Professor Omar AL-Tabbaa

Profile

Omar Al-Tabbaa, a Professor in International Business (IB) and strategy, currently serves as the Director of Research and Innovation. Before his tenure at Leeds, he held senior lecturer positions at the University of Kent, University of Huddersfield, and the University of Roehampton London. Beyond academia, Prof. Al-Tabbaa founded and led the first technology business incubator in Palestine (a project funded by the World Bank), and has also worked as a project manager in the construction industry for +7 years.

Prof. Al-Tabbaa, is a distinguished researcher in the fields of Strategy, IB, and Research Methods, where he published over 90 academic papers, chapters, invited case studies, and industrial reports. His research spans a wide array of topics, including digitalization, strategic alliances, digital platforms, global value chains, business model innovation, SMEs, co-innovation, university-industry collaboration, technology transfer, systematic literature reviews, and social partnerships. His scholarly contributions have been featured in prestigious journals, including Research Policy, Global Strategy Journal, J. of the Association for Information systems, J. of Product Innovation Management, British J. of Management, among others.

Prof. Al-Tabbaa is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Research, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and Article Editor for the Sage Open journal. He also guest-edited several Special Issues, including in the International Business Review and Management International Review journals.

Reflecting his research's quality, impact, and innovation, Prof. Al-Tabbaa has an impressive record in citations and reads. By 2026, he has +5200 citations on Google Scholar and +115,000 reads on Reseachgate. In addition, his publications have received various accolades and awards, including five Wiley's top-cited papers, three Best Paper awards from The British Academy of Management, Best Thesis Award (University of Leeds), and the Emerald Awards for Research Excellence.

He has several achievements in securing external funds. To date, his research and enterprise activities have been supported by grants from both industries and research institutions (including Uni. of Leeds; Erasmus Plus; Uni. of Kent, European Subsea Cables Association, Project Management Institute, and World Bank-InfoDev program) totaling more than £1.0 million.

Responsibilities

• Director of Research and Innovation

Research interests

Prof. Al-Tabbaa’s research activities address the area of strategy and international business. Specifically, his current research explores three broad themes: 1) digitalization strategy for competitiveness and globalization; 2) the dynamics of inter-organizational relationships, and 3) the dynamics of business model innovation.

Under the first theme, he investigates the role of digital technologies and smart technologies in driving firms’ internationalization strategy and performance. Within the second theme, he studies the collaborative mechanisms between organizations in different settings, including alliance management capabilities, co-internationalizing and co-innovation (with a focus on SMEs), technology transfer, and social alliance for public value creation. In the third theme, he examines how firms can develop their business models to create economic and social value in the developing economies domain. Part of his interest in this theme focuses on the SMEs digital platform ecosystem and dynamics.

Qualifications

• PhD Management and Economics - University of Leeds
• Master of Science (MSc) Management - University of Leeds
• Master of Science (MSc) Construction Management - IUG
• B.Sc. (Hons.) Engineering - University of Jordan
• The University of Leeds Teaching Award – (ULTA- 2)

Professional memberships

• Fellow of Higher Education Academy (HEA), UK

Student education

Prof. Al-Tabbaa teaches International Strategic Management and Global Value Chains topics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In his teaching, he uses simulation-based experiential learning as an innovative pedagogical approach to enhance students’ engagement, applied understanding, and overall learning experience.

Prof. Al-Tabbaa has extensive experience and developed an in-depth understanding of the Ph.D. process and its requirements. He has been recognized as a qualified Supervisory Chair by the University of Kent in 2018. He also participated in the development of the Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods (PGCRM) program at the University of Huddersfield and was a member of the PGCRM program committee.

Prof. Al-Tabbaa supervises/has supervised several Ph.D. students from start to completion as the primary supervisor. He currently accepts new Ph.D. students in any of his research areas.

Completed (from start to finish):
(2025): Dr. Y. Kassahun: University-industry collaboration in developing economies
(2024): Dr. A. Hayary: Collaborative business model innovation
(2023): Dr. S. Miri-Dashe: Business model innovation in renewable energy SMEs
(2022): Dr. M. Snell: Solar energy social enterprises in the informal economies
(2022): Dr. S. Odat: Digital platforms and innovating SMEs business model
(2021): Dr. M. Koghut: Blockchain technology in Inter-organizational trust formation
(2019): Dr. A. Nasr: Alliance capability in family businesses in the unstable economy
(2017): Dr. N. Zahoor: Strategic alliance, internationalization, and co-innovation

Current Students:
Mohammad Mobarak Hossain
Xiaoyin Na
Yue Wu
Ahmed Alkarriri
Sina Tofigh Nia

Prof. Al-Tabbaa has examined several PhD students both nationally and internationally, including:
(2026): Dr. H. Siddiqui (Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee – India)
(2025): Dr. S. Smith (University of Sheffield)
(2025): Dr. H. Alqam (Sultan Qaboos University – Oman)
(2023): Dr. I. Al-Ghraify (University of Sheffield)
(2023): Dr. M. Giehrl (Birkbeck, University of London)
(2022): Dr. O. Germin (National Institute of Education – Singapore)
(2022): Dr. S. Nsanzumuhir (Maastricht University – the Netherlands)
(2021): Dr. C. Theodoraki (University of Kent)
(2020): Dr. N. AlShawaaf (University of Kent)
(2017): Dr. K. Oh (University of Huddersfield)

Current postgraduate researchers

• Mohammad Mobarak Hossain
• Xiaoyin Na