Senior researchers (founding members)
Meet our founding members.
Robin De Cock

Research Bio
Robin De Cock is an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Antwerp Management School and Antwerp University and is a guest professor at ETH Zürich. He is the academic director of the master in innovation and entrepreneurship, one of the first of its kind in Europe, producing more than 120 start-ups. He formerly worked at the innovation and entrepreneurship group of Imperial College Business School in London. He is also a member of the valorization board of the Flemish technology & research institute VITO and advice start-ups and scale-up ventures on a regular basis. His work has been published in several top entrepreneurship and management journals, such as Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of World Business, and Journal of Small Business Management. He is active in executive education, where he has been involved in program design and delivery for a wide range of clients, including Grant Thornton, PwC, SAP, BESIX, KPMG, J&J, Aquafin, VRT national television, and the Belgian Olympic committee.
More detailed bio: https://www.antwerpmanagementschool.be/en/faculty/robin-de-cock-ph-d
Ine Paeleman

Research Bio
Ine Paeleman is an Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurial Finance at the University of Antwerp. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration from Ghent University. She was a visiting scholar at the Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota). Ine’s research interests cross the traditional boundaries between entrepreneurship, management, and finance disciplines. She has published in journals including Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Ethics, Small Business Economics, and The Journal of Technology Transfer.
Expertise: Entrepreneurial Finance, International Entrepreneurship.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/ine-paeleman/
Johanna Vanderstraeten

