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Staff members with discipline Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

Academia develops at the interface of different fields. This is one reason why the University of Groningen is home to a wide range of fields, each with a great number of subject specialists. The overview below, which is based on a standard categorization of fields, will help you find the right expert for each field. If you cannot find the expert you are looking for in this list, try searching via a related field or faculty; you may find him or her there.

Overview of all disciplines

Branding, Marketing Communication, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Planning, Marketing for care organizations
dr. K.J. (Karel Jan) Alsem
Contact
k.j.alsem rug.nl
+31 50 36 33686
Function
Lecturer
Corporate entrepreneurship / Intrapreneurship / Corporate venturing
Entrepreneurship in healthcare & medical field / Orphan drug ventures
O. (Olga) Belousova, Dr
Contact
o.belousova rug.nl
Function
Assistant professor
A.H. (André) Bergsma, MSc
Contact
andre.bergsma rug.nl
Function
Lecturer
Small Business Management & Entrepreneurship
Franchise
dr. M.J. (Maryse) Brand
Contact
m.j.brand rug.nl
+31 50 36 37492
Function
Associate Professor
Entrepreneurial cognition Entrepreneurial affect and wellbeing Entrepreneurial learning
S.M. (Sílvia) Dos Santos Fernandes Costa, PhD
Contact
s.m.costa rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
Researching for business sustainability in the areas of Dynamic Capabilities, Strategic Management, and Business Models
E.M. (Eric) Fath-Kolmes
Contact
e.m.fath-kolmes rug.nl
Function
PhD student
How can entrepreneurs and business contribute to solving complex social problems? The answer to this question becomes more pressing in a world where existing solutions are not delivering enough impact. Traditionally, we have looked at governments, charities and NGO’s to contribute solutions to problems such as poverty, unemployment, climate change and inequalities in education and healthcare. More recently however, the practice of taking a business approach to solving these social problems has become more widespread. The phenomenon of social and sustainable entrepreneurship is on the rise, and we need to understand under what circumstances these entrepreneurs can emerge, thrive and be the most successful.

Social enterprises can engage in innovation to shed light on grand challenges that are often too complex to be solved by a single agent or government. Because social enterprises oftentimes emerge from and are embedded in local communities, they have a unique understanding of how grand challenges manifest locally. This enables them to come up with innovative processes, products or services to create social impact. With my research, teaching and collaborative projects I try to make a contribution to learning more about social enterprises and entrepreneurship.

Research
My research has the aim to understand under what conditions social entrepreneurship can thrive, how social entrepreneurs deal with organizational challenges and how they create social impact on a community level. My main lines of research are the following:
1)Comparative (social) entrepreneurship; comparing institutional conditions across spatial contexts to asses why (social) entrepreneurs emerge and thrive in certain locations.
2) Collective and community entrepreneurship
3) Sustainable entrepreneurship education

Example research projects in line no. 1:
-A model of solidarity and social entrepreneurship: how do different forms of solidarity in the population i.e. informal, religious and welfare state solidarity influence regional social entrepreneurship rates? https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2017.217.
-Listening to the Buzz: Firm Creation and Regional Relational Structures as Reflected by Social Media: using Twitter data to tell us something about the innovative milieu of regions and the connection to local entrepreneurship rates: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.206 (project funded by the British Academy / Leverhulme foundation).

Example research projects in line no. 2:
-Social entrepreneurship at the grid edge: how do urban energy communities discover and implement opportunities for the purpose of energy demand reduction? Also, how can these energy communities generate social benefits beyond energy demand reduction? https://www.creds.ac.uk/social-entrepreneurship-at-the-grid-edge/. This project is funded by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS).
-Social entrepreneurship and place-based change: qualitative research using in-depth interviews with social entrepreneurs who are aiming to reduce inequality in their communities. Purpose of the research is to unpack the change mechanisms that social entrepreneurs use.

Example research project in line no. 3:
Teaching entrepreneurship for sustainability (TES): Erasmus+ funded project on integrating entrepreneurship and sustainability teaching focused on developing a new teaching module. Collaboration with Uppsala (Sweden) and Nord University (Norway).

