Alain Osta

Job Title / Responsibilities

Alain Osta is an Assistant professor of Management at Université La Sagesse. He holds a PhD in Business Administration, from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and a BA in Business Administration & Master of Research in Business Management, from Saint Joseph University (USJ), Lebanon. He is the Chair of the Management Department and the director of the Entrepreneurship Center (Pôle de l’Université La Sagesse pour l’Entrepreneuriat PULSE). Dr. Osta is a member of the Development Economics Research Connect (DEV-Connect). He has several publications in different fields such as artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, Organization change and development in higher education., etc. He supervises several master’s and doctoral theses and leads multiple European projects.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Business Administration, from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. (2022)
• Master of Research in Business Management, from Saint Joseph University (USJ), Lebanon (2010)
• Team player, people oriented, critical thinking, analytical mind, self-motivated

Professional Experience

Project coordinator

Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon

2010-2017

• Coordinate the budgeting process and develop a budgeting culture in the University; Global budget up to 80 million US
• Dollars (70% of the budget is related to HR expenses).
• Define the structure of the system and the outline of the procedure with the CFO and five campuses including more than
• 70 institutions (Faculties, laboratories, research, and professional centers etc.).
• Test the operation of the procedure over 1 year and monitor its progress.
• Coordinate between the budgeting committee and the directors during the process of the budget preparation.
• Track, report and solved issues concerning budget control.
• Ensure compliance with deadlines.
• Lead efforts to identify cost savings opportunities up to 20%.

Payroll coordinator,

Saint Joseph University – Beirut Lebanon

2009-2010

• Ensure the timely payment of the salaries for 2,500 employees and instructors.
• Monitor and control overtime and annual leaves of the administrative staff and the teaching staff.
• Reduce 10% of direct HR expenses by creating new procedures to control financial support for employees and instructors.
• Create a dashboard for business analysis of the Key performance indicators (KPI).

Quality Management controller

BLC Bank – Beirut Lebanon

2014-2017

• Ensure that the objectives of the organization are linked to clients’ needs and expectations.
• Apply quality management in 44 branches and reducing costs by 10% of branches budget.
• Track and report issues concerning different procedures.

Sales representative

Paravision – Beirut Lebanon

2006

• Maintain and develop client relationship through meetings, phone calls and emails.
• Gather information concerning the Lebanese market and the potential clients.

Teaching interests

• Strategic Management
• International Business
• Entrepreneurship

Research interests

• AI Implementation/ Trust
• Entrepreneurship and social impact
• Organization changes and development
• AI in Business, Education, and Healthcare
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Smart Cities

Publications

Articles:

• Sayegh, M., Rouhanna, R., Osta, A., & Haddad, Z. (2025). Exploring Student Intentions to Use Generative AI in Lebanese Higher Education: An EVT and TPB Perspective, Cogent Education, Taylor and Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2025.2541082
• Osta, A., & Chedrawi, C. (2020). CSR in the Lebanese banking sector: A neo-institutional approach to stakeholders’ legitimacy. Journal of Asia Business Studies, 14(2), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-03-2018-0093
• Osta, A. (2018). Organization change and development in higher education: A neo-institutional approach of accreditation—The case of a Lebanese business school. Management and Business Research Quarterly, 5, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.32038/mbrq.2018.01.001

 

Chapters in books:

• A Systematic Literature Review on Developing Job Profiles and Training Content for Open Data-Driven Smart Cities” – (eds) Information Systems. EMCIS 2023. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 502. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56481-9_22
• Online Health Communities: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Conversational Agents on Users”, Conference paper, EMCIS2021 Conference DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-95947-0_35.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-95947-0_35

• Osta, A., Kokkinaki, A., & Chedrawi, C. (2024). The impact of trust in artificial intelligence chatbots on user behavior: A sociomaterial perspective in online health communities. (pp. 205-219). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65782-5_14

 

Working Papers / Blogs

• Osta, A., Hallo, L., & de Sousa Machado, T. (2025). From crisis to opportunity: How AI can support entrepreneurial ventures in Lebanon’s challenging business environment. British Academy of Management (BAM 2025). [Under review].

Grants and Projects

• Osta, A., & Haddad, Z. (2025). WP2 Social entrepreneurship in time of crisis – Lebanon preliminary data – Needs assessment for SE.TC (Project number: 101126945). (Report). https://www.setc-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/WP2-Report-for-public.pdf

 

• Best paper Award “Collaborative Planning of AI chatbots in Online Health Communities”, International Conference on Advancing Sustainable Futures (ICASF 2023), Abu Dhabi University.

https://icasf.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ICASF-2023-_-Agenda.pdf.

Community Services

• Project coordinator and trainer for ERASMUS Program PEPPY project in Cyprus 2020-2022.
• Research assistant for Program DevOps project with ERASMUS at University of Nicosia, Cyprus (2020-2022)