Valentina Ndou

Valentina Ndou is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Salento, specializing in Economic-Management Engineering (ING-IND/35). She serves as a full-time researcher in the Department of Innovation Engineering, with office locations at the Ecotekne Center and the Innovative Business Culture Center at the "Aldo Romano" Building in Lecce-Monteroni.

Her research program focuses on innovation and its impact on organizational models across various sectors, with particular emphasis on technology entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and smart tourism development. Dr. Ndou's interdisciplinary work spans business model innovation, collaborative processes in digital environments, and the application of big data analytics to tourism management. She has developed significant expertise in digital tourism, having served as Project Manager for the Interreg IPA Cbc Italy-Albania-Montenegro funded project "NEST - Networking for smart tourism development" since May 2018.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals strong thematic consistency across business innovation, digital transformation, and tourism management. Her work frequently intersects with sustainability, intellectual capital, and entrepreneurship education, demonstrating how digital technologies reshape traditional business models in tourism and other sectors. The publications showcase methodological diversity, including literature reviews, case studies, and empirical analyses of big data applications.

Dr. Ndou actively contributes to international research collaboration, working with institutional partners in Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. She serves on Technical Committees of international conferences and as a reviewer for multiple international journals. Her teaching portfolio includes Project Management for the Master's Degree in Management Engineering and Advanced Project Management for the International Master's Degree in Digital Humanities at the University of Salento.

Her research activities are supported through national and European projects, with particular focus on innovation ecosystems and digital transformation in tourism contexts. Dr. Ndou maintains strong connections with business incubators, including the Euro-Mediterranean Incubator where she has office space, facilitating knowledge transfer between academic research and entrepreneurial practice.