dr. M.L. Ehrenhard (Michel)

"Responsible Transformation, Entrepreneurship & Technology"

I study the disruption of institutions and am especially intrigued by the management of social and organizational transformation in complex environments. My specific research expertise in strategic entrepreneurship lies in studying entrepreneurial strategies for responsible organizing aided by technology (as a change enabler or market opportunity). As an engaged scholar, most research projects are externally funded and executed in interdisciplinary teams, often including practitioners, to deliver tangible impact. This teamwork has resulted in over 1.5M EUR acquired research funding directly for the university (over 16M in total), several research awards, and publications in journals such as Organization Science, Journal of Business Venturing, and Social Science & Medicine. 

I have (co-)designed, coordinated, and provided education at all levels on topics such as Innovation and Entrepreneurship, (Qualitative) Research Methodology, and Enterprising Skills, and for multiple UT programmes, including the executive masterclass on Change Management & Leadership. Under my leadership (2017-2022) of the BSc and MSc in (International) Business Administration, we sharpened the profiles of our (I)BA programmes, involved and supported lecturers in educational innovation and continuous improvement, and built relations with strategic partners both in-and outside the university. This led to improved student satisfaction, increased student inflow, more prominent company involvement, and two new double degrees with international partner universities WWU Münster and the University of Trento. For my personal development, I obtained a certificate from Utrecht University's Educational Leadership programme and a Senior University Examination Qualification - while, over the years, also following a variety of other (leadership) courses internally and externally (e.g., at IMD and INSEAD).

Citizenship is crucial in academia, and I contribute in this respect by involvement in various internal and external committees, outreach activities, and reviewing for academic journals and funding agencies. Recognizing my contribution to the BMS faculty, I received the 2022 faculty Cooperation Award. Currently, I'm chairing the Entrepreneurship & Technology Management section within the Hightech Business & Entrepreneurship department. I was a visiting researcher at the Leadership Center of the University of Texas at Dallas, the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota, and the School of Management of the University of St. Andrews. I've worked with various organisations in sectors such as IT, management consultancy, health, manufacturing, finance, cleantech and public/nonprofit sectors. Some concrete examples are Qredits microfinance, the Dutch Central Bank, and Movember. Since 2018, I am a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA).

Expertise

• Social Sciences

  • Influence
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Enterprises
  • Literature
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Identity

• Computer Science

  • Service
  • Roles

Organisations

"Responsible Transformation, Entrepreneurship & Technology"

I study the disruption of institutions and am especially intrigued by the management of social and organizational transformation in complex environments. Within strategic entrepreneurship, my specific research expertise lies in studying entrepreneurial strategies for responsible organizing aided by technology. In other words, organizational leaders need to choose how to balance current economic demands with societal pressures and future opportunities. In such complex societal contexts, technology is often an enabler for change (e.g., social media or AI/data science) or a market opportunity (e.g., digital platforms or cleantech).

As an engaged scholar, most of my research projects are externally funded, e,g, European Investment Bank - European Investment Fund SFIDE and EU Horizon2020 dRural projects, and executed in interdisciplinary teams - often including PhD students and practitioners. This teamwork has resulted in over 1,5M EUR in research funding directly for the university (over 16M funding in total) and a unique Twitter #datagrant, several research awards including two best dissertation awards from the Academy of Management, and publications in (interdisciplinary) journals such as Organization Science, Journal of Business Venturing, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Social Science & Medicine and Advances in Colloid and Interface Science. 

I've worked with various organisations in sectors such as IT, consultancy, health, manufacturing, finance, cleantech and public/nonprofit sectors. Also, I was a visiting scholar at, for example, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Minnesota, and the University of St. Andrews. Furthermore, I designed the Organisational Change Sketch (Dutch version here) to provide some practical help and structure to often messy change processes.

RESEARCH LINES

• Strategic Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Strategic Choice, Managerial Cognition, and Organizational Design
• Pro-social Organizing, Market Failures, Responsible Enterprise, and Social Entrepreneurship
• Market Adoption of Disruptive Technology, (Hightech) Start-ups, and Online Collective Action

HIGHLY RANKED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS (AI ≥90 AND/OR UK-ABS ≥4 RATING)

• Broek, T.A., Langley, D., Ehrenhard, M.L. & Groen, A.J. (2023). When Do Evaluators Publicly Express their Legitimacy Judgments? An Inquiry into the Role of Peer Endorsement and Evaluative Mode. Organization Science, 34(6), 1997-2525. [link]
• Machado, T.O., Grabow, J., Sayer, C., De Araújo, P.H., Ehrenhard, M.L., & Wurm, F.R. (2022). Biopolymer-based nanocarriers for sustained release of agrochemicals: A review on materials and social science perspectives for a sustainable future of agri-and horticulture. Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 303, 1026-1045. [link]
• Van den Broek, T.A., Need, A., Ehrenhard, M.L., Priante, A. & Hiemstra, D.J. (2019). The influence of network structure and prosocial cultural norms on charitable giving: A multilevel analysis of Movember's fundraising campaign in 24 countries. Social Networks. [link]
• Frederiks, A.J., Englis, B.G., Ehrenhard, M.L. & Groen, A.J. (2019). Entrepreneurial cognition and the quality of new venture ideas: An experimental approach to comparing future-oriented cognitive processes. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(2), 327-347. [link]
• Priante, A., Ehrenhard, M.L., Van den Broek, T.A. & Need, A. (2018). Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research. New Media & Society, 20(7), 2647-2669. [link]
• Koelewijn, W.T., Ehrenhard, M.L., Groen, A.J. & Van Harten (2014). Exploring personal interests of physicians in hospitals and specialty clinics. Social Science & Medicine, 100, 93-98. [link]
• Koelewijn, W.T., Ehrenhard, M.L., Groen, A.J. & Van Harten (2012). Intra-organizational dynamics as drivers of entrepreneurship among physicians and managers in hospitals of western countries. Social Science & Medicine, 75(5), 795-800. [link]

