Dmitrij Slepniov is an Associate Professor at Aalborg University Business School, the Danish-side Head of the Educational Programme in Innovation Management at the Sino-Danish Center (SDC), and Head of the International Business Research Group at Aalborg University Business School, Denmark. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Aalborg University. Prior to starting his academic career, he held a position at the Lithuanian Confederation of Industries, fulfilling an analytical role as an economist and later as the Deputy Director of the Economics and Finance department. His current teaching and research work focus on global operations and innovation, global value chains, upgrading of emerging market firms, servitization and service design. His latest publications in these areas appeared in a number of academic journals, including Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management. His international experience includes teaching and research programs in close collaboration with industry in Denmark, Lithuania, Japan, S. Korea and China.