Rita Marcella

Professor Rita Marcella is a distinguished academic at Robert Gordon University's Aberdeen Business School, where she holds the position of Professor. With a career spanning multiple decades, she has established herself as a leading researcher in information behavior, particularly focusing on political information and communication, digital entrepreneurship, and information credibility in the era of fake news. Her work has significant implications for understanding how citizens engage with political information and how entrepreneurs navigate digital information landscapes.

Professor Marcella's research interests center on information behavior across various contexts. She has conducted extensive studies on how citizens evaluate political information online, particularly in the context of fake news. Her work on digital entrepreneurs in Nigeria has revealed how intersectionality shapes information behaviors among women and immigrant entrepreneurs. She has also made significant contributions to understanding information behavior in high-risk decision making, particularly among international postgraduate students choosing UK business schools. Her research demonstrates how information practices can overcome social inequalities and how digital entrepreneurs balance information overload with serendipitous information encounters.

Analysis of Professor Marcella's recent publications reveals several key trends in her scholarly work. There is a clear progression from traditional information behavior studies toward more specialized contexts like political communication, digital entrepreneurship, and cross-cultural information practices. Her work increasingly focuses on marginalized groups (women entrepreneurs, immigrants, youth voters) and how they navigate information landscapes. The geographic scope has expanded from primarily UK-focused studies to include significant work in Nigeria and other developing contexts. Methodologically, her research maintains a strong qualitative foundation while incorporating innovative approaches to studying information behavior in digital environments.

• Fellow of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals)
• Fellow of MCI (Management Consultancies Institute)

Professor Marcella has supervised numerous doctoral students across diverse research areas. Her students have explored topics ranging from information behavior of Nigerian digital entrepreneurs to project management competency in the oil and gas sector, political media genderization, and organizational learning. She has successfully guided students through the completion of their PhD and DBA degrees, with many of these theses published in 2022-2025. Her supervisory approach appears to encourage research that addresses real-world problems while making theoretical contributions to information science and related fields.