Inna Melnykovska
Associate Professor
Primary research areas
Business, geoeconomics and security
Business and societal resilience
Corporate agency and institutional change
European integration and enlargement
Ukraine and CEE: lessons under pressure
I study how geopolitics and geoeconomics reshape business, states and society
My research
- Makes sense of how geopolitical disruption reshapes business, states and societies
- Draws lessons from Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe for resilience and democracy elsewhere
- Links corporate behaviour to institutional change and European integration
My research asks what happens to capitalism when economic activity becomes a matter of security. I study how war, geopolitical rivalry, economic coercion and major crises reshape relations between businesses, states and societies, and when firms take on responsibilities for defence, preparedness, essential services and societal resilience.
I am particularly interested in how these pressures reshape corporate interests and institutions, and how firms both respond to political institutions and participate in changing them. This connects my work on business and political economy to European integration and enlargement.
Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe are central to this agenda. I study them not only as regions of expertise, but as settings where adaptation under extreme pressure is especially visible—and where lessons about democratic resilience, institutional change and business responsibility can inform other democracies and political economies in Europe and beyond.