See below for a list of recent publications (<5y) or for a complete overview Google scholar

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Finalist best environmental and social practices paper award, Organisation and Management Theory division, Academy of Management, 2019; with Timo Fiorito
• Best paper, Subtheme 20: Invisible/silent aspects of change, European Group for Organization Studies conference, 2016; with Raymond Loohuis
• Best developmental paper award, Leadership and Leadership Development, British Academy of Management, 2015; with Johannes Rank, Anna Overath, Stella-Oriana Strüfing, Nadja Ebel, and Martin Funck
• Twitter #datagrant for proposed research into cancer awareness campaigns such as Movember, 2014; with Tijs van den Broek, Djoerd Hiemstra, and Ariana Need
• Best dissertation award, Public and Nonprofit Division, Academy of Management, 2010

Publications

Research profiles

My teaching interests are related to strategy, change management and leadership - often from an entrepreneurial or organisation theory perspective, plus (qualitative) research methods. Currently, I teach in the BSc and MSc in (International) Business Administration and the Executive MSc in Risk Management. Previously, I have also taught in the BSc Advanced Technology and the BSc and MSc in Industrial Engineering & Management at the University of Twente, Innovation Management at TSM Business School, and Data Science for Business at the WWU Munster. I especially enjoy supervising bachelor and master thesis projects - over 300 so far.

From 2017 to 2022, I was the program director for the BSc and MSc in (International) Business Administration. Under my leadership, the programmes got reaccredited by NVAO, obtained the distinctive feature in enterprising, and the BSc obtained the ECA distinctive feature internationalisation. The BSc programme was twice evaluated as a TOP programme, a rare feat for Dutch business programmes. We also established two new double degrees, for the BSc with the WWU Münster, and for the International Management & Consultancy track with the University of Trento.

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Advisor for Ph.D. projects:

• Risgi Risgiyanti (ongoing): Leadership, Agility and Innovation with dr. Desiree van Dun and dr. Pauline Weritz
• Siraj Anand (ongoing): Towards a Digitally Soevereign Internet with prof. dr. ir. Bart Nieuwenhuis and dr. Abhista Abhista
• Lisa Bakir (ongoing): Customer Participation in Servitization with prof. dr. ir. Bart Nieuwenhuis and dr. Raymond Loohuis MBA
• Justin Grabow (ongoing): Market Adoption of a Microtech Plant Medicin; with prof. dr. Frederik Wurm
• Vidit Kundu (ongoing): Exploring the Spatial Diffusion and Knowledge Production Dynamics of the Clean Energy Sector and its Resilience to External Economic Shocks; with prof. dr. Karin Pfeffer and dr. Debraj Roy
• Tina Hormann (ongoing): Impact Measurement of a Rural Service Marketplace for Europe; with prof. dr. ir. Bart Nieuwenhuis and prof. dr. Ariana Need
• Franziska Koefer (ongoing): Strenghtening Financial Inclusing through Digitalisation in Europe; with prof. dr. ir. Bart Nieuwenhuis
• Andres Camargo Benavides (ongoing): The Role of Colombian Print Industry Cooperatives in Supporting Member SMEs’ Exploration and Exploitation Activities; with prof. dr. ir. Petra de Weerd-Nederhof and dr. Matthias de Visser
• Ruud Koopman (2021): Coaching and Mentoring of Nascent Entrepreneurs; with prof. dr. Aard Groen and prof dr. Paula Englis (Berry College, US)
• Timo Fiorito (2021): Responsibility and Integrity in the Dutch Financial Sector; with prof. dr. ir. Petra de Weerd-Nederhof and dr. mr. ir. Richard Hoff (DNB)
• Koen Kuijpers (2021): Institutional Entrepreneurship for an Inclusive Labor Market; with prof. dr. Aard Groen
• Anna Priante (defended 2019): #Identity Projects of Social Movement Organizations against Cancer: A Multi-level Study of the Influence of Online Identities on Offline Behaviors; with dr. Tijs van der Broek, prof. dr. Ariana Need and dr. Djoerd Hiemstra
• Martin Stienstra (defended 2018): A Cross-cultural Perspective on Entrepreneurial Processes; with prof. dr. Aard Groen
• Tijs van den Broek (defended 2016 with distinction): When Slacktivism Matters: On the Organization and Outcomes of Online Protest Targeting Firms; with prof. dr. Aard Groen and dr. David Langley (TNO)
• Arjan Frederiks (defended 2016 with distinction; winner of the 2017 Heizer dissertation award, Entrepreneurship division, Academy of Management): On the Use of Imagination by Entrepreneurs; with prof. dr. Aard Groe
• Silvia Fernandes Costa (European PhD advisor, defended 2015 with distinction at ISCTE-IUL): Uncovering the Business Opportunity Prototype: Cognitive and Learning Aspects of Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition in Higher Education; with prof. dr. António Caetano (ISCTE-IUL)
• Wout Koelewijn (defended 2014): Doctors in Business: A Study into What Drives Physicians’ Entrepreneurship; with prof. dr. Wim van Harten and prof. dr. Aard Groen

Address

University of Twente

Ravelijn (building no. 10), room 2101
Hallenweg 17
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations