Petya Koleva

Biography

Dr Petya Koleva is an Assistant Professor in Strategy and Enterprise at Heriot-Watt University Dubai. She teaches courses related to strategic change, innovation and entrepreneurship, and research methods. Dr Koleva offers dissertation supervision to undergraduate and postgraduate students, including PhD and DBA supervision.

Dr Koleva’s research focus is on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of emerging economies. She is particularly interested in the influence of institutional dynamics, norms and pressures on the practice and perception of CSR, as well as stakeholder formulation and prioritisation in the Middle East. As a qualitative researcher, she has developed strong interest and expertise in Grounded Theory.

Her research has appeared in leading peer-reviewed international academic journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: The Environment and Responsibility, Qualitative Research Journal, and Society and Business Review. Her work has been recognised on multiple occasions. One of her studies was a finalist for the prestigious 2019 Best Ethics Paper Award of the Academy of Management and was later published in the Journal of Business Ethics in 2021. In 2024, her study on corporate purpose in the Middle East was recognised as one of the Best Papers in the Strategy Division of the Academy of Management and is currently under review in Long Range Planning.

Academic leadership and affiliations

• Global Course Leader for C11SH Strategic Change
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK)
• Chair of the Best Book Award Committee of the Academy of Management

Qualifications

• PhD (Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility), University of Bedfordshire Business School, UK, 2016 Thesis: Variations of Practicing Corporate Social Responsibility in a Context with Strong Islamic Beliefs: Evidence from the Middle East
• MSc in International Business and Management (Commendations), University of Bedfordshire Business School, UK, 2012
• BSc in International Relations (Distinction), Free University of Varna Chernorizets Hrabar, Bulgaria, 2010
• College Degree in Accounting and Finance (Distinction), John Atanasoff School of Economics, Bulgaria, 2005

Publications

• Koleva, P. (forthcoming). Conceptualization of Modern Slavery in a Non-Western Context. In Sidani Y. (Ed.), Routledge Handbook on Business and Management in the Middle East. Routledge, UK.
• Koleva, P., Meadows, M., Elmasry, A. (2023). The Influence of Islam in Shaping Organisational Socially Responsible Behaviour. Business Ethics: The Environment and Responsibility, 32(3), 1001–1019. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12529
• Koleva, P. (2023). Critical Analysis of Grounded Theory Strategy in Organisational and Management Studies. Qualitative Research Journal, 23(3), 258–272. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-08-2022-0118
• Koleva, P. and Meadows, M. (2021). Inherited Scepticism and Neo-Communist CSR-Washing: Evidence from a Post-Communist Society. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04929-7 (doi.org in Bing)
• Koleva, P. (2021). Towards the Development of an Empirical Model for Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the Middle East. Journal of Business Ethics, 171(4), 789–813. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04465-w
• Koleva, P. and Roomi, M. A. (2015). Social Intrapreneurism and All That Jazz: How Business Innovators are Helping to Build a More Sustainable World. Society and Business Review, 10(2), 194–199. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-02-2015-0003
• Koleva, P. and Chukov, V. (2011). West European Islam. Sofia: East-West