Research Bio
Johanna Vanderstraeten (PhD) works at UAntwerp as associate professor at the Management department of the Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) (2017-now). She is active in all three academic pillars; research, education and services. To date, Johanna published more than 45 articles, reports, and book (chapters), of which 26 A1 publications. She published in journals such as Technovation(IF 2021: 11.373), Business Strategy and the Environment (IF 2021: 10.801), Journal of Business Research (IF 2021: 10.969), Industrial Marketing Management (IF 2021: 8.890), Small Business Economics (IF 2021: 7.096), and International Marketing Review (IF 2021: 5.774). In 2019, she received the LouRIM Outreach Award, for the paper ‘The added value of implicit motives for management research: Development and first validation of a Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT) for the measurement of implicit motives’ (co-authored with H. Slabbinck, A. van Witteloostuijn, J. Hermans, M. Dejardin, J. Brassey, and D. Ramdani), and in 2018, she received the paper award at the G-Forum, 22nd Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs for the paper ‘SME innovativeness in a dynamic environment: Is there any value in combining causation and effectuation?’ (co-authored with J. Hermans, A. van Witteloostuijn and M. Dejardin). Between 2022 and 2009, Johanna received external funding for a total amount of ±1,280K, amongst others for an INTERREG 2 SEAS project, a POC/IOF project, and a large Entrepreneurship project for the European Union. Currently, she (co-)supervises ten doctoral students, of which two are in the final stages of their PhD trajectory (anticipated PhD defenses summer and fall 2023). In the past five years, she was (co-)supervisor of two defended PhDs. She has ample teaching experience. She started teaching courses as course titular at higher education colleges during her PhD trajectory. These teaching activities shifted to university level after she obtained her PhD. She teaches at master after master, master and bachelor level. She supervises about 10 master theses per year. Since 2020, she is Chair of the Commission and Task Force Entrepreneurship of the University of Antwerp, and since 2021, she coordinates the newly implemented major ‘Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship’ at FBE (the major started in the academic year 2022-2023). Next to these services tasks, she is chair of doctoral committees, member of the department council and member of the Belgian Entrepreneurship Research Network (BERN). Together with Prof. dr. Ine Paeleman and prof. dr. Robin De Cock, she set up the Antwerp Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (AntwerpCER).
Expertise: International Entrepreneurship, Organizational Sponsorship, Student-Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Technology Entrepreneurship.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/johanna-vanderstraeten/
Senior researchers
Meet our senior researchers.
Marc Deloof
Marc Deloof is a full professor of corporate finance at the University of Antwerp. His research focuses on corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, and financial history. He has supervised numerous Ph.D. students and published over 50 articles in international academic journals. These include finance journals such as Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance and Financial Management, as well as leading journals in the fields of entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Small Business Economics), accounting (Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies) and economic history (Journal of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History). His research has been cited over 7,000 times (cf. Google Scholar). Since 2020 he has been editor of the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. Since 2021 he is also Chair of the Belgian Corporate Finance Network, the network of corporate finance researchers at universities and business schools in Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Northern France.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/marc-deloof/
Eddy Laveren
Annick Schramme
Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme is a professor at the University of Antwerp and the Antwerp Management School. She is responsible for the Masters's programs in Culture Management. She is head of the competence Center Cultural Management & Policy (Faculty of Business & Economics) at the University of Antwerp. She is also Academic Director for the Creative Industries at the Antwerp Management School. This includes 2018 starting a new international master's in fashion management and leading the Flemish-Dutch leadership program in Culture (LInC LL) in collaboration with the University of Utrecht. Annick Schramme is an active researcher in a variety of areas, but principally her core interest lies in the field of Cultural Policy and governance, Cultural Entrepreneurship, and fashion. She is also a member of various boards of directors in the cultural and creative sector and European expert groups (such as Horizon). Since 2020, she has also been appointed by the Flemish government as the chair of the SARC (Strategic Advisory Council for Culture in Flanders).
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/annick-schramme/
Wouter Van Bockhaven
Post-doc researchers
Meet our post-doc researchers.
Erika Branca
Katrien Jansen
Dr. Katrien Jansen is the communication and valorization manager of a research project focussing on strategic change in family firms. She translates the academic results from the project into information and tools relevant to practice. She is in close contact with various entrepreneurs and organizations to do this. In 2022, Katrien defended her Ph.D. on financing decisions in family firms at Hasselt University. Her research mainly focuses on how financial choices are influenced by family dynamics and governance mechanisms. Her paper "Financing Decisions in Private Family Firms: a Family Firm Pecking Order" is published in Small Business Economics. Katrien presented her work at Monaco and Zwolle (the Netherlands) conferences.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/katrien-jansen_22786/
Amélie Wuillaume
PhD students
Meet our PhD students.
Morane Atzmon
Morane Atzmon is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Antwerp Faculty of Business and Economics. In her research, she focuses on exploring the support and enablement of start-up growth in dynamic environments by adopting a multi-dimensional lens. In addition to being a stand-alone entity, the start-up is viewed as part of a larger, functional, and advancing entrepreneurial ecosystem from which it can leverage and co-create support services and resources to enable its growth objectives. Within this process, she studies the role of the start-up, the surrounding entrepreneurship support organizations, and the related mechanisms leveraged for this purpose. She also was the primary researcher in an international Interreg 2 Seas project (SPEED*). She devoted her attention to stimulating tech start-up growth by developing an automated in-depth capability analysis tool. She has published in the academic journal Technovation.
* SPEED is short for: Smart Ports Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/morane-atzmon/
Jovana Cadenovic
Fernanda Canale Segovia
Tristan De Blick
Tristan De Blick is a Ph.D. researcher in the Department of Finance and Accountancy at the University of Antwerp, where he also earned his Master’s Degree. His research interests range from financing constraints and financing sources to strategic change, all among both family firms and SMEs. Prof. dr. Eddy Laveren and prof. dr. Ine Paeleman co-supervise Tristan. Working papers are based on the ECB’s SAFE dataset and a self-administered survey of Belgian SMEs.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/tristan-deblick/
Alexander Deblond
Eugénie Delzenne
Eugénie Delzenne holds an MSc in Political economy of Europe from the London School of Economics. She joined the Faculty of Social Sciences (Department of Sociology) as a PhD candidate in October 2021. She is jointly supervised by Dr. Johanna Vanderstraeten and Prof. dr. Tim Engels. Her research interests lie in the transformation of university knowledge transfer practices, with a focus on academic entrepreneurship in the social sciences and humanities. She currently supports the University of Antwerp’s participation in the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) alliance by contributing to policy projects related to entrepreneurship, innovation, and knowledge transfer (YUFERING - YUFE Transforming R&I Through Europe-Wide Knowledge Transfer and Inno4YUFE - Towards a Pioneering European University that Powers a New Generation of Student Entrepreneurs and Innovators).
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/eugenie-delzenne_23164/
Zainab el Hejazi
Riyaad Ismail
Nina Marien

