Rob Lubberink

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Company / Organization / University

Wageningen University & Research

Role / Title

Postdoctoral researcher

Bio / Specialization

Rob Lubberink is a Postdoctoral researcher who is interested in the processes and practices that lead to entrepreneurial and (social) innovative solutions for socio-environmental challenges. The focus on entrepreneurial and innovative solutions for socio-environmental challenges was already evident in his PhD reseach. In January 2018, Rob succesfully defended his PhD thesis with the title: 'Responsible innovation in industry: learning from social entrepreneurship'.

Rob is currently managing the OSMARE research project where the research team investigates how: 1) the organisational structures of business models affect smallholders' entrepreneurial farming practices and 2) how the household and community dynamics affect individual entrepreneurial practices and vice versa. OSMARE focuses on the business models that have CSA integrated through the Vuna program. These business models are located in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Rob Lubberink is interested in the everyday entrepreneuring of smallholders in rural communities. He acknowledges the fact that the concept of entrepreneurship predominantly emerged from a 'western' discourse, and that it is not one-on-one applicable in developing and emerging economies. Contributing to the knowledge base on entrepreneurship in developing and emerging economies therefore requires space for indegeneous theory.

That is also why Rob is eager to contribute to the course on 'entrepreneurship in emerging economies'. Furthermore, he is adopting practice theory as a lens in his research to create space for inductive inquiry, and is active in a community of researchers looking at entrepreneurship as practice.

Articles

Embeddeness in Context: reflecting on the “enabling” environment for youth agripreneurship

Entrepreneurship in agriculture is often touted as one of the innovative approaches to addressing poverty and food insecurity in developing and emerging economies. It is also considered a means out of unemployment for the rapidly increasing youth population in many developing economies. The challenge for entrepreneurs in agriculture, or “agripreneurs”, is to innovate and spawn ideas and approaches to spur on agricultural production to meet future demand; this challenge is particularly targeted at unemployed youth, who are expected to rise to the challenge not only of farming, but of being entrepreneurial. »