Our people


Theory Building Research programme (TBRP)

Romeo V. Turcan (TBRP founder and Leader)

Romeo, Professor at Aalborg University Business School, Denmark, is the founder and leader of TBRP. He is interested in cross-disciplinary theory building in the areas of new sector emergence in developing and developed markets; de-internationalization; and international entrepreneurship. He holds MSc and PhD from Strathclyde University in the UK and diploma of mechanical engineer from the Air Force Engineering Military Academy, Riga, Latvia... learn more.

Svante Andersson

Svante is Professor of Business Administration at Halmstad University in Sweden. He has been a project leader in many externally financed research projects. Currently, he is a research leader of the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Marketing Management; a project leader of research projects that deal with international growth in the health technology sector and with Born Globals as an innovative approach to business creation in international networks... learn more.

ALICIA BLANCO-GONZÁLEZ

Alicia is Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain; VP of the European Academy of Economics and Business Management; General Secretary of the Camilo Prado Foundation; Coordinator of the Latin American Award for CSR; Co-director of the Consolidated Research Group Group in Business Management and Economics; and Co-Director of the Organizational Legitimacy Observatory. Her lines of research focus on organizational legitimacy, institutional theory, business reputation and social responsibility... learn more.

Nikhilesh Dholakia

Nikhilesh is Professor Emeritus, University of Rhode Island  and founding co-editor of Markets, Globalization & Development Review (MGDR). He was a president of International the Society of Markets & Development. He is a core member of the Theory Building Research Program at Aalborg University. Nikhilesh's current research focuses on global social and cultural aspects of new media, sentient technologies, and socioeconomic transformations... learn more.

 

Michael Fast

Michael is Docent and Head of Research & Development at Business Department, University College Northern Denmark. His research interests are in the areas of philosophy of science and qualitative methodology in lifeworld traditions and subjectivism (phenomenology, hermeneutic, symbolic interactionism, critical theory), organization theory and organizational analysis with the aim of developing conceptual understanding of organizational reality, organizing, leadership, and qualitative economics... learn more.

Norman M. Fraser

Norman is an entrepreneur and Adjunct Professor at AAU. Educated at Edinburgh and London Universities, he has spent more than twenty years creating and leading successful businesses. He has authored around 50 peer-reviewed publications and his current research interests include entrepreneurship, industry creation, and institutionalization. He has served on a number of technical and business expert committees of the British Government and EU... learn more.

 

Anita Juho

Anita is Secretary General of the Finnish Technology Advisory Board, Finland. With a PhD in International Business and International Entrepreneurship, she has 15 years of an academic career as a researcher and lecturer in international business and entrepreneurship and SMEs, entrepreneurship and business opportunity creation have been the key focus during my career. I have been researching and teaching the topic in various Universities in Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America.. learn more.

Andy Lowe

Andy is a Fellow of the Grounded Theory Institute in California. He holds an MBA from Aston University in Birmingham UK as well as a PhD from Glasgow University Scotland. For the past 20 years Andy has had a close working relationship with the co-originator of the Grounded Theory method Dr. Barney Glaser. Andy is still very active in PhD research supervision... learn more.

 

Chris MoulD

Profiled by Guardian Newspapers as one of the UK’s top social entrepreneurs, Chris is an innovative leader, widely experienced in public and voluntary sectors. He is particularly interested in disruption, scale, replication and impact. Between 2007 and 2017 Chris led the Trussell Trust through its transition from a small NGO to a multi award winning national organisation that pioneered social franchising. Chris has worked with the highest levels of government both in the UK and the EU... learn more.

John E. Reilly

John Reilly is a Higher Education consultant with wide European and International experience in Higher Education and a member of the UK Bologna Experts team, having full understanding of the Bologna process and the European Commission modernization agenda. He was awarded the MBE for services to Higher Education and the ERASMUS programme in the U.K. New Year Honours 2002. Dr. Reilly was appointed as Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government in December 2004... learn more.

Michael Saren

Michael is Professor of Marketing at the School of Management at the University of Leicester, UK. His research interests originated in the area of marketing and management of technology. In recent years he has become more interested in the development of marketing theory, particularly regarding marketing knowledge, consumer culture and issues of sustainability. Michael is one of the founding editors of the Marketing Theory journal... learn more.

