The dark side of entrepreneurship: Award-winning researcher Mohamed Genedy wants us to rethink entrepreneurship
Hello Mohamed – and congratulations! Could you share more about your background?
I’m originally from Egypt, so I did my undergraduate at Cairo University, which gave me a solid foundation for my further studies. I knew that if I really wanted to have an extraordinary international academic career, I would have to go to a very good school abroad. I applied for a master's degree at Goethe University in Frankfurt, which was very competitive: Only 40 students out of 1200 were accepted! As part of this program, I focused on applied econometrics using quantitative methods in order to be able to conduct high quality research. From there, I continued my journey and started a PhD in entrepreneurship at the Jönköping International Business School (JIBS).
Your research explores the negative aspects of entrepreneurship. Could you elaborate on your findings?
The goal is both to better understand entrepreneurship, so that we have a balanced view, and design comprehensive policies that do not have unintended consequences. For instance, in my first paper, I showed that scaling firms potentially has negative consequences on employees’ well-being. Yet, EU policies encourage new ventures to scale rapidly because it's a driver for the economy, while the OECD and the UN call for well-being as one of the sustainable Development goals. There is a contradiction between these policies, so the question becomes: How can we minimize the negative consequences?
What does it mean for you to be awarded Young Researcher of the Year?
I see this prize as future oriented, rather than something that represents what I have done. It suggests that there is good potential for my work, and it makes me more confident that the direction I'm going after matches the expectations – both inside and outside academia. This also opens many avenues to make my research more beneficial to people beyond the academic community, because I always try to bridge the gap between practice and theory.
Generally speaking, I would like to publish more and expand my network, because it also helps my research to share insights and get inspiration from academics and entrepreneurs alike. I could see myself working on follow-up projects and exploring new angles, such as gender, to investigate how women experience scaling firms for instance. After all, my career has only just begun!
Contact:
Mohamed Genedy: Mohamed.Genedy@hhs.se