Teaching
In my teaching I try to create an inclusive learning environment where students’ prior knowledge and capabilities are valued and valuable. By including international and Dutch case studies in my teaching, students are able to connect academic insights to practical examples. The three main courses that I teach are all embedded in the MSc Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Campus Fryslân: Sustainable Organisation: what drives organisations to act sustainably, and how are they different from enterprises? Sustainable Performance: how can we know the social and sustainable impact that sustainable organisations (claim to) make? Research Methods: learning about research design and answering research questions.

Engagement
Rigorous and foundational scientific research into sustainability issues in a broad sense is hugely important, while at the same time we need to spend time talking to entrepreneurs, business and civic leaders to learn about the questions that we need to find solutions for and co-create new knowledge.I participate in thematic events around social entrepreneurship, as a speaker or co-organiser. At the moment I am involved in a collaboration with StichtingVerbindMij to organize a series of events for vulnerable young adults and children around the Sustainable Development Goals – creating awareness and knowledge that might guide them on their way to new careers. The series is planned for the end of 2020 and spring 2021. Follow the progress of this project on Instagram https://instagram.com/conn.act_
dr. E.C. (Emma) Folmer
Contact
e.c.folmer rug.nl
Function
Assistant professor sustainable entrepreneurship
dr. A.J. (Arjan) Frederiks
Contact
a.j.frederiks rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
Chronobiology: the phyiology of time, societal aspects

The conection between science and business and policy related questions

Interactions between scientific and other knowledge systems
prof. dr. M.P. (Menno P.) Gerkema
Contact
m.p.gerkema rug.nl
+31 50 36 32027
Function
Professor emeritus
Social entrepreneurship
V. (Valerija) Golubic, MSc
Contact
v.golubic rug.nl
Function
PhD student
A. (Alessandro) Grillini
Contact
a.grillini rug.nl
Function
Managing Director, Reperio B.V.
research, teaching and support of development of new innovative business in existing and new firms in international and /or in technological context. Technology based entrepreneurship, technology management, and innovation management: entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, network theory and social system theory, quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques of social science.
prof. dr. A.J. (Aard) Groen
Contact
a.j.groen rug.nl
+31 50 36 33830
Function
Professor of entrepreneurship & valorization
Insolventierecht
W.M.H. (Winand) Grooten
Contact
w.m.h.grooten rug.nl
+31 50 36 34111
Function
Teacher
Sustainable Entrepreneurship
J. (Jens) Kaus, MA
Contact
j.kaus rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Regional Economic Development and Entrepreneurship
Regional Labour Markets and Skills
Regional Socio-economic Disparities
prof. dr. S. (Sierdjan) Koster
Contact
sierdjan.koster rug.nl
+31 50 36 34551
Function
Adjunct Professor in Economic Geography and Labour Market Dynamics
I. (Inna) Kozlinska, PhD
Contact
i.kozlinska rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
F.M. (Freya) Liemburg, MSc
Contact
freya.liemburg rug.nl
Function
Managing Director Customer Insights Center & lecturer & entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Education
No picture available
Contact
j.loef rug.nl
Function
PhD student
the economics of happiness; broad well-being; economics of transition; entrepreneurship 
prof. dr. M.V. (Milena) Nikolova
Contact
m.v.nikolova rug.nl
Function
Aletta Jacobs Professor of the Economics of Well-being/Rosalind Franklin Fellow
Interest in healthcare innovation (research)
A.M. (Aniek) Ouendag, MSc
Contact
a.m.ouendag rug.nl
Function
Impact Officer - Entrepreneurship
Project management; cross-cultural innovation management
I am interested in relationships around entrepreneurs, be they personal relationships that provide the enterpreneur with support, or startups' relationships with stakeholders, and how these make it possible for small businesses to thrive. Because these relationships are key in shaping the ecosystem, I am interested in both the social mechanisms that make it possible for individuals to thrive, as well as mechanisms that shape the interpersonal makeup of a particular ecosystem's structure.  
S.R. (Sean) White, PhD
Contact
s.r.white rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship

Institutional and regional determinants of entrepreneurship & innovation

Entrepreneurship & Well-being

Regional Development
M. (Michael) Wyrwich, Dr
Contact
m.wyrwich rug.nl
Function
Associate Professor
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