 

Alex Tveit

Alex has nearly two decades of experience from the private equity sector, leading three main divisions with ~$2B funded to organizations across sectors, in Canada and internationally. He mentored and ran a Canada-wide growth accelerator focusing on scale-ups, and is now focused on building ecosystems for circular and inclusive based innovation. He has a keen interest in cross border systemic collaboration between Nordic countries and Canada, focused international development and adaptive innovation policies... learn more.

 

PhD and Post-Doc Researchers

 

Rashid Sadeghian Dehkordi

Rashid is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at the University of Oulu’s Martti Ahtisaari Institute. He received hos MSC in in Electrical Engineering, Power Systems from the University of Tehran, Iran. His interests include Smart Grids, Power System, Energy Market, and Energy Management. His research focuses on the challenges of newness, when working on Smart Energy... learn more.

 

Deniz Dönmez

Deniz is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Halmstad. She received her MSc in Agro-Food Marketing from Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza & Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona. She participated in various internships at the following departments; Department of Viticulture and Enology (UC Davis, U.S.A.), marketing at Nestlé (Prague, Czech Republic), production at Unilever and Nestlé plants (Turkey). Her research focuses on styles of representation of newness and change in creative industries... learn more.

Oxana gisca

Oxana is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR within the LNETN project registered at the University of Oulu’s Martti Ahtisaari Institute. Oxana received her MSc in Criminal Law at the University of the European Studies of Moldova. She has an extensive professional background, knowledge and expertise to implement the international standards, to provide strategic quality expertise. Oxana has an international credibility and authority, acting as the European Regional representative within an international organization... learn more.

Felix Honecker

Felix is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Glasgow. He received his MSc in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology from Strathclyde Business School. During his studies, Felix has conducted research on emerging technologies (particularly augmented and virtual reality) and their potential to improve economic, environmental and social sustainability. Felix worked as the managing director of a social enterprise in Germany. His research focuses on innovation and legitimation of newness in Fintech... learn more.

Louis Lines

Louis is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie early stage researcher registered at Aalborg University Business School. He holds an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. Prior to accepting a place on the Horizon 2020 programme he worked as a consultant for a professional services firm in central London working with a range of businesses across multiple sectors. His research focuses on legitimation of newness in modern and traditional contexts... learn more.

 Jackson Kinyanjui

Jackson is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Halmstad. He received his MSc in Global Business and Management from Nottingham Trent University and MSc in International Management from ISCTE-IUL in Lisbon. Jackson specializes in Management Consulting of SMEs, advising management boards on how to cope with change in their organizations. He took part in research relating to higher education and health with different ventures in his career. His research focuses on the competition for legitimation... learn more.

Saurav Kumar

Saurav is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at Aalborg University Business School. He received his MSc in Industrial Management from National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai. Saurav has extensive industrial experience of working on business process management and digital transformation in Banking and Financial Sector. His research focuses on legitimation of newness and innovative survival in traditional industries... learn more.

 

Aastha Pandey

 

Aastha is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Glasgow. She completed her MBA in General Management from Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak, India. Aastha has extensive experience in innovation and emerging technologies, having worked with startups in various companies. She’s a published author having written for ‘Small Big Bang’ - a book on entrepreneurs. Her research focuses on legitimizing new business models in the 21st century... learn more.

Olga Pojiltov

Olga is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR within the LNETN project. Olga explores how fluid ethics influence existing institutions and contribute to the emergence, legitimation and creation of new institutions in the area of environmental conservation. She seeks to analyze legitimation of new institutions and policies in terms of the relations built between emerging institutions, governments and communities in the domains of wind energy and ecosystem restoration... learn more.

 

Gonçalo Rodrigues

Gonçalo is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Glasgow, on the topic of Bioeconomy. He received his MSc in Genetics and Evolution from the University of Porto. Gonçalo was awarded an Erasmus+ Internship Fellowship to go to the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), in the Czech Republic, to pursue his interest in Behavioural Neuroscience. After this, he was European Project Manager and Medical Researcher for the Catalonian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (VINCat)... learn more.

