Joe Schembri is a researcher, trainer and advisor in International Business and Economic Development. He has a PHD from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow with a dissertation on how knowledge-intensive firms develop international opportunities. Joe worked in strategy, policy and international business development in the public sector prior to joining academia and founded a training company prior to that.
Following a first degree from the University of Malta, Joe set up a specialised training company. Two years later he joined the private secretariat of a senior Minister and acted as policy coordinator on economic affairs such as privatisation, public entity restructuring, information technology and the economic development of sectors such as maritime and aviation. In 2011 Joe joined Malta Enterprise as a Chief Officer responsible for trade and investment and moved to TradeMalta when this Private Public Partnership was set up in 2015. At TradeMalta Joe was involved in strategy and quality, as well as EU-funded programmes. During his time at Malta Enterprise and TradeMalta, Joe attended courses in cluster economics organised by the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence.
At the University of Glasgow, Joe worked with Prof Pavlos Dimitratos, Prof Trevor Buck and Dr Margaret Fletcher on a dissertation which used multiple case studies to investigate the internationalisation trajectories of knowledge intensive firms based in Malta. The longitudinal research used established theories in International Business and International Entrepreneurship to understand their opportunity development process, including the role of organisational structure and routines. During the doctoral process, Joe’s work has won an award for ‘The most original new work’ from the Academy of International Business (UK & Ireland). Joe’s research has been published in the International Business Review. He has been teaching and supervising students at the University of Malta for the last 4 years. In 2020 Joe joined the University of Malta as a resident academic within the Faculty for Economics, Management and Accountancy.
