Prof Chetty, a professor of marketing at Massey University's Albany campus, has been researching the growth and internationalisation of small and medium-size enterprises in New Zealand and elsewhere for more than 20 years.
She is also a research associate at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Prof Chetty will take up the Dunedin City Council Chair in Entrepreneurship in August, succeeding the inaugural appointee, Prof Brendan Gray.
He is returning to the Otago Department of Marketing after completing a five-year term.
Prof Chetty was delighted with her new role, and aimed to consolidate her research, teaching and international research links to develop "a world-class hub for entrepreneurship research".
The professorial chair was made possible by a $1 million endowment to Otago University by the city council, which had attracted matching Government funding.
Otago vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne said Prof Chetty's academic leadership would enhance the university's contribution to regional and national business development.
Prof Chetty has a PhD in business administration from Canterbury University (1994) and has worked in Iran and South Africa as well as at Canterbury University and Victoria University of Wellington.
In 2009, she and Otago co-author Prof Colin Campbell-Hunt won the American Marketing Association's prestigious Hans B. Thorelli Award.
This was for a 2004 article published in the Journal of International Marketing that has made the most significant and long-term contribution to international marketing theory.
Otago Business School dean Prof George Benwell said the school's master of entrepreneurship, offered in Dunedin and Queenstown, was producing vibrant young business leaders.