Dennis P. Sakalauskas

Dennis is a Fortune 500 Senior Marketing Executive and agency owner with extensive experiences directly leading several teams and speerheading the launch of several blockbuster brands for multi-national companies including Pfizer, Medtronic (Montreal) and Putnam Associates (Boston). He is an award-winning Part-time Professor Lecturer for top-tier MBA programs in Canada, incl., at McGill University's Faculty of Management and the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management... learn more.

Luiza Stein da Silva

Luiza is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Halmstad. She received her MSc in Administration from the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Luiza has extensive professional experience in the development of innovation systems, promoting and developing new ventures and partnerships in technology-intensive sectors. Her research focuses on the legitimation of collaborative initiatives and their impact on new businesses, institutions and policies... learn more

Manoella Antonieta Ramos da Silva

Manoella is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at University of Halmstad. Manoella received her MSc in Business Administration and a BSc in Marketing and Social Communication from Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Brazil. She has extensive marketing experience in large companies in Brazil, focusing on institutional communication and press relations. Her research focuses on influences of policies on the emergence of new product concepts... learn more.

Julia Zhang

Julia is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at the University of Oulu’s Martti Ahtisaari Institute. Julia received her MSc in Business Administration and E-Business from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. Julia works with value creation, co-creation and capture when shifting towards a human-centered approach to data management, as a response to challengesin data protection regulations in the European business environment. Her research focuses on a human-centered approach to personal data management... learn more.

Cristian Ziliberberg

Cristian is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ESR registered at Aalborg University Business School. He received his MSc in Management and Organizations and Sociology. Cristian studies how narratives both shape the change and reveal the already unfolding change at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Cristian uses narrative inquiry, ethnography, experiments, and computational social models. His research focuses on legitimation of newness and change narratives and diffusion... learn more.

 

Legitimation of Newness and Its Impact on EU Agenda for Change (LNETN)

Aalborg University lnetn team

Romeo V. Turcan (LNETN coordinator)

Romeo, Professor  at Aalborg University Business School, Denmark, is the founder and leader of TBRP. He is interested in cross-disciplinary theory building in the areas of new sector emergence in developing and developed markets; de-internationalization; and international entrepreneurship. He holds MSc and PhD from Strathclyde University in the UK and diploma of mechanical engineer from the Air Force Engineering Military Academy, Riga, Latvia... learn more.

Berit Klitgård Jakobsen

Berit is LNETN's financial controller. Berit is LNETN's first point of contact concerning questions about project administration, and she is responsible for the financial reporting internally and externally together with the day-to-day operation.... learn more.

 

 

Dmitrij Slepniov

Dmitrij is Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark and LNETN Local Project Leader. He holds MSc from the London School of Economics and PhD from Aalborg University. Prior to his academic career, he acted as Deputy Director of Economics and Finance department at Confederation of Industries. His current research is on innovation strategy, value chains and upgrading of Chinese firms, servitization and service design. Since 2015, he is the director of MSc in Innovation Management at the Sino-Danish Center in Beijing... learn more.


Halmstad University LNETN Team

Svante Andersson (LNETN project leader)

Svante Andersson is Professor in Business Administration at Halmstad University. His areas of research include marketing, entrepreneurship and international business He is on the editorial board of Journal of International Entrepreneurship and has published in Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, European Journal of Marketing and Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. He has extensive international experience as export manager... learn more.

Jonas GabrielssonJonas Gabrielsson

Jonas Gabrielsson is Professor of Business Administration at Halmstad University. His research and teaching are focused on new and small firms from entrepreneurship, strategic management and organisational behaviour perspectives. He also has a general research interest in corporate governance, entrepreneurship education, and the commercialisation and diffusion of new technologies... learn more.

 

Natasha EversNatasha Evers

Natasha is Visiting Professor of International Entrepreneurship & Marketing at Halmstad University, Sweden and Associate Professor in Business Strategy at Trinity College Dublin. Her main research lies in SMEs at the intersection of strategy, international business and entrepreneurship. Natasha has published in Journal of World Business, Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development... learn more.

 

University of Glasgow LNETN Team

Niall G. MacKenzieNiall G. MacKenzie (LNETN project leader)

Niall G. MacKenzie FRSA is Director of Accreditations in the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Prior to re-joining the University, he worked at the universities of Cambridge, Wales and Strathclyde in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation. His research has been published in the Harvard Business History Review, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Business History, Small Business Economics, Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Regional Studies, amongst others... learn more.

