currently collaborating with the Knowledge Transfer Office at UNIBO.

Research Areas: Entrepreneurship; Technology Transfer; Open Innovation

Gabriel is a Ph.D. student in the Management Track. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a master’s degree in Service Management, both from the University of Bologna. Before joining the Ph.D., he worked in corporate projects in the manufacturing industry. His research interest is focused on Innovation Management, particularly is related to innovation strategies, technological trajectories, breakthrough inventions and technological competition.

Main supervisor: Marcello Russo

Co-supervisors: Daniela Bolzani; Gazi Islam (Grenoble EM)

Richa Gaavar is a PhD student in the General Management track. She holds a Bachelor in Commerce (Hons.) from University of Delhi, a Master of Commerce from Panjab University, Chandigarh (India) and Master of Research in Management Sciences from ESADE Business School, Barcelona. Her main research interests are in the field of Human Resource Management, in particular, diversity management, skilled migrant women careers and discrimination at workplace.

Main supervisor: Federica Bandini

Co-supervisors: Laura Toschi; Cristina Boari

Eleonora Grassi is a Ph.D. student in the Management track, with specific research in Social Innovation and Public Management. She holds a Master's degree in Social Economics and before joining the programme she worked for the Italian Sustainable Investment Forum. Her main research interests are related to social innovation and impact measurement.

Research areas: Social Innovation; Public Management

Main supervisor: Gabriele Pizzi

Co-supervisors: Virginia Vannucci; Chiara Orsingher

Novin Hashemi is a Ph.D. student in the Management track. She has a master degree in Business Administration – International Management with a focus on Marketing from the University of Bologna. She has a background in research on E-commerce and CKM and working as a strategist in the Marketing and Advertising field.

Main supervisor: Paola Giuri

Co-supervisors: Marco Corsino; Leonardo Corbo

Mohammad is a Ph.D. student in the Management track. He holds a bachelor's degree in International Business Management from the Lebanese International University and a master's degree in Service Management from the University of Bologna. His academic background incorporates international business management, strategic management, marketing, economics, finance, and accounting. His research interests are in the field of international entrepreneurship, international business management, entrepreneurial teams' diversity, and innovative startups.

Main supervisor: Giuseppe Torluccio

Co-supervisors: Mascia Bedendo; Alessio Reghezza (University of Genoa)

Nico Lauridsen is a Ph.D. student in Banking and Finance track. His background includes economics and finance, executive management experience in startup and scaleup and advisor in digital transformation for SMEs. His main research interests are related to Fintech, Open Baking model and PSD2.

Research Areas: Fintech; Open Banking model

Main supervisor: Raffaele Corrado

Co-supervisors: Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen (Copenhagen Business School)

Ornela Lina is a Ph.D. student in the General Management track. Her main research interests are related to Circular Economy, in particular, the development of business models for a circular economy. She studied Finance-Accounting and Business Administration at the University of Tirana.

Main supervisor: Elisa Montaguti

Co-supervisors: Annamaria Tuan; Stefania Farace

Cristoforo holds a Bachelors’ degree in Economics and Management and a Masters’ degree in Marketing with a major in Analytics & Metrics from Luiss Guido Carli University. Before joining the PhD program, he worked as Teaching & Research Assistant respectively for courses of Marketing (bachelor) and Business Process Management and Sales Networks (master) at LUISS. Currently, Cristoforo is working as Program Manager of the Masters’ degree in Strategic Management at Luiss University and as a tutor for the chair in Digital & Social Media Management (bachelor) at International Telematic University UNINETTUNO. Furthermore, he collaborates with the X.ITE Research Centre as a junior research fellow for both scientific and applied research projects. His research interests involve Marketing field with a particular focus on sustainability issues, consumer behavior, digital marketing, marketing analytics.

Monica is a PhD student in the management track. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Tourism and Leisure Industries and a master’s degree in Service Management, both from the University of Bologna. Her master’s thesis involved the empirical investigation of volunteers’ intentions to abandon organizations. Her academic background includes management, statistics, organizational behavior, marketing, and accounting. Her research interests are in the field of organizational behavior, human resource management, and tourism.

Main supervisor: Daniele Scarpi 

Co-supervisors: Annamaria Tuan; Silvia Grappi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)

Zarrin Mahdizadeh is a PhD student in the Management track. She holds a BSc in Theoretical Economics and an MA in International Business Management at the University of Tabriz. Prior to joining to the Ph.D. Program, She has worked at several High-Tech companies in Iran as a Marketing Analyst and Instructor. Her research interests include Human Research Management, Organizational Behavior, and Marketing.

