Research profile

Svetla Marinova is Professor of International Business and Marketing at Aalborg University in Denmark. Svetla’s research started in the area of economics and in the 1990s and 2000s, she published extensively on the transition and post-transition development of Central and Eastern European economies with a special interest in business restructuring, transformation and foreign direct investment. She has done extensive research on generic business growth and foreign direct investment as means for promoting new business models and innovation that can foster firm international competitiveness. Since the early 2000s, Professor Marinova’s activities have spread across emerging economies worldwide. She is particularly interested in the internationalisation of emerging economies and firms, the role of context and dynamic embeddedness in this process, and the interplay between institutional and business entrepreneurship in promoting outward foreign direct investments. Recently, Svetla’s research has called for re-visiting the concept of value creation in internationalisation. She proposes that value should be analysed as a multidimensional construct that includes the economic, psychological, sociological and environmental utility for individuals, organisations, ecosystems and society in home and host countries. This calls for a much more critical assessment of internationalisation and global access to resources. Svetla Marinova has published more than 110 journal articles and 10 books on internationalization, emerging markets, inward and outward foreign direct investment, internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises, value creation in international business, and the role of business models in internationalisation. Her recent work on the book “COVID-19 and International Business: Era of Change” argues that the current state of internationalisation pushes the redistribution of markets and production based on alignment around a pivot that enacts certain political, economic and moral paradigms. Professor Marinova calls for a much greater integration of research, education, institutional support and business initiative that could strengthen the competitive position of Europe in the post-pandemic economic geo-political landscape.

Professor Marinova has extensive teaching experience from universities in Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, the USA, Austria and Bulgaria as part of full-time employment or as a visiting professor. Svetla has a passion for teaching and takes special care of student learning by nurturing the brightest, supporting the weaker, challenging those who enjoy being in the middle range, and assisting those students who experience health and family challenges. She believes that educators need to motivate and empower young people, encourage them to achieve as much as they can, support them in their academic and personal development.