Strategy Group

The research field focuses on three core themes to offer unique, empirically based insights into contemporary strategic and managerial thinking.

Strategy and competitive dynamics

This thematic area focuses on the relationship between firms’ competitive and growth strategies and the environment. Research in this area addresses a wide range of low- to high-tech industries, from low- to high-tech industries with a special emphasis on creative and service industries.  Internationalization and other related strategies (e.g., re-shoring) are investigated in large as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on performance, decision-making dynamics, and implementation challenges. We also examine the role of strategy in managing digital transformation, both in incumbent and emerging industries.  In addition, scholars in this field have been working on the tourism industry, aiming to discover the effects of strategic orientation on hotels’ performance, and investigating cultural events and destination management. 

Strategy and innovation

This research stream focuses on strategic choice and implementation in firms engaged in innovative actions, such as developing disruptive innovations, designing new business models, undertaking social innovations, or engaging in open innovation. Scholars operating in this stream have also been working at the intersection of historical methods, lab experiments, and network analysis to study social evaluation processes in market and non-market settings. Other areas of inquiry include the role of women in management, circular economy, and university–industry technology transfer.

Strategy, networks, and entrepreneurship

The third line of research studies the causes and consequences of social networks on a variety of performance outcomes, including the transfer of knowledge among individuals and companies, the discovery and exploitation of new entrepreneurial opportunities, survival, and firm growth. Many researchers have examined the dynamics of inter-organizational social capital inside vertical business networks and their impact on innovation and knowledge-transfer processes. In addition, scholars in this field have developed a sociologically oriented interest in understanding the origin of extraordinary entrepreneurial outcomes and innovations in fields of cultural production.  The group employs a mix of qualitative approaches, large-sample studies, big data analysis techniques, digital data analytics, structural equation modeling, and network analytic methods.

Entrepreneurship Group
The group is considering a variety of topics dealing with ideation and action in entrepreneurship: from new venture creation, development, and growth to the characteristics, behaviors and types of entrepreneurs; from international entrepreneurship to migrant and female entrepreneurship; from entrepreneurial teams to the organizational mechanisms supporting entrepreneurship. The research operates across three core themes that provide unique insight into the entrepreneurial processes involved in major changes in our society.

Entrepreneurial universities, innovation, knowledge transfer, and industry collaboration

A central topic is industry–university collaborative dynamics, with a specific focus on the mechanisms that govern technology transfer, patenting, and IP management. In addition, the role of universities in promoting entrepreneurship is explored at the student level. Specifically, this theme aims to identify and analyze:

the several mechanisms that guide the flow of knowledge from the academia to the market (i.e., spin-off creation, patenting, licensing, R&D (Research&Development) collaborations, consulting activity), the role of academics in the empowerment process of university research, and the institutional conditions and policies in support of technology transfer.

Social entrepreneurship

The social dimension of entrepreneurship is widely covered by scholars focusing on business sustainability, societal impact, and social Innovation.

Entrepreneurial finance and supporting mechanisms

Great emphasis is being placed on entrepreneurial finance at different stages of venture creation and from different sources. Along with raising capital, additional factors supporting entrepreneurial growth are being investigated at institutional and organizational levels.

Environmental, social, and governance Management and Measurement Group
Substantial attention is being given to how environmental, social, and governance-related aspects are mainstreamed into the management, measurement, and reporting practices of organizations and their impact.

Linking environmental, social, and governance-based performance measures to external reporting poses questions about how management and accounting practice should adapt or develop to contend with changing expectations.

The group considers carbon and other climate-related measurements and risks, including implications for management, financial accounting, and corporate governance, as well as developments in natural capital, intellectual capital, and other externalities. Research within this stream analyzes the impacts (behavioral, market, etc.) of emerging forms of corporate reporting and other disclosures (GRI - Global Reporting Initiative, IR - International Relations, SDGs – Social Development Goals).

The relationship between international and national regulation and the behavior of businesses, social enterprises, and public sector organizations are other topics of investigation. Given the complexity of personal and organizational ethical behavior, accounting ethics is at the Centre of our reflections in this field of research.