Incorporating emotional education into entrepreneurship support: Dr. Maha Aly successfully defended her PhD Thesis

Ms. Maha Aly successfully defended her PhD Thesis under supervision of Prof. Dr. Heike Grimm and Prof. Dr. David Audretsch on October 20, 2021, in which she investigated the impact of cultural values on entrepreneurial behavior. The examination committee was further completed by Prof. Dr. Frank Ettrich and Prof. Dr. Achim Kemmerling.  Ms. Aly explored the entrepreneurial mindset in the context of managing adversities within the German entrepreneurial ecosystem and discovered a key finding: entrepreneurs are facing emotional constraints in the bootstrapping phase that hinder their company’s development. Consequently, Ms. Aly recommends public policy to incorporate this finding into entrepreneurial support programs by stimulating a change in perception of failure and providing emotional education and support for aspiring entrepreneurs. The highly topical research papers were published in top entrepreneurial journals such as The Journal of Technology Transfer or International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Congratulations to this highly relevant and excellent thesis!