Maija Renko
Advancing inclusive entrepreneurship through the power of research and education.
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I’m Maija. I’m equal parts educator, researcher, and entrepreneurial explorer.
My goal is to be a resource for aspiring entrepreneurs, first-time founders, and socially conscious business owners by providing actionable, accessible research and insights. As a professor at the entrepreneurship unit at Aalto University School of Business in Finland, I teach and examine topics in social, inclusive, and early-stage entrepreneurship, as well as sustainable business practices.
Areas of Interest
★ Startup Strategy
The early years of a company’s life are the most turbulent ones, and in order to understand how and why some startups survive, I have focused my research on three key processes: entrepreneurial resilience and resourcefulness, a firm’s approach to its markets, and it’s entrepreneurial leadership.
★ Social Good
It is particularly difficult for social entrepreneurs to start companies that are doing or addressing something completely novel. The structures that are in place to support the genesis of social enterprises are not well equipped for bringing highly innovative products or services to the markets. However, I have found that mission-driven companies with sustainable business models and a propensity towards service-design have the potential to drive social impact at scale.
★ Women in Business
The research I’ve conducted on women’s entrepreneurship examines different situational contexts in which women start and operate their businesses. I examine areas like the likelihood of women becoming entrepreneurs based on their society’s cultural values, such as collectivism or individualism.
Practical, Research-Based Insights for Entrepreneur Support Organizations
I have worked closely with business support organizations (BSOs) in Chicago to help them develop programming and resources for underserved entrepreneurs.
The reports here provide resources on the content of trainings that BSOs in Chicago provide (1), the benefits of those trainings for entrepreneurs they serve (2), and a framework that helps BSOs figure out opportunities for collaboration and ecosystem building (3).
“You must never doubt your ability to achieve anything, overcome anything, and inspire everything, because the truth is, there are no superheroes. There is just us, and too often we are the ones that we keep waiting for.”
– Shiza Shahid, Malala Fund
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