Current academic position

Sara Bonesso is Associate Professor of Business Organization and Human Resources Management at Departiment of Management-Venice School of Management (VSM), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where she received in 2007 her Ph.D. in Management with a doctoral dissertation on “‘Knowledge dimensions and technology sourcing modes’”.

She is one of the founder and the Vice Director of the Ca' Foscari Competency Centre (a research centre aimed to o improve individuals' performance and employability through the development of behavioral competencies). She is also emmber of the Scientific and Technical Committee of CLab - Ca' Foscari Laboratories of Active learning (since 2022).

At Venice School of Management, she is delegate for Teacher Training (since 2021) and she serves as member of the Committee for the Evaluation of International Degree Seekers (since 2016), member of the Research Committee (since 2021), member of the EQUIS Team (since 2022), and member of the Teaching Committee of the Ph.D. program in Management (since 2012).

She is also Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology (section Organizational Psychology). In 2018 she was appointed as member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.

Related academic experience and visiting positions

She has been visiting Ph.D. student at the Industrial Performance Center Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA) and at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI (Karlsruhe, Germany). Between 2007 and 2010, she was lecturer at the Department of Management of Ca’ Foscari University Venice and she received a PostDoctor Fellowship on the research program “Absorptive Capacity: dimensions, antecedents and performance”. In 2013 she earned the Weatherhead Executive Coaching Certificate from Case Western Reserve University.

Research interests

Her research interests embrace the fields of Organizational Design, Human Resources Management and Organizational Behaviour. Some of her recent research works include:

• Women leadership
• Leadership development
• Assessment and development of emotional and social competencies
• The impact of behavioral competencies on entrepreneurial intent, diglitalization, innovation, employability and career development
• Knowledge attributes of New Product Development projects as antecedents of technology sourcing
• Open Innovation and Absorptive Capacity’s organizational practices
• Inter-firm technology transfer process and the role of Knowledge Transfer Organizations
• Ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis

Research Projects

Research Projects

She has been in charge of several research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Research, the European Social Fund, and regional institutions.

• Principal investigator of the Research Project of Significant National Interest (PRIN) 2022, entitled: Blending the physical and the virtual workplace: How different hybrid work’s models disrupt the labormarket and call for emergent configurations of organizational and human resource management practices, prot. 20224BJLC7.
• Principal investigator, project entitled"Social Innovation Alliance for Diversity management and innovation of Organizational Models", “P.A.R.I. - Progetti e Azioni di Rete Innovativi per la parità e l’equilibrio di genere”, Veneto Region, European Social Fund 2022. 
  Principal investigator, project entitled "Donne e Imprenditorialità: Valorizzare la leadership femminile del futuro", funded by Osservatorio Economico Sociale Camera di Commercio Treviso-Belluno e Comitato Imprenditoria Femminile Treviso-Belluno.
• “Ricerca scientifica e competitività. Varietà delle forme di impresa, sistemi di supporto e dimensioni di performance.” Research Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN)  2010-2011 prot. 2010744K3S_011.
• “Complementarità organizzative, invarianza, variabilità e performance innovativa delle PMI italiane”.  Research Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN – DM n. 582/2006 del 24 marzo 2006 – prot. N. 2006135741),
• Organisational Approach of Self-controlled Instrument for qualification demand in SME (OASI) Progetto Leonardo da Vinci Programma d’azione comunitaria in materia di formazione professionale – Progetti pilota – Fase 2000-2006 – Progetto I/03/B/F/pp-154063.
•  “Management dell’innovazione per reti di impresa – Main.Reim” Rif. L.r. 18.05.2007, n. 9 “Piano strategico regionale per la ricerca scientifica, lo sviluppo tecnologico e l’innovazione 2008/2010” – Bando per la concessione di contributi a sostegno di attività di ricerca industriale, sviluppo sperimentale, innovazione e diffusione del trasferimento tecnologico – fase 2.
•  “Skills per l'innovazione - Skill-Inn”. Skill-Inn n. 1075/1/1/1758/2009 - POR FSE 2007/2013 Ob. Competitività Regionale e Occupazione Asse IV – Capitale Umano – Cat. 72 Avvio Azioni di sistema per la realizzazione di strumenti operativi a supporto dei processi di riconoscimento, validazione e certificazione delle competenze – Anno 2009 – DGR n. 1758 del 16 giugno 2009 della Regione Veneto con finanziamento da parte dell’Unione Europea – FSE, del Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali e Regione Veneto.
• Modelli e strumenti competency-based a supporto dello sviluppo e dell'innovazione di prodotto. Progetto finanziato dal Fondo Sociale Europeo POR 2007/2013 ob. Competitività Regionale e Occupazione. Sviluppo del potenziale umano nella ricerca e nell'innovazione, DDR n° 456 del 17/12/2013. FSE 2120/1/2/1148/2013.
• 2011-2012. “Orientamento universitario e mondo del lavoro: competenze trasversali e nuove strategie didattiche”. Project funded by Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltura di Venezia.2007-2008. “Open Innovation nel Veneto. Un’indagine preliminare”. Project funded by Consiglio Regionale del Veneto.
• 2005-2006. “Innovare per competere: tecnologie, imprese e istituzioni nel Veneto post-industriale”. Project funded by Veneto Innovazione, agenzia regionale per l’innovazione
• 2004-2005. "Innovazione organizzativa e tecnologica e competitività aziendale delle imprese artigiane. Il caso della metalmeccanica padovana". Project funded by Unione Provinciale Artigiani (UPA) Padova.  

