While SIRLab is based in Toronto, Canada, it’s network of experts are located throughout the world. SIRLab’s team of experts consists of management scholars with distinct areas of academic focus, but who all share a passion for poverty alleviation. Below is a current listing of SIRLab’s leadership and expert scholars (listed alphabetically).
DIRECTOR:
Geoffrey M. Kistruck
Dr. Kistruck currently serves as Associate Professor and Ron Binns Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business, York University in Canada. He obtained his PhD from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Kistruck served in a number of managerial positions within the venture capital and financial services industry. Having conducted poverty-related research in over 30 countries, Dr. Kistruck is widely considered one of the leaders in his field. His research has been published in top management journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Management Studies, & the Journal of Management.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS:
Angelique Slade Shantz
Angelique is an Assistant Professor at the Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta. Her research interests lie at the intersection of entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation, and her methodological approach relies heavily on experimental design complemented by qualitative data. Her dissertation research explores the institutional and cognitive barriers to entrepreneurial innovation in contexts of resource scarcity, and is funded by a SSHRC doctoral award. She is also the Associate Director of the Social Innovation Research Lab (SIRLab), where she oversees the lab’s portfolio of field experiments in Ghana. Prior to entering academia, Angelique worked in the field of social entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation, both internationally and in the context of Canada’s First Nations.
Brian Bergman, Jr.
Brian is a PhD student in Entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University (Bloomingt0n). Prior to joining IU, he served as Assistant Director of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University (Ohio). His research interests include social entrepreneurship, informal economies, economic and social development, social incubators/accelerators, and public policy. His work has been published in Academy of Management Journal. Brian also holds a Master of International Development degree from the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs (GSPIA), University of Pittsburgh.
COUNTRY COORDINATOR (Ghana):
Selorm Agbleze
Selorm is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, Accra. He holds a Master of Philosophy Degree in Marketing from the University of Ghana. His current research interests include corporate social responsibility, agricultural marketing and entrepreneurial decision making among SMEs in developing countries. Selorm is also a poet, a self-published author and occasional speaker at youth conferences.
EXPERT SCHOLARS:
Ebenezar Adaku
Ebenezar is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the GIMPA Business School, Ghana. He holds a PhD in Infrastructure Planning and Management from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His research interests are in strategies and tools for efficient urban patterns and infrastructure, risk assessment and management of projects, as well as value chain analysis. When off from work, he spends his time with his wife and two sons or engaged in church activities.
Sharon Alvarez
Sharon is the Walter Koch Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. She is the Past Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management and has been a Representative at Large for the SMS Entrepreneurship Interest Group. Her current research includes entrepreneurship theory of opportunities, firm, and market emergence.
Jay Barney
Jay Barney is a Presidential Professor of Strategic Management and holds the Lassonde Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at the Eccles School of Business at The University of Utah. He obtained his PhD from Yale University and holds three honorary doctorate degrees—from Lund University (in Sweden), from the Copenhagen Business School, and from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (in Spain). He has also been elected as a fellow of the Academy of Management and of the Strategic Management Society. Jay’s research focuses on the relationship between firm resources and capabilities and a firm’s ability to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. He has published over 100 articles–including some of the most cited articles in the field of strategic management–and six books. Jay has consulted with over 50 public and private organizations, including Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, and Nationwide Insurance, and has worked extensively with NGOs to address abject poverty around the world.
Oana Branzei
Oana is Associate Professor of Strategy at the Ivey Business School, Western University. She is also the Director of the Sustainability Certificate program and the founder, convener and host faculty of the Ivey PhD Sustainability Academy. Oana’s research interests, at the intersection of strategy and sustainability, include the pro-social foundations, forms, and functions of business as agents of positive social change and the relational micro-processes of value creation, capture and distribution.
Garry Bruton
Dr. Bruton is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University where he holds the Fehmi Zeko Faculty Fellowship. He obtiained his PhD from Oklahoma State University and is the past president of the Asia Academy of Management. Dr. Bruton is an associate editor of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, past editor of the Academy of Management Perspectives, and serves on the editorial board of five other academic journals. His research focuses on entrepreneurship in emerging economies and he has published or has forthcoming over 75 academic articles in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. In addition, he has co-authored three text books –small business management (McGraw-Hill), technology and innovation management (Cengage), and international management (Cengage).
Chad Carlos
Dr. Carlos is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD in Management & Organizations from Cornell University. Dr. Carlos work has been published within Administrative Science Quarterly, and has won numerous awards including ‘Outstanding Paper Award’ from the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability and the ‘ONE Best Paper Award’ at the Academy of Management Annual Conference.
