Maija Renko
Advancing inclusive entrepreneurship through the power of research and education.
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 DePaul University and the Coleman Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Driehaus College of Business, I teach and examine social, inclusive, and early-stage entrepreneurship.
Go where the research takes you.
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.
“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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