Dr. Francesco Debellis

Assistant Professor

e-mail: francesco.debellis@univie.ac.at

phone: +43 1 4277 38014

room: 5th floor 05.621

office hours: on appointment


Francesco Debellis joined the University of Vienna in September 2020 as Assistant Professor, in the Department of Marketing and International Business.

Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Family Business Management of the Free University of Bolzano (Italy). During his Ph.D. he spent one and half year as visiting researcher at the University of Leeds (UK). He also been visiting scholar at the Witten/Herdecke University (Germany), Henley Business School (UK), Old Dominion University (USA) and Zhejiang University (China).

Besides academia, he has been working as a business consultant advising many family businesses on their succession and internationalization process. He is regularly invited as a keynote speaker at practice-oriented events (e.g., KPMG Family Business summit) and as a guest lecturer at foreign universities (e.g. Copenhagen Business School, St. Petersburg University).

His research focuses on governance and internationalization of family firms. He is member of the Editorial board of the European Journal of Family Business and has received several awards for his research, such as the Lazaridis Institute prize for the EIBA 2019 best paper award in International Entrepreneurship.

Selected Publications

  • Debellis, F., Pinelli, M. Hülsbeck, M., and Heider, A., (2023): "Ownership, governance, and internationalization in family firms: A replication and extension", Small Business Economicshttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-023-00736-8
  • Rondi, E., Debellis, F., Bettinelli, C. and De Massis, A., (2022): "Family multinationals: a systematic literature review to take stock and look ahead", International Marketing Review, 39(5), 1029-1051. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-01-2021-0025
  • Debellis, F., Torchia, M., Quarato, F., and Calabrò, A., (2022): "Board openness and family firm internationalization: A social capital perspective", Small Business Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-022-00670-1