Università di Bologna

Alma Mater Studiorum, the oldest university in the Western world, paves the way for innovation through an increasingly rich programme catalogue, cutting-edge research and a constant and increasingly broad international perspective. It is a multi-campus university based in Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, and Rimini.

Two departments are involved in the project:

The Department of Educational Studies “Giovanni Maria Bertin”  (EDU) has over 30 years extensive experience - both as a research’s partner and consultant – in international scientific collaboration with universities and research centres on topics that are at the forefront of policy-oriented research such as:

• inclusive societies and citizenship practices in intercultural perspective;
• socio psycho-anthropological educational aspects of emerging social changes and challenges;
• inclusive education, diversity and intercultural pedagogy,
• training and educational models, lifelong learning methodologies, didactical digital contents, migration, media education and teacher training.

Team members

Morena Cuconato

is full professor for pedagogy, intercultural pedagogy, theories of education and social education. Her main research areas are youth education, youth policy and welfare, intercultural education and migration literature.

Ivana Bolognesi

is associate professor for pedagogy, intercultural pedagogy. Her main research topics are related to the inclusion of children of foreign origin and their families in the educational services and in the primary schools

Marta Ilardo

Research fellow, studies and conducts researchin social pedagogy and theories of education with a special focus on social and intercultural inclusion

Marta Salinaro

Research fellow, conducts research in social and intercultural pedagogy, particularly on the practice of social workers with migrants and refugees in reception and integration services

The Department of Management (DiSA) aims to increase and disseminate managerial culture, fostering innovation and its management, technology transfer, specifically from public research organizations to companies. It is UNIBO’s reference point for teaching and research in the fields of Business Economics, Economics of Financial Intermediaries, Economics and Business Management, Business Finance, Engineering Management, Business Organisation and Commodity Sciences.

In 2018, the Department was awarded the “Department of Excellence” by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research.

The researchers involved in MERGING have an expertise a variety of topics relevant for firm success across a range of industries:

• competitive analysis and decision-making processes

• knowledge and innovation management

• business modeling and entrepreneurship

• growth and change business strategies

The group has sound qualitative (e.g., interviews, text analysis) and quantitative skills (e.g., advanced statistical methods, social network analysis).

 Team members

Simone Ferriani

Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Department of Management and a lifetime member of Clare-Hall College in Cambridge. His research interests include entrepreneurship, creativity, processes of evaluation and social networks

Rosa Grimaldi

Full professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. She is currently the Deputy Rector for Entrepreneurship at the University of Bologna. Her research interests span the domain of entrepreneurship, management of innovation, and technology transfer

Leonardo Corbo

Senior Assistant Professor of Management. His research interests include alliances and networks, business model innovation and new venture creation

Daniela Bolzani

Senior Assistant Professor of Management. Her main research interests regard the multi-level antecedents and processes of entrepreneurship, especially in the contexts of immigrant, academic, and social business