Jillian GordonJillian Gordon

Jillian Gordon is Director of Learning and Teaching in the Adam Smith Business School and member of the School Executive team. Her work focuses on the interplay of social enterprise, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship. She is a board member on two key project delivery governance boards as part of the UofG campus re-development. Her work has been published in Human Relations, International Small Business Journal, Harvard Business History Review, Venture Capital, and Business History... learn more.

Dominic ChalmersDominic Chalmers

Dominic joined the Adam Smith Business School in 2019 as Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Prior to this, Dominic worked at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde, where he was Director of Postgraduate Teaching. His current research examines emerging digital entrepreneurship trends such as blockchain and multi-sided platforms. Dominic’s research has been published in Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice... learn more.

 

University of Oulu lnetn Team

Petri AhokangasPetri Ahokangas (LNETN project leader)

Petri is senior research fellow, adjunct professor, and the leader of Futuralis research group at Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Martti Ahtisaari Institute, Finland. His research interests lie in how innovation and technological change affect international business creation, transformation, and strategies in highly technology and software-intensive business domains. He has over 170 publications and works actively in national and international research projects... learn more.

Timo Koivumäki Timo Koivumäki

Timo previously worked at VTT and University of Oulu as a research professor of: mobile business applications; information and business communication; and electronic commerce. His research interests include consumer behavior in digital environments, user-driven innovation, digital marketing, digital service business models and service ecosystems. Koivumäki has over 50 publications and participated in numerous national and international research and development projects... learn more.

Tuija Mainela

Tuija is Professor of International Business at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her main research interests are industrial and international networks and their dynamics, social relationships in business and international entrepreneurship. Tuija published in journals, such as Journal of Business Venturing, Human Relations, International Journal of Management Reviews, Industrial Marketing Management, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Management Decision & Journal of International Entrepreneurship... learn more.

Minna Pikkarainen Minna Pikkarainen

Minna Pikkarainen is a joint Connected Health professor of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and University of Oulu / Oulu Business School, Martti Ahtisaari Institute and Faculty of Medicine. Minna is conducting multidisciplinary research in innovation management, service networks and business models in the context of connected health service co-creation. Minna has over 80 publications in fields such as nursing science, innovation management, software engineering and information systems... learn more.

 

LNETN partner organizations

Bittumm Wireless

JARI PARTANEN 

Jari Partanen is the Head of Quality and Environment at Bittium that undergwent a transition towards a leaner and more agile way of working in the last few years and employed Continuous Integration towards Continuous Deployment, Continuous and Transparent Planning, and embedded DevOps practices. Jari has actied as Exploitation and Innovation Manager in Q-Rapids H2020 project and task leader in ITEA Cyberfactory#1 Cyber Resilience activities and the board member at Information Technology and Electrical Engineering faculty at the University of Oulu... learn more.

FinTech Scotland

Nicola Anderson

Nicola, CEO of Fintech Scotland, has years of experience in financial services regulation where her focus is on conduct regulation and supporting the delivery of good consumer outcomes in retail markets. She has worked for the FCA across a range of financial sectors with experience supervising firms such as Retail Banks, Credit Unions, Building Societies and smaller Intermediaries. She understands the challenges of being a start up through previous experiences of running her own business. She’s an advocate for the consumer and a believer in diversity of thought, fairness and inclusion...learn more.

Getinge life science

lars lindquist

Lars, CTO Life Science at Getinge, with experience in medical technology and automotive focusing on product/portfolio strategy and product development. He has worked in Europe and Asia within global organizations for more than 20 year. Understanding the complexity for large companies to cooperate efficiently with smaller, faster but less mature business… learn more.

 


New Factory

Jukka Matikainen 

Jukka is the co-founder and head of New Factory, an innovation hub and business accelerator helping startups, corporates and research teams to turn ideas into products and services. He has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of startups, innovation management, regional economic development and commercialization of research. Jukka acts as an innovation expert of Doctoral School of Industry Innovations of Tampere University. He is currently setting up a new venture builder & accelerator for research-based tech startups and industry called Spinoutlab... learn more.

