咪咪视频

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Dr Efe Imiren

Course Leader and Senior Lecturer in Business Management

Phone
+44 (0)1473 338223
Email
e.imiren@uos.ac.uk
School/Directorate
School of Business, Arts, Social Sciences and Technology
Efe Imiren ORCID

Dr Efe Imiren is a Senior Lecturer at the 咪咪视频 with a PhD in Entrepreneurship from the 咪咪视频 of Strathclyde, UK. Her research focuses on legitimacy in entrepreneurship and innovation; it explores how entrepreneurs navigate visibility, credibility, and opportunity in increasingly digital, AI mediated, and uncertain environments. Her work increasingly focuses on the everyday realities of entrepreneurship, exploring how entrepreneurs respond to sustained pressures arising from digital transformation, changing societal expectations, and wider social and institutional complexity.

Drawing on qualitative, interpretive, and phenomenological approaches, Dr Imiren’s research contributes to emerging debates on legitimacy, inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems, digital contexts, and artificial intelligence. Her work is particularly concerned with the experiences of underrepresented and resource-constrained entrepreneurs operating within everyday economy sectors and digitally enabled contexts.

In her role as an academic, Dr Imiren leads the design and delivery of highly interactive enterprise and entrepreneurial modules, and business management courses. Through immersive simulations, mentorship, and international competitions, Dr Imiren cultivates pedagogical environments where creativity and practicality meet to develop future-ready entrepreneurial leaders.

Dr Imiren’s research has been published in outlets including the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research and UNESCO IdeasLAB and accepted for publication in International Small Business Journal and Springer Nature. Dr Imiren is also actively engaged in enterprise education, innovation focused CPD development, and interdisciplinary collaboration linking entrepreneurship, legitimacy, resilience, digitalisation, and social value.

Efe is experienced in teaching and/or leading the following modules:

  • Emerging Business Trends and Technologies (BA)
  • The Enterprise Project (BA)
  • Innovative Entrepreneurial Society: New Business Models (MBM)
  • Consultancy Management (MBA)
  • The Enterprising Graduate (BA)
  • Understanding the Entrepreneurial Spirit (BA)
  • Introduction to Marketing (BA)

Efe also supervises dissertations and projects on the following modules:

  • Capstone Project (BA)
  • Dissertation Module (MBA)
  • The Extended Project (BA)
  • The Enterprising Graduate (BA)

PhD Supervision

Dr Imiren is currently a co-supervisor for the following doctoral projects:

  • Ashea Aphane (Social Value Creation through Financial Inclusion, Digital Banking, and Business Model Innovation)
  • Tshepiso Mohoto (Digital Transformation in Traditional Banks)
  • Sriyanthika Ishabi (Digital Strategies, Intersectionality, Identity Negotiation, and Migrant Women Entrepreneurs)
  • Zhanar Kolbachayeva (Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Business)

Dr Imiren welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral students interested in digital entrepreneurship, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and its social impact including digital gendering and digital sustainability.

Qualifications / Education

  • SFHEA
  • PhD Entrepreneurship
  • FHEA
  • PGCAP
  • PGCE Research Methods
  • MBA
  • BSc Geography

Entrepreneurship

  • Gendered and social impacts
  • Contextual entrepreneurship
  • Entrepreneurial legitimacy

Digitalisation

  • digital gendering
  • digital sustainability
  • social impacts of digitalisation in entrepreneurship

Artificial Intelligence

  • Artificial Intelligence in entrepreneurship

Research Methods

  • Qualitative methodologies (phenomenology and digital research methods)
  •  Non-occidental contexts

Dr Imiren is interested in interdisciplinary and collaborative projects exploring:

  • Legitimacy and visibility in digital ecosystems
  • AI and entrepreneurial opportunity
  • Entrepreneurial resilience and regeneration
  • Inclusive and socially embedded entrepreneurship
  • Micro-entrepreneurial adaptation in uncertain environments
  • Enterprise education and disruption

Selected Publications and Outputs

Journal Articles:

  • Imiren, E., Nicolopoulou, K., Lassalle, P., & Mwaura, S (2026 forthcoming). Navigating overlapping contexts through eclectic legitimation work: the lived experience of women digital entrepreneurs in Nigeria. International Small Business Journal.
  • Imiren, E., Lassalle, P., Mwaura, S., & Nicolopoulou, K (2023). Understanding legitimacy building in contexts through digital entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 30(2-3), 548-571.