Research bio
Nina Marien is a Ph.D. researcher in the Department of Finance and Accountancy at the University of Antwerp. She earned her Master’s Degree at the University of Antwerp. Her research interests span the boundaries between finance, entrepreneurship, and management disciplines. She is jointly supervised by prof. dr. Marc Deloof and prof. dr. Ine Paeleman. In her research, she focuses on the relationship between equity crowdfunding and the corporate governance of entrepreneurial firms.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/nina-marien/
Dorinela Munteanu
Afsoon Quitbar
Johannes Ritz
Túng Thanh Phan
Tùng Thanh Phan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Management, University of Antwerp, Belgium. He earned his Master’s Degree at University of Twente, Netherlands. His current research focuses on international entrepreneurship, the impact of personality aspects, and cultural factors on entrepreneurial intentions and behavior.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/phan-thanhtung/
Peter van de Goorberg
Internal affiliated members
Meet our affiliated members.
Freija Kleijnen
Iris Vanaelst
Dr. Iris Vanaelst is the Venturing & Licensing Manager of the Valorisation Office. She is the program director and coach of the Deep Dive into Business Programme, which supports the university’s spin-offs. She is specialized in the composition of entrepreneurial teams in high-tech new ventures. Iris holds a Ph.D. in Applied Economics. Her research interests include innovative high-tech start-ups, the entrepreneurial university, and KTOs.
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/iris-vanaelst/
Nathalie Verboven
External affiliated members
Meet our affiliated members.
Wim Coreynen
Dr. Wim Coreynen is a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Business and Economics of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and Utrecht University School of Economics (USE) in the Netherlands. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp (UA) in Belgium. He has previously also worked for Antwerp Management School (AMS) in Belgium, the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) affiliated with Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and Zhejiang University School of Management (ZJUSOM) in China.
Within the fields of Strategic Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, his research focuses on service, technology, and micro foundations. His work has been published in journals such as (in alphabetical order) Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Production Research, Journal for Business Research, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Journal of Cleaner Production, Research Policy, Social Sciences, Sustainability, Technovation, and books such as The Palgrave Handbook of Servitization, Practices and Tools for Servitization, and Data Science for Entrepreneurship (in press).
More detailed bio: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/wim-coreynen/
Radityo Handrito
Vincent Molly
Joeri van Hughten
Joeri van Hugten is Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Tilburg School of Economics and Management. His research looks at psychological and sociological concepts operating in economic contexts, such as social category typicality influencing the development of foreign market entry rates or entrepreneur tolerance for uncertainty influencing data use. He has published in the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Journal of Trial and Error, PLoS ONE, and others. He actively uses the Open Science Framework to communicate work or work in progress.
Arjen van Witteloostuijn

Research Bio
Currently, Arjen van Witteloostuijn is Professor of Business and Economics at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and Dean of the VU School of Business and Economics in the Netherlands, as well as Research Professor in Business, Economics and Governance at the Antwerp Management School in Belgium. In the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, he was affiliated with the University of Groningen, University Maastricht, Tilburg University and Utrecht University (all four the Netherlands), University of Antwerp (Belgium), and Cardiff University and Durham University (both in the United Kingdom), and he visited New York University (the US) and Warwick Business School (the UK). He holds degrees in Business, Economics and Psychology. In 1996-1998, he was Dean of the Maastricht Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. He is founder of the University Maastricht’s Netherlands Institute of Business Organization and strategy Research (NIBOR), co-establisher of Groningen’s Star Numan Institute (SNI), founder of Groningen’s research institute of international economics and business (SNI Research), founder of the Antwerp Centre for Evolutionary Demography (ACED), and the Tilburg Institute of Public Governance, and (former) member of the editorial board of, e.g., the Academische boekengids, Academy Management Journal, Bedrijfskunde: tijdschrift voor modern management, Cross-Cultural and Strategic Management, Economisch statistische berichten, British Journal of Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of International Business Studies, M&O: tijdschrift voor organisatiekunde en sociaal beleid, Organization Studies and Strategic Organization. Additionally, he was/is member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE), President of the Dutch-Flemish Academy of Management (NVAM), Chairman of the Board of the Council for Economic, Social and Regional Sciences (ESR) of the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO), member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Dutch Parliament, and member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Apart from many (chapters in) books, and articles in Dutch dailies and journals, he has published widely in such international journals as the Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Accounting, Organizations & Society, American Journal of Political Science, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Economica, Economics of Education Review, European Journal of Political Economy, History of Political Economy, Industrial Relations, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Management Science, Metroeconomica, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Party Politics, Personality and Individual Differences, Public Administration Review, Strategic Management Journal and Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv. In 1999, he published a critical analysis of the Dutch “poldermodel”: De anorexiastrategie: over de gevolgen van saneren (Amsterdam / Antwerpen: De Arbeiderspers) for which he received the Book of the Year 2000 Prize of the Dutch Society of Management Consultants (Ooa) and the Reader Prize 2000 of the Dutch Association of Consultancy Firms (Roa). On a regular basis, he is involved in consultancy and training activities for private and public organizations. His research interests range from international macroeconomics and personality psychology to industrial economics and organizational behavior.