Desislava Dikova is Professor in International Business CEE focus at WU Wien/ Vienna University of Economics & Business. She previously held positions at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and King's College London, the UK. Dikova was academic director of WU’s Competence Center for Emerging Markets and CEE from 2020 to 2023. She earned her doctorate degree from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, an Executive Master in International and European relations from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and a Master of Science in International Economics from the Academy of Economics D.A.Tzenov, Bulgaria.

Desislava Dikova is the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of East West Business (published by Taylor Francis), Senior editor at the Journal of International Management (publ. by Elsevier) and European Management Review (publ. by Wiley), she is also editorial board member and a reviewer for numerous academic journals. For her outstanding academic service and research she has been awarded twice the Academy of Management Best Reviewer Award (2007, 2009), JIBS best reviewer award (2013 and 2018), the 2009 WAIB Emerald Award for Highly Commended Paper, and the Academy of Management IM Best Paper Finalist in 2006 and 2008.

Research

Desislava Dikova's research is focused on the international behavior of multinational companies, she examines their foreign market entry mode choices and subsequent performance of foreign subsidiaries. In addition, Dikova studies the competitive behavior of different types of organizations with respect to the types of innovation investments, digitalization and cross-border merger and acquisition activity. Her research has been published in highly ranked international management journals such as the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of International Management, Journal of International Marketing, International Business Review, among others.

Publications

Teaching

Desislava is an accomplished teacher who has won multiple times the CEMS Strategy Course of the Year Award. At WU Vienna, she teaches global strategy, foreign market entry modes and applied marketing courses for the CEMS program, and a course focused on doing business in CEE at an undergraduate level. In addition, she teaches Executive MBA courses at the AUBG American University in Bulgaria and CEU, Central European University in Hungary/Austria.