Harry Barkema

Professor Harry G. Barkema has initiated and is involved in a range of research programs in broadly two domains: 1) how entrepreneurs, including social entrepreneurs, in emerging economies, become successful over time, unravelling the key role of learning, social networks, ecosystems and incubators, in projects in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa; 2) how employees in large organisations, such as female teachers, shape their work in meaningful ways; what enables them to do so, and how and when it increases their organisation’s social impact, in projects in India and Bangladesh. We also develop new, more valid measures of social impact. Firstly, we conduct qualitative research to enable the development of new theory that is valid in a local context, next we complete rigorous econometric testing (rather than ‘impose Northern theory on Southern settings’).