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I don't have a problem with expanding a novella or short story into a novel. It can definitely work. For example, Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" was originally a short story published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, and he expanded that into an incredible novel, plus followed it up with additional books. There are no doubt other examples to choose from. However, just because you can, doesn't mean you should, and I imagine that not all leaps from short story/novella to novel are as successful as Ender's Game.
I would suggest that you start with a simple question that may be difficult to answer: What is there that you are left wondering about at the end of the story? Perhaps you're left wondering about events before what's depicted. It could be that the story starts in the wrong place, and should have started earlier in order to cover several events that define your characters and heighten the conflict more, or explain/expand the plot arcs better. Perhaps you've reached the end, and you're left wondering more and more about a particular character: how they got there, who are they, what's their history. You may discover you're telling the wrong story, and you should be focusing on a different character because you're asking more questions about them than anyone else. Perhaps you're wondering more and more about the setting, or the relationships between the various characters ... it could be anything, but the main point is that you think there's something fundamentally missing that needs to be told.
In the case of the Ender's Game short story, it essentially covers what's the core basis for the ending of the first book (although obviously it's different since in writing the novel, OSC changed a lot). How much more meaningful is that ending once we've lived and breathed Ender's life until that point! The relationship with his brother and sister, the friends and foes he meets, the terrible inner struggle he faces. Clearly, even though the short story stood on its own, the character of Ender deserved to be explored, and with it, all the events, relationships, trials and tribulations that lead him up until that final point.
Not every novella or short story should be expanded, and can stand on their own. My advice is to read the story afresh, or give it to a few others to reread, and see what questions are in the back of your mind. It could be questions about the setting, the characters, the plot. Try identify what's missing, or left you wondering, and focus on that. If you're not wondering what's missing, or asking questions about characters and their past, then it would suggest that there's nothing more that needs to be added, in which case, consider editing and whittling your work instead.
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