Teachers

Marcello Alinovi is an assistant professor in Food Technology, affiliated to the Department of Food and Drug of University of Parma, in Italy. His research activities are focused on the investigation of physico-chemical, structural properties of dairy products and technologies, on the impact of innovative and food process technologies and novel food ingredients for the formulation of new food products, on the utilization of mathematical modelling, as well as chemometric and multivariate statistical tools for optimization, characterization and the quantification purposes of food products and processes. He teaches technology of dairy and meat products, and technology and development of functional foods in master’s degree courses at the University of Parma.

Bernardo Balboni is Associate Professor of Economics and Business Management (ECON-07/A) at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He holds a PhD in Business Economics from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
He is President of the Technology Transfer and Third Mission Committees and Deputy Director of the Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation (UNIMORE). He is also Delegate for the Third Mission of DEMB, Head of the ICARO UNIMORE Programme, Coordinator of the TACC Programme and member of the Executive Board of PNICube.
His main research interests are focused on the analysis of the impact of internationalization speed on SME’s performances, the impact of business model evolution and contextual ambidexterity on high-tech start-up’s growth performance, the relation between the team composition and performance in university spin-offs, the effects of firm innovativeness on international expansion of developing markets’ firms, the moderating effect of trust on formal control mechanisms in international alliances, Design Thinking mindest and the disentangling of resource and mode escalation of SMEs’ in the context of emerging markets.

Associate Professor of Agricultural, food and rural economics at the University of Ferrara. His research focuses on evaluating agricultural and rural policies, the sustainability of agricultural systems, the adoption of technological innovations in rural areas, and the structural change of food systems. He has published over 150 articles and is also the Chief Editor of the journal Bio-Based and Applied Economics.

Mortadha Ben Hassine is a Researcher in Agronomy and Herbaceous Crop Production (SSD: AGRI-02/A) at the University of Ferrara. He carries out an active research activity documented by more than 25 scientific publications, including 12 articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and 3 book chapters.
His research focuses on the sustainable management of agroecosystems through the adoption of innovative agricultural practices aimed at reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers. These approaches seek to generate environmental benefits (reduction of greenhouse gas emissions), agronomic benefits (improvement of crop productivity), and economic benefits (reduction of farm production costs).
Among the main sustainable management practices investigated are the use of cover crops and the application of products derived from the circular economy.

Leonardo is a PhD candidate at Agrisystem – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Piacenza, in the field of oenological and agri-food sciences (AGR/07-A). He is involved in teaching activities as a teaching assistant in oenology courses, supporting both theoretical and practical instruction in winemaking techniques, oenological treatments, winery management, and analytical methodologies applied to wine and grape-derived products.
His research activity focuses on the study, characterization, and optimization of treatments and transformation processes applied to alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, with particular attention to their effects on product quality and process sustainability. His main research interests concern the analysis of aroma profiles and volatile compounds using advanced gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques, aimed at understanding the relationships between processing technologies and the chemical characteristics of the final product.

Associate Professor of Economics and Business Management (SSD: ECON-07/A) at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Francesca De Canio is an active researcher with over 75 publications, including 32 papers in international and national journals and 12 book chapters. Her research activity focuses on retailing and tourism, sustainable consumption behaviour, and technology. Her main publications focus on consumer purchasing and consumption choices in multichannel, immersive, augmented, and gamified contexts. She studies emerging social trends with a focus on sustainability in sharing economy processes, particularly collaborative consumption models.

Linda Gabbianelli is an Associate Professor of Economics and Business Management at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She teaches Marketing and Data-Driven Marketing, as well as Economics and Business Organization. Her main research interests include business modeling, consumer behavior, services marketing, and digital marketing. She has published her work in both national and international academic journals.

Elisa Martinelli is Full Professor of Economics and Business Management at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE). She is Delegate for internationalization of DEMB and member of the Academic Council of the Doctorate in “Work, Development and Innovation” FMB-UNIMORE. Her research activity is aimed at studying both marketing topics – such as customer purchasing behavior, regarding the topics of food and sustainability, and the marketing of typical food products – and strategic management topics such as business resilience, disaster management and dynamic capabilities. She also deals with retail and channel marketing, brand equity and private label, as well as Country of Origin Effect. She is the author of more than one hundred and forty contributions about these topics.

Francesca Negri, PhD, carries out Teaching and Research activities on the convergence of Digital Marketing and Sustainability, with a focus on the Retail market, at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Piacenza), where she also collaborates with the REM Lab Research Center in the Third Mission perspective. She is the author of numerous national and international contributions, published and presented in the context of academic and managerial conferences. She has gained many years of teaching experience at national and international level.