Jody Delichte
Jody is a PhD student at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Her research interests lie in entrepreneurship and behavior change in contexts of poverty. Her dissertation research explores how behavior change of base-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs in a development program is influenced by various identities and other related forces. Jody has over 25 years as a practitioner running global programs in the IT and Telecoms space, with emphasis on ensuring the underserved are included digitally and have access to life-enhancing value added services in areas such as health, financial services, utilities and agriculture. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University in Canada and an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, with distinction, from the University of East London in the United Kingdom.
David Gras
Dr. Gras is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship in the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University. He received his PhD in Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University. His research interests include the resourcefulness of base-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs, the role of the family in informal firm performance, and differentiation among microenterprises in developing contexts. Dr. Gras has conducted studies in Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria. His work has been published in Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, and Journal of Social Entrepreneurship.
Duane Ireland
Dr. Ireland is is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the Conn Chair in New Ventures Leadership in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He is the current President of the Academy of Management, a world-wide association with close to 19,000 members, and he recently completed a three-year term as the Editor of the Academy of Management Journal. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books and published numerous articles in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, and Journal of Management Studies, among others.
Robert Lount Jr.
Dr. Lount is an associate professor of Organizational Behavior at the Fisher College of business at The Ohio State University. He completed his PhD in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Dr. Lount’s research examines the processes which underlie performance when individuals work together. His research findings have shed light upon how to improve negotiation outcomes, increase employee motivation, and improve trust. His research has been published in leading academic journals and has been featured in popular press outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, Scientific American Mind, and The New York Magazine. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Group Dynamics, and Small Group Research.
Johanna Mair
Johanna is Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School of Governance. She is also the Hewlett Foundation Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and the Academic Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. She has held a visiting position at the Harvard Business School and teaches regularly at the Harvard Kennedy School and INSEAD. Before earning her PhD in Management from INSEAD (France), she was directly involved in executive decision-making in international banking. Her research focuses on how novel organizational and institutional arrangements generate economic and social development and the role of innovation in this process. She is the co-editor of three books and has published in leading academic journals. Today, alongside her academic responsibilities, she serves on the Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation of the World Economic Forum and carries out advisory and board work for multinational companies, the United Nations, governments, foundations and social venture funds.
Anita McGahan
Anita is Director of the PhD Program, Professor and Rotman Chair in Management at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She is cross-appointed to the Munk School of Global Affairs; is a Senior Associate at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard University; and is Chief Economist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Division for Global Health and Human Rights. In 2014, she joined the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance. McGahan’s current research emphasizes entrepreneurship in the public interest and innovative collaboration between public and private organizations.
Jeffery S. McMullen
Jeff is Dale M. Coleman Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Dr. McMullen earned his MBA and PhD in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, and his Bachelor of Accountancy at New Mexico State University. He studies entrepreneurship as both a process of self-discovery and socio-economic change, investigating entrepreneurial cognition, motivation, action, and entrepreneurship. Dr. McMullen’s research has been published in numerous premier journals, including Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurial Journal, among others, and honored by the Academy of Management’s (AOM) Entrepreneurship Research Exemplars Conference, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Ewing Kauffman and Coleman Foundations, and the AOM’s Entrepreneurship Division. Dr. McMullen is the Editor-in-Chief of Business Horizons as well as an associate editor for Journal of Business Venturing and currently serves on numerous editorial boards.
Shad Morris
Shad Morris is the Georgia White Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership and Strategy at the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University. Professor Morris teaches and conducts research on innovation and strategic human capital in emerging markets. In addition to his full-time position at the Marriott School, he is a Research Fellow at Cambridge University and has been on the faculty at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Samsung’s SKK Graduate School of Business and The Ohio State University. He has co-authored three books and regularly publishes in journals such asHarvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal. Prior to becoming an academic, he worked for the World Bank and for Alcoa.
Yohannes Neda
Yohannes is a Lecturer in management and Graduate Programs Coordinator at the Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, Addis Ababa University. Yohannes received his MBA from Addis Ababa University. His major research interests include social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and gender, micro and small enterprise development, family background and business performance, psychological capital and leadership.
Bernard Obeng
Bernard is a Senior Lecturer at the Business School, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and was an International Research Fellow at the Open University Business School, UK. His research and teaching interests are in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business management and marketing. He is a seasoned SME professional and teacher, credited for the development of numerous SME training programs including the on-going capacity development programs for Sokoban Wood Village (formerly, Anloga Wood Village), Sokoban, Kumasi. He is married with three children, and enjoys sightseeing, watching soccer and reading.
Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah
Wilberforce is a Lecturer at the KNUST School of Business and KNUST Entrepreneurship Coordinator at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana). He is also founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Phase Investments Limited and TDB Innovations. His major research interests and published works are in entrepreneurship education, enterprise development (for-profit and non-profit sectors), innovation, public policy, and immigrant entrepreneurship. His hobbies include traveling, listening to music and having fun with his wife and family.
Desirée Pacheco
Desirée is the Hanna Handersson Assistant Professor of Management at Portland State University. Desirée’s research interests relate to the interface between institutions, entrepreneurship and firm strategy. She often applies these areas of research to the study of sustainable business. Her more recent work centers on exploring how the study of institutional economics and property rights can be applied to the management of resources in poverty alleviation efforts. Outside of her academic interests, Desirée enjoys outdoor activities with her two sons and husband, dancing, and traveling.
Daniel Quaye
Daniel lectures in entrepreneurship, innovation management, and business plans at the University of Ghana Business School. His research interest lies in the empirical testing of the factors shaping business growth from an African perspective, innovation initiatives as reflected in new product development, corporate and cognitive processes in decision-making as well as microfinance strategies to alleviate poverty in under-developed communities, such as Yomding in South Sudan, where Daniel investigated the prospects of setting up a credit delivery facility. Daniel is a passionate football follower and has particular interest in lifestyle differences between cultures.
Israr Qureshi
Dr. Qureshi is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in Entrepreneurship and Information Systems at the IE Business School, Madrid. He completed his PhD in Management Information Systems at the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Israr’s research examines various dimensions of sustainability. He is currently involved in multiple research projects that investigate various aspects of social value creation through social entrepreneurship and Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Development (ICTSD). He has used both qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct studies that have been published in leading management journals such as Management Information Systems Quarterly, Organizational Research Methods, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, and Organization Studies.
Miguel Rivera-Santos
Miguel Rivera-Santos is an Associate Professor of Strategy and International Business at Babson College. Miguel’s research focuses on business-led poverty alleviation initiatives, with a focus on the impact of their institutional context. In particular, he is interested in the implications for governance of co-existing and conflicting formal and informal institutions in subsistence markets. Some of his current projects include an analysis of conflicts between multinationals and indigenous communities, the role of informal governance mechanisms across institutional contexts, and the formalization of street vendors’ informal activities. His research has been published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Management, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Business Ethics,Business and Society, and Journal of Business Research, among others.
Brett Smith
Dr. Smith is the Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and the Founding Director of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University. He completed his PhD at the University of Cincinnati. Brett has won numerous awards in the area of teaching and research of social entrepreneurship including the ASHOKA Award for Pedagogical Innovation and the Global Consortium for Entrepreneurship Centers – Best Program in Social Entrepreneurship. The Center for Social Entrepreneurship was awarded more than $500,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of State to host the Institute on Social Entrepreneurship for future African leaders and Fulbright scholars from Afghanistan. Brett’s research has been published in a number of leading journals including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Public Policy and Management, and Journal of Business Ethics.
Anthony Ebow Spio
Anthony is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of Department of Business Administration of Ashesi University in Ghana. He has over 22 years working experience, including 16 years in Unilever. He also cofounded and directed Spio & Spio Consulting, a firm that specialized in advising SMEs and Beacon Books Company between 2006 and 2010. Anthony’s research interests include place branding, entrepreneurship, enterprise development, and local economic development. He enjoys watching tennis, football and golf in his spare time.
Christopher Sutter
Dr. Sutter is the David F. Herche assistant professor of Entrepreneurship at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University. He received his PhD with a focus on international business from The Ohio State University. His research interests include the scaling of microenterprises, knowledge transfer in base-of-the-pyramid markets, and the challenges of crime for informal entrepreneurs. Chris has conducted fieldwork in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Bangladesh. Chis has published his research in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and is the recipient of the responsAbility Foundation’s best paper award.
Justin W. Webb
Dr. Webb is the Belk Distinguished Scholar of Business Innovation in the Belk College of Business at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research interests include understanding the contextual and individual influences on the entrepreneurship process, market-based solutions to poverty in base-of-the-pyramid markets, entrepreneurship within the informal economy, and family firm dynamics. His research has been published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Business Venturing, among other journals. He serves as an Associate Editor for Family Business Review and serves on the editorial boards of several management and entrepreneurship journals.
Libby Weber
Libby is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. She has a Ph.D. from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Her research integrates psychology into transaction cost economics (TCE) to examine the influences of perceptions, frames, expectations, attributions and biases on exchange performance and the on-going exchange relationship. She has published her work in the premier journals in the field including the Academy of Management Journal and Academy of Management Review. She is currently a member of the Executive Committee for the Business Policy and Strategy Division in the Academy of Management and also serves on the Academy of Management Journal and the Academy of Management Review editorial boards.