Olga Novikova is an entrepreneur, published researcher and business strategist.
She holds a Doctor of Science degree in Economics and Business Administration from Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, where she is currently a postdoctoral researcher. Her research focuses on business models, platforms, organisational transformation and how companies turn innovation into commercial growth. In 2014, she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University through the SCANCOR programme.
Olga has published research on business model transformation, the sharing economy and platform-based businesses. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Models, Technology Innovation Management Review and an academic volume published by Springer. Her doctoral dissertation, To Share or Not to Share? (2025), comprises four single-authored research articles examining business models and the practices of the sharing economy. Her forthcoming research explores distributed business models and collective entrepreneurship in rural communities.
Alongside her academic career, Olga has co-founded and helped develop companies in media, hospitality and mobility. She co-founded Good TV Inc., a New York-based media production company, in 2015 and Posi TV, an independent Finnish media company, in 2019. She was also a founding member of Yövy.fi, a hospitality venture that grew to €1.8 million in turnover before its business operations were sold in 2019.
Earlier, she served as a board member and business strategy adviser at o2 media, a company combining car-sharing with data-driven outdoor advertising. Her professional experience also includes project coordination in Shenzhen, China, and research work in Germany and Finland.
Olga grew up surrounded by books. Her father, a medical researcher and microbiologist, spent about a decade as editor-in-chief at a publishing house specialising in medical literature. Her mother, a librarian by education, worked at a major publishing house whose catalogue included fiction, children's books and works by local and international authors. Olga herself began keeping a diary as a child and has been writing ever since.
Having seen the publishing world up close, she has long wondered how many wonderful books remain unread because their authors struggle to find readers. BookCast brings together her lifelong interest in books and storytelling with her experience in entrepreneurship and business model development. At BookCast, she focuses on building a scalable platform that helps authors bring their stories to new audiences through video, audio and multiple languages.
Olga holds degrees from universities in Russia, Germany and Finland, and has studied and worked across Europe, the United States and Asia. She speaks Russian, English, German and Finnish. While most of her writing today is academic, she has several book ideas and fiction drafts of her own tucked away — and intends to be among the first authors to put BookCast to the test.
Selected publications
- Novikova, O. (2026). Towards an Understanding of Distributed Business Models in Rural Grassroots Initiatives: Peer Coordination and Collective Effectuation. Journal of Business Models, 1-11.
- Novikova, O. (2025). To Share or Not to Share? Essays on Business Model Transformation, Ubuntu and the Practices of the Sharing Economy. Doctoral dissertation, Hanken School of Economics.
- Novikova, O. (2021). Business Model Transformation of a Service Provider on a Sharing Economy Platform. Journal of Business Models, 9(1), 35–42.
- Novikova, O. (2021). The Sharing Economy in the African Context: Implications for the Hospitality Industry. In New Frontiers in Hospitality and Tourism Management in Africa. Springer.
- Novikova, O. (2017). The Sharing Economy and the Future of Personal Mobility: New Models Based on Car Sharing. Technology Innovation Management Review, 7(8), 27–31.
What she brings to BookCast
- Business model expertise: doctorate and published research on business model transformation, platforms and value creation
- Proven entrepreneur: co-founded media companies in Finland and the United States and helped establish a hospitality business that reached €1.8M in turnover
- Strategy and growth: experience developing businesses across media, hospitality and mobility, supported by research on commercialisation and organisational transformation
- Research and publishing: author of peer-reviewed journal articles, an academic book chapter and a doctoral dissertation comprising four single-authored research articles
- Customer understanding: expertise in qualitative research, customer practices and how businesses create value for different stakeholders
- Publishing roots: lifelong connection to books and writing, with both parents having worked in book publishing
- International markets: fluent in English, German, Finnish and Russian, with professional and academic experience across Europe, North America and Asia