Main supervisor: Marco Maria Mattei

Co-supervisors: Lorenzo Dal Maso; Luc Paugam (HEC Paris)

Matteo Merlo is a first year PhD student in the Banking and Finance track. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration from University of Roma Tre, and a Master's degree in Economics and Accounting from University of Bologna. Before joining the PhD program, he worked as trainee chartered accountant and auditor. His main research interests are focused on financial accounting, business evaluation and corporate finance.

Main supervisor: Gabriele Pizzi

Co-supervisors: Daniele Scarpi; Gianluca Marzocchi; Shashi Matta (Katholische Universität Eichstätt)

Murtuza Soofi Mohammed is a Ph.D. student in mangement. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India. He also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) from the University of Hyderabad in India and a Master’s of Science in Business Management from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Prior to moving to Rome, he worked with Amazon as a Marketplace Specialist in Intellectual Property Rights Management and Transaction Risk Management. He also worked with an Italian Sustainable E-commerce Platform as a Platform Operations Manager.

Research Areas: Interdisciplinary studies specially involving complexity and chaos theories, Innovation Management, Intellectual Capital and Property Rights Management

Main supervisor: Rosa Grimaldi

Co-supervisors: Elisa Villani; Erik Stam (Utrecht University)

Silvia Poli is a Ph.D. student in the General Management track. She holds a master's degree in Forecasting, Innovation and Change (International Relations) at the University of Bologna. Before joining the Ph.D. program, she had a research grant on university-business collaboration readiness at the UniBo's Management department. Her main research interests are entrepreneurship, knowledge sharing, open innovation and innovation management

Main supervisor: Gabriele Pizzi

Co-supervisors: Gianluca Marzocchi; Daniele Scarpi

Matilde is a Ph.D. student in General Management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Statistical Sciences and a master’s degree in Statistics, Economics, and Business from the University of Bologna. Her research interests include consumer behavior, retailing and social psychology.

Research Areas: Marketing; Consumer Behavior

Davide is a PhD student in the Management track. He holds a bachelor degree in Business and Economics from the University of Bologna and a Master degree in Management from Bocconi University in Milan. Before Joining the PhD Program, he worked for two year as a consultant and in the sales department in the automotive sector. His research interest are digital innovation and business strategy.

Main supervisor: Riccardo Fini

Co-supervisors: Daniela Bolzani; Rosa Grimaldi

Greta is a Ph.D. student in Management. She holds a First and a Second cycle Degree in Economics and Management from Gabriele D’Annunzio University of Pescara. Her main research interests are related to Innovation and Entrepreneurship fields.

Research Areas: Entrepreneurship; Innovation

Main supervisor: Maurizio Sobrero

Co-supervisors: Andrea Lipparini; Chiara Orsingher

Korinzia is a Ph.D. student in Management track. Before joining the Ph.D. program, she worked as a Research Fellow at the Department of Management at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. Her main research interests are related to the impact of new digital technologies such as artificial intelligence on organizational knowledge processes.

Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence; Innovation; Knowledge Management

Main supervisor: Elisa Villani

Co-supervisors: Rosa Grimaldi; Rossella Salandra (University of Bath); Ermira Qosja (European University of Tirana)

Ines Troshani is a PhD student in Management track. She holds an MBA from Gonzaga University, USA and a Bachelor in Finance from the European University of Tirana, Albania . Prior to joining the PhD program, she has worked in higher education mainly focusing in project management, teaching and research. Her research interests include entrepreneurship, higher education and service quality.   

Main supervisor: Matteo Mura

Co-supervisors: Mariolina Longo; Pietro Micheli (Warwick Business School)

Chiara Vagnini is a Ph.D. student in the Management track. She holds a Master's degree in Management Engineering from the University of Bologna. Before joining the program, she conducted research activities on the decarbonisation of European regions. Her main research interests are related to industrial sustainability transition, and sustainability measurement in companies and industrial ecosystems.

Main supervisor: Marcello Russo

Xiaodan is a Ph.D. student in the Management track. She holds two master’s degrees in Psychology from China and the United States. Before joining Bologna University, she had also been working in academics, institutions, and entrepreneurial firms. She worked as an educational psychology researcher at Haidian District Institute of Educational Science and a private education management officer at Haidian District Bureau of Education in Beijing (China). She also researched at Perking University, Tinghua University, Miami University, and Liaoning Normal University. Her main research interests include an interdisciplinary study of organizational behavior and strategic management.

Beibei Yu is a PhD student in the Management track. She holds a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Accounting from Guangzhou University. Before joining the PhD program, she worked as an accounting teacher. Her main research interests are focused on corporate governance, corporate mergers and acquisitions, and financial behavior.