Dr Ioana Jipa-Muşat is a political economist working on economic transformation and institutional change in Central Eastern Europe, especially in relation to processes of development, labour regimes and migration. She brings interdisciplinary expertise spanning Development Studies, International Political Economy, Critical Management Studies, Economic Geography, and the study of Central and Eastern Europe.

Ioana joined Royal Holloway University of London in 2023 as a Lecturer in International Business and Strategy. She holds a PhD (2015-2020) in Business Management (with a focus on comparative political economy, international business and business history) from Queen Mary University of London. Previously, Ioana was a Postdoctoral Researcher (Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Global Governance and International Labour Migration, project ‘Unpacking the Global Governance of Migration’, 2022-2023) and Teaching Fellow (2020-2023) at Queen Mary University of London.

Ioana's research deals with the political economy and industrial organisation of businesses (or firms) in coal mining, automotives and business services with a particular emphasis on Central Eastern Europe and Romania. This scholarship bridges development studies, economic geography and business history.

She has recently developed an interest in the relationship between global crises and the changing dynamics of international labour migration and their effects on business models and global systems of production. As human mobility and multiple crises have become intrinsic features of the global political economy, governing migration patterns and labour markets has become an urgent question for states, international organisations, civil society actors and scholars. Ioana's work aims to deconstruct conjunctural factors and explore this phenomenon through diverse agency positions, employment practices and business models. Ioana has carried out a research project on the position of international organisations with a set of interviews with senior experts at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and global trade unions (such as BWI, PSI and ITUC). This research is original because it arrives at a more nuanced assessment of precarity by interrogating temporary labour migration schemes through a sectoral lens. Using the data from the project, Ioana is currently developing an ESRC grant application based on a larger interdisciplinary research team with colleagues from RHUL and other international colleagues. 

Ioana is a member of the Centre for Critical and Historical Research on Organisation and Society (CHRONOS, RHUL) and the Centre on Labour, Sustainability and Global Production (CLaSP, Queen Mary University of London).

Ioana's work has appeared in leading journals, such as Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space; European Urban and Regional Studies; Journal of Economic Geography; and Development and Change.

PhD/Doctoral Supervision

Ioana particularly welcomes prospective doctoral researchers whose work engages with the following (or related) themes:

• Labour regimes and global productionnetworks/global value chains

• Divisions of labour, value capture, globalisation and management

• The political economy of energy transitions in the global North and South

• Business politics and multinational corporations

• Histories of international political economy

• Histories of labour, production and trade politics

• The transition to capitalism

• Workplace conflict, class composition, political organisation and capitalist restructuring in post-war Europe

• Migration and development

• Neoliberalism and post-neoliberal policy agendas

She is especially interested in supervising applicants with backgrounds in Political Economy, Economic Geography, Development Studies, Critical Management/International Business, Political Sociology, or Economic History.

Ioana holds a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2023) in Global Governance and International Labour Migration from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, School of Law), a PhD in Business Management (2020) from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, School of Business Management), an MSc in International Management (2014) from King’s College London (Distinction), a BA Hons in Business Management (2013) from Sheffield Hallam University (First Class Honours).

Ioana has taught a variety of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These include global political economy, global supply chains, multinationals and global business, European business, business and society, corporate governance, firm strategy, start-ups and incubators, new product development and business ecosystems, business ethics, corporations and social responsibility, and social and political marketing, and persuasive strategies in marketing. 

Modules taught since joining RHUL:

MN2165 The Global Economy (Module Lead)

MN2625 Entrepreneurship Origins and Development  (Module Co-Lead)

MN3616K Entrepreneurship Theory and History (Module Lead)

MN2166K Global Economy (Module Lead)

MN3915 Responsible Business in Context (Workshop Coordinator)

She achieved Advance HE Fellowship in 2024 through the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) programme at the Queen Mary Academy, Queen Mary University of London (Distinction). Fellowship reference: PR296301, date of Fellowship: 30/07/2024.

Internal Positions of Responsibility and Citizenship

2023-present     Lead of Strategy, International Business and Entrepreneurship Research Seminar Series, Business School, Royal Holloway University of London

2023-present     Lead of Strategy, International Business and Entrepreneurship Social Media Platforms, Business School, Royal Holloway University of London

2023-present     UCU Representative and Case Worker, University and College Union, Royal Holloway University of London