Dr. Ottavia Parenti obtained a PhD in Food Science and Technology with a thesis entitled “Unrefined wheat flours in bread-making: techniques and technologies to improve dough properties and bread quality” at the University of Florence (Italy) in February 2021. After post-doc research experiences as research fellowship, she is currently working as a researcher at the University of Parma (Italy). The research activity focuses on Cereal Science and Technology, with the aim to understand the functionality of cereals, pseudocereals, and pulses and to develop innovative formulations and technological processes to obtain cereal-based products (baked products, snacks, pasta) with enhanced quality. The valorization of valuable and underutilized grains, the valorization of unrefined cereal flours and milling by-products, the investigation of the effect of formulation and processing variables on the characteristic of semi-finished and finished products, the improvement of the technological and nutritional quality of cereal-based products are some of the research topics investigated.

Andrea Pulvirenti is an Associate Professor of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Microbiology at UNIMORE. He teaches Food Microbiology and Microbiological Techniques and Quality Management. He holds a degree in Food Science and Technology at the University of Catania and a PhD in Food Biotechnology. He was Director of the Doctoral School in Agri-food Science, Technology, and Biotechnology and President of the Master’s Degree program in Food Control and Safety.
He published more than 200 research papers in international journals. His research interests include the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of microbial species of food interest, the development of tools for the molecular identification of yeast and bacterial species and strains in the food sector, the genotypic diversity and technological properties of yeast species and the evaluation of their potential applications in the food industry, mandatory and voluntary certifications in the quality management of agri-food companies, the improvement of food shelf life, and food safety and quality management systems.

Giovanni Sogari is an Associate Professor at the Department of Food and Drug of the University of Parma. He obtained a MSc in Food Science and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics. His studies lie at the nexus of psychology, sensory analysis, and experimental economics to better inform policy-makers, private companies, and the general public on eating behavior. In particular, his main research activities and interests focus on consumers’ perception of sustainable and healthy diets, labelling schemes, and geographical indication claims including PDO and PGI.

Sara Alonso-Muñoz is a PhD lecturer and researcher at Rey Juan Carlos University in the Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundaments of Economic Analysis. She is developing professional activity in teaching and research. Her main research fields are focused on circular supply chain, sustainable tourism and food waste management.

An expert in the Hospitality & Heritage sector, she is Global Tourism Expert for UN Tourism and Marketing & Research Manager of Federalberghi Trentino. For over 25 years she has supported entrepreneurs and Chambers of Commerce in territorial development projects, enhancing tangible and intangible heritage by applying the methodology of the economy of culture. She created the local development model “Win-Win UNESCO Experience” in which entrepreneurs co-create food and wine tourism products/services based on the uniqueness of local culture. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Harokopio University of Athens and the Universities of Perugia and Trento. She was Marketing & Sales Manager for market-leading international hotel chains, developing tourism projects in Champagne, Bordeaux, and the Cape Town Wine Route, in partnership with international tourism organizations and negotiating with tour operators.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is Director of the eTourism Lab and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, at Bournemouth University Business School in England. He is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. He works tirelessly with industry leaders and policymakers to transform tourism into a force for regenerative growth, advancing agile and sustainable practices that empower communities worldwide to achieve a brighter future.
He is the Editor in Chief of Tourism Review and The Editor in Chief of the Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing. Professor Buhalis has written and co-edited more than 25 books and 400 scientific articles. Professor Dimitrios Buhalis was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher 2020, 2021 and 2022 by Clarivate™. He is featured in the Stanford University’s database of the world’s top 2% of scientists. He is the 2nd most cited for tourism, 1st most cited for hospitality, 10th on strategy, and 24th in Marketing on Google Scholar with more than 100,000 citations and h-index 125. Dimitrios works closely with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and the World Bank to ensure that his innovative research has relevance and impact to global communities. For more information, books, articles and presentations, see www.buhalis.com.

Stefano is a chef, an expert in typical Modena cuisine. A passionate lover of Modena culinary traditions, he has dedicated his life to exploring and enhancing the authentic flavors and excellent ingredients of this area, always looking for the best products and the most innovative processing techniques. Stefano is President of the Modena a Tavola Consortium, a role that involved him in the promotion of typical Modena products in Italy and abroad, contributing to the enhancement of a rich gastronomic heritage. Stefano is also a fresh pasta specialist and a wine expert, a passion that led him to explore wine cellars and meet producers all over the world and that involved him in various collaborative activities and as a Head Taster. He is currently engaged also in teaching and consultancy activities and deals with restaurant development.

