UEA

I joined Norwich Business School in 2009 as a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management and was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in 2011. I moved from the University of Edinburgh Business School where I had held the prestigious five-year George David Research Fellowship in family business and social change. Prior to this fellowship, I conducted EU-funded research on the territorial impact of the CAP and Rural Development Policy (ESPON Project 2.1.3) and the role of rural entrepreneurship in responding to employment problems in Cumbria, England (FERP Project). My academic background is interdisciplinary and includes a PhD in Socio-Economics from the University of Manchester, an MSc in Agricultural Development and Rural Finance from the University of Bradford and a BA in Sociology from Panteion University (Athens, Greece).

Current research interests focus on rural, family and institutional entrepreneurship issues. My research approach is under the influence of economic sociology and integrates the broader forces for change with the responses of actors and businesses set in their particular local and regional contexts. I am currently leading a 30-month ESRC grant that explores patron-client relationships and performance in Scottish family businesses (www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre). I also hold an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh Business School. In this manner, research in the area of family entrepreneurship is being pursued through participation in an international research consortium (www.STEPProject.org) that is the first global study of transgenerational entrepreneurial processes in family businesses. I am particularly interested in receiving applications from prospective PhD students in the areas of entrepreneurship and business relationships.