Publications

Her research products have been presented in several international and national conferences such as EURAM (European Academy of Management), BAM (British academy of management), AOM (Academy of Management), DRUID, EGOS (European Group of Organizational Studies), IPDMC (International Product Development Management Conference), ICEI (International Congress of Emotional Intelligence) and ISBE (Institute for Small Business Entrepreneurship). Her research work has been published in various journals, including Journal of Vocational Behavior (Elsevier), Industrial and Corporate Change (Oxford Academic), International Journal of Manpower (Emerald), International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research (Emerald), Innovations in Education and Teaching International (Taylor & Francis), Creativity and Innovation Management (Wiley), Journal of Small Business Management (Wiley), Frontiers in Organizational Psychology, Technovation (Elsevier Publisher), The Journal of Technology Transfer (Springer Publisher), European Management Journal (Elsevier Publisher).

Research Awards

2013 -  Award for Best Research, Department of Management, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

2014 - Short list best paper award in “Enterprise Education” track, Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, ISBE Conference, Manchester (UK), paper Bonesso S., Gerli F., Pizzi C., Cortellazzo L. 2014, What differentiates future entrepreneurs? Developing entrepreneurial competencies in higher education.

2015 - Best Paper in "Networks and Innovation" Track, Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, ISBE Conference, Glasgow (UK), paper Gerli, F., Bonesso, S., Cortellazzo, L., 2015. Entrepreneurs' behavioural competencies and social network for innovation generation.

2017- Best Paper Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, for the paper: Bruni, Bonesso, Gerli, 2017. Metaphors for Innovation: How Entrepreneurs Narrate Different Types of Innovation.  Academy of  Management, Atlanta (Georgia, USA).

2018 -Short list best paper award in "Innovation" track, European Academy of Management Conference, paper Cortellazzo, L., Bonesso, S., Gerli, F., Batista-Foguet, J.M. Serlavos Serra, R., A new behavioral competency assessment framework. 

2021 - VSM research recognition for the article: Cortellazzo Laura, Sara Bonesso, Fabrizio Gerli, Entrepreneur’s behavioural competencies for internationalization: Exploratory insights form the Italian context rivista: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research ISSN: 1355-2554.

Didactic Awards

2015 - Wharton-QS Stars "Reimagine Education" Awards, shortlisted project "PerFORMARE EmotivaMENTE", section "Nurturing Employability", Philadelphia.

2018 - Project Ca’ Foscari Competency Centre «Apprendere e valutare le soft skills nei percorsi di alternanza scuola‐lavoro».  Best Practice Nazionale da Unioncamere, Roma.

2021 - VSM didactic recognition for the course “Leadership”, within the project "Department of Excellence".