Giacomo Del Chiappa is a Full Professor of Economics and Business Management/Marketing at the University of Sassari. He is Senior Research Fellow at the School of Tourism & Hospitality, University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and Researcher at CNR – Institute of Mediterranean Studies (ISMeD). He was co-chair of the thematic section “Tourism, Culture & Arts Marketing” of the Italian Marketing Society, where he currently holds the role of member of the Presidential Council. His research activity focuses on topics of service and retail marketing, destination branding, revenue management, analysis of consumer/tourist behavior, sustainable tourism, digital marketing, and airport marketing. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal “European Journal of Tourism Research” and a member of numerous editorial boards of national and international scientific journals. He is the author of numerous national and international scientific publications. He teaches in national and international EMBA, doctoral, and master courses and deals with corporate training for operators in the tourism & hospitality sector

Fani Efthymiadou is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Tourism Administration at Bogazici University in Istanbul (Turkey). She combines an economic background with an emphasis on tourism studies. She is an author of articles in international journals and book chapters on topics such as alternative tourism forms, sharing economy, SDGs, and sustainability. Her teaching schedule includes alternative tourism forms and tourism destination development. She has actively participated in previous research projects of COST Action.

Carlos Flavián is Professor of Marketing at University of Zaragoza (SPAIN), leads the METODO Research Lab and is Spain’s most impactful marketing author.
Clarivate Analytics has highlighted him as a highly cited researcher in 2023; 2024 and 2025. He is the Spanish author with the highest scientific impact in the field of marketing according to the Stanford University list and several of his papers have been included among the top 20 most influential papers in the field of marketing internationally (according to the University of Florida).
His research explores human-technology interactions (including Internet, AI, AR/VR/XR), studying both particularities of technology (usability) and perceptions, behavioral intentions and actual behaviors of consumers (adoption, recommendation, eWOM, satisfaction, loyalty…) in contexts such as tourism, hospitality, food, retailing, etc.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Consumer Studies and holds editorial roles in several academic journals and has guest edited more than ten special issues in prestigious journals.

Maria Fuentes-Blasco (Math BSc, Marketing PhD) is Full Professor of Marketing at the Pablo de Olavide University (UPO, Spain), where she teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels Services Marketing, Marketing Research and Consumer Behaviour. She is IP of the Research Group Innovation and Marketing for a global and sustainable Environment (UPO) and collaborating member of the Research Group Marketing and Service Innovation-INNOMARK (University of Valencia). Her research interests include marketing research and services innovation in Tourism and Retailing, with particular focus on market segmentation, destination management, and sustainability-oriented service innovation. She has published in several international journals and is full member of Andalusian Trade Council and of the Commission for Innovation and Commercial Quality (Regional Ministry of Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment, Junta de Andalucía, Spain).

Roberta Garibaldi is a university professor. She conducts training and research activities to enhance territories, gastronomy and cultural tourism. She is responsible for many applied projects at the international level and has worked for many Ministries of Tourism and international agencies (including the World Tourism Organization and FAO). She was the CEO of the Italian National Tourism Board-ENIT during the Draghi government and Vice President of the OECD-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Tourism Committee. She is a keynote speaker at major worldwide conferences on tourism. She holds numerous roles, including President of the Italian Association on Gastronomy Tourism. She has authored 23 books, over 60 scientific publications, and 14 reports on Gastronomy Tourism in Italy.

Director of the tourism sector of the Province of Modena and Commander of the Provincial Police, he was the creator and promoter of the Museum of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Spilamberto, inaugurated in 2002. Grand Master of the Consorteria del Balsamico Tradizionale from 2006 to 2016, a role focused on the growth of the Municipal vinegar lofts, with particular attention to that of Modena in Piazza Grande, a UNESCO heritage site. In occasion of Expo Milano 2015, he proposed to open temporary stores dedicated to typical products in the vacant shops in the center of Modena. In Piazza Mazzini, in the heart of Modena, the shop dedicated to traditional Balsamic Vinegar, unique of its kind, has become a point reference for gourmet tourists since its opening.

Since 2015, Eleonora Grattini has served as Head of Hospitality and Customer Experience at Acetaia Giusti, where she leads the design and management of visitor experiences at Casa Giusti and at the Giusti boutiques in Modena, Milan, Florence, and Bologna. With a degree in Languages and extensive international experience, she plays a key role in promoting the values of Modena’s oldest acetaia, creating authentic and memorable experiences for food lovers and travelers from around the world.

