PhD Students at IMO
Our students come from different countries and from different disciplinary perspectives. They feed our programme with enthusiasm and fresh ideas.
Read more about them and their research interests:
Benedetta Abagnale
Benedetta Abagnale is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at USI. She holds a joint Master of Science (MSc) in Cognitive Psychology in Health Communication from Università della Svizzera Italiana and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, and a Bachelor's degree (B.A.) in Psychology from Università di Milano-Bicocca.
Benedetta is currently working under the supervision of Prof. Nikolaus Beck and her research interests concern organizational theories, with a focus on audiences impact on organizational learning and change.
Alireza Akhavan Anvari
Ali Akhavan is a PhD student in Management at the Institute of Management and Organisation at USI. He focuses on using System Dynamics approach to describe and analyze organizational as well as social phenomena and concepts. Concentrating on Common Pool Resources, he is modeling water scarcity problems, which caused several social, political, and economic difficulties, especially in developing countries.
Mariya Andreeva
Mariya Andreeva is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization at USI. Mariya’s research interest is in Sustainable Development using System Dynamics approach. In particular, her research focuses on the interlinkages between the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how these interlinkages affect the simultaneous achievement of multiple SDGs. She is also interested in organizational learning and decision-making and in particular decisions that affect long-term payoffs.
Merve Gül Barut
Merve Gül Barut is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organisation at USI. Before joining the PhD program, she obtained her BSc in Business Administration at Hacettepe University and MSc in Science and Technology Policy Studies at Middle East Technical University in Turkey. She is interested in market categories and categorization processes as her research field. In particular, she focuses on how origins and material practices of organizations interact with categorical dynamics i.e., creation of new categories, conformity to prototypes and category spanning.
Raquel Froese Buzogany
Raquel Buzogany is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organisation at USI. Her activities include developing a didactic plan for master’s students to follow for their theses, collaborating in the management of master programs related to humanitarian operations and other teaching-related issues. Her research interest unfolds around humanitarian operations, including logistical and behavioral aspects, and system dynamics.
Angelo Deleo
Angelo Deleo is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in management, under the supervision of Prof. Paul Gouvard. He holds a B.A. degree in international affairs and anthropology from the George Washington University, and an M.A. degree in European studies from Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven.
His specific research interests include topics of institutional logics, legitimacy, and organizational culture. His primary work in development involves the organizational level of legitimacy between the individual and institutional, as a way of understanding organizations that may deviate from institutionally-accepted norms, and the consequences of this deviation.
Ana Kurtanidze
Ana Kurtanidze is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at USI. Ana is working under the supervision of Prof. Emanuele Bettinazzi. Her research focuses on the interplay between Corporate Strategy and Stakeholder Theory. In particular, Ana is interested in how firm’s corporate strategy decisions and their relationships with stakeholders influence each other.
Ana holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Banking and Finance from Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) and a Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) with a double major in International Management with an emphasis in Finance and Communication & Media Studies from Franklin University Switzerland.
Ilkyaz Inconglu
İlkyaz İnçoğlu Damiani is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at Università della Svizzera italiana. She works under the supervision of Prof. Filippo Carlo Wezel and Prof Stefan Arora-Jonsson. Her research is on organisation theory in the context of political parties. İlkyaz has a background in industrial engineering and supply chain management. She holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Sabancı University (Turkey), a Master of Science in Supply Chain Management from WU Vienna, (Austria) and an MPhil from Bocconi University (Italy).
Zakie Mamashli
Zakie Mamashli is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at USI.
Maximiliane Sachenbacher
Maxi Sachenbacher is a PhD student in management at USI. She joined the Institute of Management and Organizations in February 2021. Before, she received both of her degrees (B.Sc. and M.Sc.) from the University of Munich with stays abroad in South Africa and Sweden. Additionally, she gained work experience in strategy and consulting in various industries. In her research she is particularly interested in organizational theory. Her current projects focus on organizational learning and adaptation in the realm of the behavioral theory. Her primary research instruments are computer simulations and experiments. In addition, Maxi is a member of the TOM Society where she is the initiator and co-organizer of the TOM Series. This format seeks to promote the use of models and computer simulations in the management sciences.
Feyyaz Sentürk
Feyyaz Sentürk is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at USI.
Shuang Xie
Shuang Xie is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at USI. Shuang is currently working under the supervision of Prof. Emanuele Bettinazzi. Her research focuses on the intersection of corporate strategy and organization theory, especially the question of how different organizations strive to be from competitors while retaining legitimacy in audience evaluation to attain optimal performance. Shuang holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Management Science and Engineering and a Bachelor's degree (BA) with a double major in Civil Engineering and Project Management from Tianjin University in China.
Guang Zhu
Guang Zhu (朱光) is a PhD student at the Institute of Management and Organization (IMO) at the Faculty of Economics at USI. Guang is currently working under the supervision of Prof. Filippo Carlo Wezel. His research focuses on organization theory in the product market and labor market.
Guang holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in statistics from Rutgers University in the USA and a Bachelor of Economics degree from University of International Business and Economics in China.
