Dr Kati Porrino is a Lecturer in Business and Marketing at Edge Hill University, where she is a Module Leader and Enterprise and Start-up Coordinator in the Business School.

She holds an MBA and a PhD in business from Edge Hill University where she attained a doctoral studentship in 2021 to explore gender and identity construction in digital spaces. Later she completed a Postgraduate Research Fellowship at the Productivity and Innovation Centre investigating barriers to innovation in SMEs.

She brings to her academic career a wealth of previous professional experience from the not for profit sector as a Senior Investigation Officer in alternative dispute resolution. Responsible for complex cases, providing technical support, and ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks. These professional insights deepened her understanding of organisational processes and accountability and complement her academic expertise. 

Her ongoing research focuses on barriers to front-end innovation in SMEs with particular attention to how routinised capabilities can be cultivated and applied to overcome challenges to enable sustainable innovation. She also conducts research on the role and impact of social media on gender and identity construction, examined through the lens of existential phenomenology to illuminate how digital interactions and lived experience intersect in processes of identity consumption and formation. She has presented at multiple conferences in both areas of research, and taken together these strands reflect a broader commitment to understanding both organisational practices and individual meaning-making in complex and evolving contexts.

Kati has several years teaching experience as an Associate Tutor and Graduate Teaching Assistant, contributing to a wide range of teaching and learning activities across both undergraduate and executive education programmes. She also assumes programme leadership roles on BUS3079 Enterprise Management and BUS2038 Customer Relationship Management and Loyalty Generation, where she is responsible for coordinating curriculum delivery and enhancing the student learning experience.