PhD defence: Christine Thalsgård Henriques

Based on a three-year field study of a Business Accelerator programme for technology-based entrepreneurs, the dissertation investigates barriers to entrepreneurial learning in an incubator context. It is a common critique of Business Incubation that despite the good intensions and considerable amount of resources spent, support initiatives fail to produce workplaces and economic growth. Looking into the actual interactions between entrepreneurs, advisors, an accelerator programme and investors, this dissertation suggests that the critique should focus more on the lack of capacity to create a learning environment for entrepreneurial development and the gazelle ventures of tomorrow! The fieldwork gives insights to barriers to learning, which indicate that without proper dialogue, mutual collaboration, relationship and expectation management, the collaborative relationship in and around the incubator context is vulnerable, as actors are reluctant to trust, listen and learn. In sum, the study is a close analysis of some of the intertwined, challenging and complex processes of making the makers of the world, which are usually not discussed in incubation literature or practice.
 
Supervisor:
Professor Emeritus Mette Mønsted
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Secondary supervisors:
Professor Daniel Hjorth
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Assessment Committee:
Professor MSO Ester Barinaga (Chair)
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Professor Emeritus Allan W. Gibb
University of Durham Business School
 
Professor Denise Elaine Fletcher
Center for Research and Economics in Management
University of Luxembourg
 
Thesis:
The thesis is available here
 
Reception:
The Doctoral School of Organisation and Mangement Studies will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence in the lobby outside Rs.20.