Chapters in Books:

  • Imiren, E. and Lassalle, P (2026 forthcoming). Women’s Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa: Negotiating Legitimacy Building Amid Alterity, an Integrative Perspective from Institutional Theory and Digital Affordance. Target: Edited volume “Global Perspectives to African Entrepreneurship: Emerging realities and innovative approaches’’, Palgrave MacMillan.

PhD Thesis Title:

  • Imiren, E. P. (2022). The lived experience of female digital entrepreneurs in building entrepreneurial legitimacy. Unpublished doctoral thesis. 咪咪视频 of Strathclyde.

Conference Papers and Presentations

  • Imiren, E. and Nicolopoulou, K (2025, January) Women AI Entrepreneurs: Building Legitimacy in Technology-intensive Contexts, IRC ECR Engaged Scholarship in Innovation and Research Ecosystem Conference 2025, Alliance Manchester Business School, UK
  • Imiren, E., Nicolopoulou, K., Lassalle, P, Mwaura, S., Soliman, S (2025, January) Women AI Entrepreneurs in 3 Ecosystems: evidence from global cities’, IERC 2025, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC) in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), KSA
  • Imiren, E., Nicolopoulou, K., Lassalle, P, Mwaura, S (2025, November) A Paradoxical tensions-based Pedagogical Framework for Entrepreneurial Learning about legitimacy building in the Age of AI, ISBE2025 Conference, 咪咪视频 of Strathclyde, UK
  • Imiren, E. (December, 2025) AI for Business Success: Driving Small Business Growth with AI, Insights from Research, Invited Talk, BSC Multicultural Services Annual General Meeting, Ipswich, UK
  • Imiren, E. and Nicolopoulou, K (2024, November) AI Entrepreneurship Research and Pedagogy: what we know, and what we should know, ISBE2024 Conference, 咪咪视频 of Sheffield, UK
  • Imiren, E (2023, November) Female Digital Entrepreneurs Navigating Traditional Challenges in New Contexts, ISBE2024 Conference, Ashton 咪咪视频, Birmingham, UK
  • Imiren, E. and Adefila, A. (2021). A conceptual overview of institutions as bipartrate in perpetuating the vulnerability of female digital entrepreneurs. Presented at 2021 Transforming Trajectories conference
  • Imiren, E. (2019) Understanding Entrepreneurial Legitimacy among Female Digital Entrepreneurs. Presented at Scottish Entrepreneurship Research Seminar (SERS)
  • Imiren E., Mwaura S., Stoyanov S. (2018) Process View of Gendered Institutions in Digital Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Framework and Evidence from Nigeria. Presented at 3rd Annual CAREED Conference
  • Imiren E., Mwaura S., Stoyanov S. (2017) Women in Digital Entrepreneurship: institutional influences, lived experience and perspectives from a developing country. Presented at 28th Annual IIMA and 4th ICITED joint conference

Efe has presented her research at international conferences including International Conference on Information Technology and Economic Development, Scottish Entrepreneurship Research Seminar (SERS) and ISBE Gender and Enterprise Confreat. In addition, Efe has served as reviewer for International Information Management Association Conference and 咪咪视频 of Strathclyde Doctoral School Multidisciplinary Symposium (DSMS) and continues to be a reviewer for the following: The International Journal of Management Education, The International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research (IJEBR), International Small Business Journal (ISBJ), AI & SOCIETY, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, TECHNOVATION, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Academy of Management and ISBE conferences.

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
  • Member, Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (ISBE)
  • Member, Academy of Management (AOM)
  • Member, British Academy of Management (BAM)
  • Member, Reviewer College, ISBE
  • Active contributor to entrepreneurship and enterprise education networks
  • Africa Tech Research also known as Research Forum Entrepreneurship Africa
  • Interdisciplinary Network of Technology and Entrepreneurship (Research in African Societies)