Maria Garbelli is an Italian academic and researcher specializing in management, sustainability, and the study of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). She currently serves as a researcher and lecturer in management and marketing at the Department of Economics, Management, and Statistics at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Milan, Italy), where she has been a faculty member since 2005. She also teaches in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Brescia, where she lectures on Marketing Management and Corporate Social Responsibility and Performance Management.
Dr. Garbelli earned her Master’s Degree in Business and Management from the University of Brescia (2000, summa cum laude) and later completed a Ph.D. in Business Administration and Marketing at the University of Milano-Bicocca (2003), under the supervision of Professor Silvio M. Brondoni.
Between 2014 and 2015, she was a Visiting Student and Research Fellow at the UNESCO Chair in ICT to Develop and Promote Sustainable Tourism in World Heritage Sites, hosted by the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland. During her time there, she collaborated on international projects linking digital communication, heritage preservation, and sustainable tourism, laying the foundation for a long-term academic partnership with the UNESCO Chair team. She later served as Scientific Director of the 2015 Summer School in ICT for Sustainable Tourism, jointly organized by the University of Milano-Bicocca and USI Lugano.
Her research and teaching activities cover a wide range of topics including:
Management of SMEs: competitiveness, internationalization, human resource management, and innovation in Industry 4.0 and 5.0 contexts;
Sustainability and CSR: ethical governance, social impact measurement, and sustainable manufacturing;
Digital transformation and heritage: the use of ICTs for cultural and tourism communication, destination management, and localization of digital content for global audiences.
At the University of Milano-Bicocca, she teaches Market-Driven Management, a course she has continuously developed over two decades, reflecting the intersection between strategic marketing, digitalization, and sustainability. At the University of Brescia, she contributes to programs focused on Marketing Management and Social Responsibility and Performance Management in the Faculty of Economics.
Dr. Garbelli has authored and co-authored numerous publications in international journals and books, addressing themes such as SME resilience, virtual enterprises in tourism, CSR in the age of artificial intelligence, and the evolution of sustainable manufacturing in Lombardy.
Beyond academia, Maria Garbelli plays an active role in applied research and institutional collaboration. She has been Scientific Coordinator and Principal Investigator in multiple commissioned studies for Confapi Lombardia, Unioncamere Lombardia, and Apindustria Brescia, focusing on regional manufacturing, SME competitiveness, and post-COVID recovery. From 2021 to 2024, she directed the Lombardy Manufacturing Outlook for Unioncamere Lombardia and currently leads research on SME resilience in the food and beverage sector.
She has also contributed as Vice President of the Fondazione Universitaria UNIBS (Fondazione EULO Tirandi)since 2024, and serves as a registered expert in the Italian Ministry of University and Research’s REPRISE databasefor basic research, industrial competitiveness, and dissemination of scientific culture.
Her engagement extends to national and international scientific associations, including SIMA (Società Italiana di Management), SINERGIE, and EURAM (European Academy of Management), where she is an active reviewer and conference participant.
Throughout her career, Maria Garbelli has consistently bridged academic research and applied economic analysis, promoting collaboration between universities, public institutions, and business networks. Her work has focused on developing integrated, sustainable approaches to competitiveness, both in the manufacturing and service sectors, with a particular interest in how SMEs can thrive in turbulent environments through cooperation, innovation, and digital transformation.