Mirko Lalli is the founder and current CEO of The Data Appeal Company, established in 2014 within H-Farm with the pioneering goal of applying big data to tourism. He developed an AI-powered platform capable of transforming millions of online signals into actionable insights for destinations and hospitality businesses. Under his leadership, the company has grown into a global player, culminating in its acquisition by Almawave SpA and, in 2023, in the acquisition of Mabrian Technologies, the Spanish leader in travel intelligence. Today, the group analyzes over 5 million pieces of online content per minute and collaborates with hundreds of tourism organizations in more than 50 countries. Lalli also serves as an Independent Expert for the European Commission on data and artificial intelligence, is a member of the World Travel & Tourism Council, and frequently speaks at major international tourism events.

Edoardo Maccarrone, originally from Veneto with Sicilian roots, earned his bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences in Bologna before pursuing a master’s degree in INCOM, enriched by an Erasmus experience in Valencia.
You might recognize him from Marketing Espresso’s social media channels on TikTok and Instagram, where he serves as Video Content Manager. Yes, he’s the one creating the videos you see, but his contribution to the company extends far beyond content production: strategy, editing, storytelling, and much more are part of his daily work.
With an age that everyone struggles to guess, Edoardo nurtures several passions: cats, current affairs, and some healthy PlayStation sessions to unwind.

Marianna Sigala is Professor of Marketing and Director of the International Hotel School at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She has cultivated a distinguished international academic career, previously serving as Professor of Tourism and Director of the Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management at the University of South Australia (2015–2021).
Professor Sigala has also held academic positions at the University of Strathclyde, the University of Westminster, and Sheffield Hallam University (UK, Professor of Digital Transformation & Tourism), as well as at the University of the Aegean and the University of Piraeus (Greece, Professor of Marketing). Her academic expertise is complemented by professional experience in the tourism industry.
Her research interests include service and experience management, the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism and hospitality, and wine tourism. She is a prolific and highly awarded scholar, having authored nine books and numerous journal articles, and delivered keynote presentations at major international conferences.
Professor Sigala has an extensive record of leadership and participation in international research projects funded by institutions such as the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She is a past President of EuroCHRIE and a former board member of ICHRIE and IFITT. She currently serves on the executive board of CAUTHE.
She is Co Editor of the Journal of Service Theory & Practice and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management. In 2016, she received the prestigious EuroCHRIE Presidents’ Award in recognition of her lifetime contributions to tourism and hospitality education. Since 2020, she has also served as a Research Fellow of CAUTHE.

Technical Director of Modenatur, Destination Management Company specialized in incoming tourism and promotion of the Modena and Emilia-Romagna area, Francesca Soffici boasts over 25 years of experience in the sector. Graduated in Economics and Management of Tourist Services at the University of Bologna, she has an in-depth knowledge of the dynamics of development of the offering, of the promotional-marketing techniques and of the specificities of markets and targets in a constantly evolving context.

Dr. Marc Stierand, born into a family business and having trained as a chef in Michelin-starred restaurants, is a Full Professor of Service Management at the EHL Hospitality Business School and the Founding Director of the Institute of Business Creativity (IBC). He is recognized as an authority on culinary and business creativity, a research field he started in 2007. His award-winning research has attracted several millions in funding and has been published in top-tier management journals. Marc’s research primarily revolves around how creative processes and sensory experiences influence innovation and service excellence and often intersects with themes of leadership, organizational behavior, and the development of creative capabilities in professional settings. Marc also serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals and advises global corporations on creativity and innovation.

Adjunct Professor for the bachelor’s degree course in Gastronomic Sciences at the University of Parma and for the Food&Wine4.0 University Master at IUSVE in Venice. His research activities focus on food and wine culture and primarily concern the concept of terroir in its social and geo-historical declinations. Besides, he works as a consultant in the agri-food supply chain, author of various publications, he published ” Malvasia, un diario mediterraneo” for Terrae Opificio Culturale Enogastronomico Editore.

Giampaolo Viglia is Professor of Marketing at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and Full Professor (part-time) at the University of Valle d’Aosta. His research interests focus on pricing strategies, revenue management, consumer behavior, and social media in the context of tourism services. Methodologically, he favors the use of field experiments to analyze causal relationships.
He has published in leading international journals and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Psychology & Marketing (3 ABS). He also sits on the Editorial Boards of Tourism Management (4 ABS), Journal of Service Research (4 ABS), Journal of Travel Research (4 ABS), Journal of Advertising Research (3 ABS), International Journal of Hospitality Management (3 ABS), and Journal of Services Marketing (2 ABS).