Nokia

Seppo Yrjölä

Seppo is Principal Engineer at Nokia Enterprise, and has been with Nokia for 30 years. He incubates and steers opportunities externally with customers, partners and governments with the purpose of driving growth by innovating holistically from technology to business models. Seppo has PhD in telecommunications from Oulu University and is Professor University of Oulu in the field of techno-economics of future wireless communications services and networks. His recent research explores how and why platform-based ecosystemic business models emerge in future wireless systems... learn more.

NOVI

HENRIK LUNDUM

Henrik is CEO of NOVI, one of Denmark’s most innovative science parks, where over 1400 employees in 200 companies work alongside to bring together new ideas, entrepreneurship, network and innovation. He holds 10 years of solid CEO-experience, including several years of board experience throughout different Industries. Henrik holds E-MBA in Business Strategy, incl., Graduate diploma in BA Marketing Management/Strategy HD(A) and Financial and Management Accounting HD(R) from AAU... learn more.

 

Scottish EDGE

Steven Hamill

As Chief Operating Officer for Scottish EDGE, Steven is responsible for the end-to-end delivery of the Scottish EDGE competition, working closely with early-stage Scottish businesses and assessment panel members to ensure the delivery of a fair and consistent competition which identifies exciting, growth-potential businesses to support. Scottish EDGE has invested more than £15m in almost 400 innovative new Scottish businesses across a range of industries. Learn more.

 

Softiron LTD

Norman M. Fraser

Norman is an entrepreneur and Adjunct Professor at AAU. Educated at Edinburgh and London Universities, he has spent more than twenty years creating and leading successful businesses. He has authored around 50 peer-reviewed publications and his current research interests include entrepreneurship, industry creation, and institutionalization. He has served on a number of technical and business expert committees of the British Government and EU... learn more.
 

The Shaftesbury Partnership Ltd

Chris MoulD

Profiled by Guardian Newspapers as one of the UK’s top social entrepreneurs, Chris is an innovative leader, widely experienced in public and voluntary sectors. He is particularly interested in disruption, scale, replication and impact. Between 2007 and 2017 Chris led the Trussell Trust through its transition from a small NGO to a multi award winning national organisation that pioneered social franchising. Chris has worked with the highest levels of government both in the UK and the EU... learn more.

 

University of Rhode Island

Nikhilesh Dholakia (LNETN project leader)

Nikhilesh is Professor Emeritus, University of Rhode Island (URI), and founding co-editor of Markets, Globalization & Development Review (MGDR). He was a president of the International Society of Markets & Development (ISMD), the parent body of MGDR. He is a core member of the Theory Building Research Program (TBRP) at Aalborg University. Dr. Dholakia's research deals with globalization, technology, innovation, market processes, and consumer culture – and has been published widely in global journals. His current work focuses on global social and cultural aspects of new media... learn more.

Ruby Roy Dholakia

Ruby is Professor Emerita at the College of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island (URI). She was the founding president of the International Society of Markets & Development (ISMD). Engaged extensively in research projects on technologies for the home, the retail environment, and the workplace, she has published widely on these topics in major global journals. She has also chaired several conferences and special sessions, and edited special issues of journals on these topics. Her signature book is Technology and Consumption: Understanding Consumer Choices and Behaviors... learn more.

Hillary Leonard

Hillary is Associate Professor and Marketing Area Coordinator, College of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island (URI). Her research is focused on Consumer Research and Qualitative Inquiry Methods and has appeared, among other places, in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. She was the chair of the URI Faculty Senate during 2018-2019... learn more.

 

Norbert Mundorf

Norbert Mundorf is Professor and Interim Director, Harrington School of Communication and Media, at the University of Rhode Island. His interdisciplinary research, teaching and outreach initiatives promote mobility, health and resilience using his expertise in media effects, social media, and behavior change using Prochaska’s Stages of Change model. Funded projects relate to health promotion, sustainable transportation, acceptance of innovative renewable materials, and preparedness for the impacts of Climate Change. He has conducted extensive Global Online Debates designed to improve intercultural communication... learn more.

Ian Reyes

Ian Reyes is an Associate Professor in the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island working at the intersection of media theory and marketing theory. His research has been published in journals including Consumption Markets & Culture, Marketing Theory, and the Journal of Marketing Management. His current projects address social media engagement, popular music cultures, and transmedia strategies.... learn more.

 

 

International Entrepreneurship Training Network (IETN)

IETN team