2025 Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors: Irina Surdu-Nardella, Warwick Business School

Irina Surdu-Nardella
Warwick Business School

“Irina is an excellent professional, with extensive knowledge and profound understanding of economics and IB. Her sense of humour, patience and well-structured course made the whole experience very good indeed. I’m so happy to have chosen this course as an elective.” – Student evaluation

Irina Surdu-Nardella, 36, is a Professor of International Business Strategy in the Strategy and International Business (SIB) Department at Warwick Business School and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Multinational Business Review, one of the oldest journals in the field of international business. In her role as Editor-in-Chief of Multinational Business Review, she has made significant efforts for this journal to become upgraded from a 2* to a 3* journal by the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS). 

She is also The Research Environment Lead within the SIB Department and her research focus on international growth patterns and performance sits at the intersection between internationalization, behavioral theory, and non-market strategy. 

Surdu-Nardella has a significant volume of publications published in world leading journals, including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, British Journal of Management, Multinational Business Review, International Business Review, Journal of International Management and International Journal of Management Reviews.  In addition, she has published in practitioner oriented journals such as California Management Review and Journal of International Business Policy. 

This work garnered twelve best paper awards over the years at the Academy of International Business, European International Business Academy, Academy of Management as well as at the British Academy of Management. She serves on the Editorial Boards of top journals in international business and management, including the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Global Strategy Journal and International Business Review. 

Aside from the contributions made by her published work, she makes significant efforts to develop junior scholars – locally as doctoral supervisor and globally as co-chair of the Junior Faculty Consortium at the Academy of Management, as well as by being the Convener of the Doctoral Consortium at the Academy of International Business UK&I. She is actively involved with WAIB and Palgrave Macmillan to encourage more women to participate in academic publishing.

Surdu-Nardella has won Teaching Excellence Awards for eight consecutive years at Warwick.

Her research on sustainability and corporate irresponsibility is of particular relevance to policy and practice via various grants she is involved in as part of the Enterprise Research Centre at WBS. She is a regular contributor to media outlets given her expertise. The collaboration with the ESRC funded productivity institute has produced insights for business leaders and policy makers, resulting in a policy report on the best places to invest in the UK and the manner in which investment promotion could be made more effective post-Brexit. 

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? 2020

Education: University of Warwick, UK, PhD in Management (International Business); University of Warwick, UK, MSc Marketing & Strategy; Nottingham Trent University, UK, BA Marketing Management; West University of Timisoara, Romania, BSc Economics and Business Administration 

List of MBA courses you currently teach: International Business, Strategic Advantage, Strategy & Practice

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … all my colleagues were thrilled about not having to take another exam, and I felt rather disappointed about the prospect of disrupting this learning journey. I have also always been a firm believer in the value of education at different stages in the individual’s life and the maturity with which MBAs embrace the learning process during the different courses, making teaching them an exciting career path. 

The nature of my research enables me to incorporate the work that I do in the classroom and discuss it with my MBAs, which makes it a learning experience for me also as I always envisioned what it would be like to teach my own research.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? My greatest passion remains my PhD work, where I examined the behavior of firms which divest operations from international markets and then choose to re-enter. In understanding how individuals and firms deal with failure, I introduced behavioural theory rationales to the IB field (which is mainly dominated by economics). I found decision making processes to be highly complex, and firms with similar resources, similar options, would make very different choices around how to re-enter previously exited markets. 

I found that the positive experiences that firms had before they started to under-perform in their given markets were far less important and memorable compared to the negative experience that exit brought. The ‘failure’ as seen by many managers became embedded in organisational routines and practices long after the initial decision makers had left, and new managers came in with a significant fear of failing (again). This shed light on the manner in which we overestimate experience’s positive effects in decision making and underestimate the importance of forgetting and unlearning behaviors, which can benefit organisations more. 

If I weren’t a business school professor …  I would probably be a consultant – which still involves some degree of ‘teaching’ organisational decision makers I suppose. Given my expertise as an international business scholar, I have spent a lot of time talking to foreign managers about the effects of geopolitics (e.g., Brexit) on their business and that resulted in a policy report. So, maybe work bridging that gap between investment policy and actual investors’ needs would have appealed to me (I am sort of doing all these things anyway). 

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? Students always remark on my confidence in the classroom and my energy and passion for the work. I believe that I am very privileged to be able to bring my research into the classroom, which makes me very present amongst the students and makes their experience unique as well. 

One word that describes my first time teaching: Bold

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: Nothing really, than what I was told back in the day, which is ‘just do it’, which was the best advice I ever got, because we all have our different teaching styles and it’s always a mistake trying to be someone else in the classroom or overthinking whether students will like you or not! 

Professor I most admire and why: Christian Stadler who is actually my colleague, and we teach together some of these modules. He has an amazing energy in class and like me, loves what he does and teaches it. Overall, our teaching styles are quite different and that also makes it a great experience for the students when we co-teach.  

TEACHING MBA STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? I enjoy debating my research with them and I believe that’s what effective learning is about. When we teach, we share ideas that already exist. When we focus on learning, we enhance our knowledge and gain new insights – my students contribute to the manner in which I interpret some of my research findings and they have a chance to gain in depth knowledge about a subject that they may be less familiar with. 

What is most challenging? To me, the challenge has always been always keeping students engaged, especially when we teach eight-hour full days. 

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Confident.

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Uninterested. 

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as … a fair marker. 

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? I love animals, so spending time with my Labradors is number one. I have also recently bought my first home, so I am in the process of renovating it myself which is very exciting. 

How will you spend your summer? I tend to spend my summer between conferences and visiting the family. I am originally from Romania, so I tend to spend my summers there. 

Favorite place(s) to vacation: I would probably have to say Italy and Spain. 

Favorite book(s): ‘The prince’ – Niccolò Machiavelli

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?  Given my work, when I have some time, I will watch an action movie. 

My favorite movie is probably ‘Rush’, and it’s about two extremely skilled Formula 1 racers, who are caught in this intense rivalry to achieve the glory of being number 1 in the world. I liked the manner in which the characters were built – one was an English playboy and the other a very disciplined Austrian, yet they both had this drive to compete and win regardless of the risks. I am an extremely competitive person, so I was absorbed by the storyline. 

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I like literally all types of music depending on my mood. In the car, I usually listen to Fleetwood Mac or the Beatles, and if I am doing any chores around the house or going for a run I will listen to Gang Starr or some Latin American summer mix. 

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would  … make much better use of technology to enhance and diversify the classroom experience, more social events for our students to network and create memories and most importantly perhaps, more scholarships i.e., more opportunities for individuals who want to study but come from socio-economic backgrounds where access to higher education is made very difficult. 

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at … managing global talent.  

I’m grateful for … everything I have now, which is an amazing husband with whom I share my love for academia and publishing, two strong women in my life – mother and grandmother – who raised me all on their own during harsh times, my two labradors who keep me very busy with their many antics, and a successful career at an excellent institution where I have good colleagues as well as friends. 

Academic research is a very competitive and harsh ‘game’, where for every paper that gets accepted, there are probably five others that were rejected at some point in time, so I framed this quote and placed it on my desk for perspective: “Remember that once you dreamed of being where you are now.” Very true, in my case.

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