Key details
Dr Ilaria Guandalini
Academic Portfolio Lead – Operations and Supply Chain, Founding Lead – MSc Project Management Programme, Senior Lecturer in Business Management
Dr Ilaria Guandalini serves as Academic Portfolio Lead for Operations and Supply Chain and is the Founding Lead of the MSc Project Management programme at the University of Greenwich’s School of Business, Operations and Strategy.
She joined the University in 2016 as a doctoral researcher and part-time lecturer, undertaking several leadership roles, including EMBA Programme Director. This followed more than a decade in senior research and advisory positions at Planet Retail (now Edge by Ascential), Strategic Insight (now ISS MI), and CEB (now Gartner). Her professional background in corporate retail, asset management, and procurement underpins her teaching and research work in project management, sustainability, and strategic transformation.
Dr Guandalini earned her PhD in Business (2019) and Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (2020) from the University of Greenwich. She also holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick and both a BA and MSc in Political Science from the University of Florence.
Her leading and teaching experience spans a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, including:
- Advanced Project Management
- Business Creation Project
- Discover Project Management
- Global Business & Sustainability
- Organisational Analysis & Performance
- Personal and Professional Development
- Project Management
- Project Management and Information Systems
- Project Management for ERP and Supply Chain Consultancy
- Project Planning and Management
- Strategy for Managers
Dr Guandalini is a recognised researcher in the fields of digital transformation and sustainability alignment, focusing on how organisations can align strategy and project execution with purpose, value creation, and long-term impact.
Responsibilities within the university
Academic Portfolio Lead of Operations & Supply Chain. Founding Lead of the MSc Project Management programme. PhD Supervisor.
Previous Programme Director of the Exec MBA, Module Leader, Senior Lecturer, Tutor of Project Management and Strategy-related courses.
Awards
- 2023-2024 NUSC-funded project
- 2022-2023 CAIS-funded project
- 2023-2026 'GBS PhD Scholarship' for the Supervisory Project 'Digital Sustainability Transformation in Supply Chain: How to Improve Business Performance'
- As a student, 2016-2019, 'Vice Chancellors Scholarship for PhD', awarded by University of Greenwich
Recognition
- Reviewer for the Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Applied Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, and Journal of Strategy and Management.
- Reviewer for the EURAM Conference 2022
- Reviewer of the SHIFT Conference 2022 - 2025
- Co-Chair of the Learning and Teaching Conference 2021
- Senior Fellowship, Advance HE 2025
Research / Scholarly interests
Ilaria's research finds motivation on the practice's challenge to incorporate sustainability initiatives in an existing business strategy, gauge intangible effects and take change decisions aligned with the ultimate corporate business purpose.
Research interests
- Multinational Business Strategy, Sustainability, Innovation, Finance, Change Management
- Redefining sustainable education
Research areas under development
- Sustainability through Digital Transformation
- Sustainable Value Creation through UN Sustainable Development Goals projects
- Resource Based View through a Switching Cost Perspective
Recent publications
- Guandalini, I., Zhou, L. & Sun, W., 2024. Managing switching effects in sustainable projects: case studies. Production Planning & Control, 35(16), pp.2212–2233.
- Guandalini, I., 2021. Sustainability through digital transformation: A systematic literature review for research guidance. Journal of Business Research, 148, pp.456–471.
- Guandalini, I., Sun, W. & Zhou, L., 2019. Assessing the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals through switching costs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 232, pp.1430–1441.