Dr. J.K. Verduyn

Dr. J.K. Verduyn

Karen is one of the initiators of the VU Master’s specialization in Entrepreneurship. She is currently the overall coordinator of the programme and teaches the course Entrepreneurship in Action. She graduated in Business Administration at Erasmus University (Rotterdam) in 1995. After obtaining her Master’s degree, she worked for several years at Rabobank Nederland in various advisory positions. Afterwards she became director of Tekom Vertalers BV. In 2002 she started her PhD at VU on the subject ‘Tales of Entrepreneurship’. She successfully defended her thesis in December 2007.

Karen’s own tale is also one of entrepreneurship. Apart from being an assistant professor at VU University Amsterdam, she runs an organic dairy farm with her husband. Both her parents are entrepreneurs and most of her grandparents were entrepreneurs or otherwise self-employed. Consequently, Karen says that she really ‘doesn’t know better than to act entrepreneurially’. Acting entrepreneurially to Karen means: turning opportunities into action. She wants to share this enthusiastic and proactive vision with her students.

Research interests
Karen’s research interests are in entrepreneurial stories. To Karen, these stories are interesting and important because they provide a glimpse of entrepreneurial reality in all its dynamics and complexity. She is interested in research directed at collecting and/or generating these stories (i.e. field studies) as well as in looking at ‘other sides’ of these stories (what lies ‘behind’ the stories, the ‘dark sides’, for example).

Some of Karen’s academic publications

• Verduyn, J.K. (2010) Rhythmanalyzing the Emergence of ‘The Republic of Tea’. EN:TER; (in press), 1(1).
• Dahles, H., Verduyn, K., Wakkee, I. (2010) Introduction to a special issue on soci(et)al entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Communities, 4(1).
• Verduyn, J.K., Wakkee, I.A.M., Kleijn, E.A.H. (2009) Filming Entrepreneurship. International Review of Entrepreneurship, 7(3).
• Verduyn, J.K. (2007). Tales of entrepreneurship. Contributions to understanding entrepreneurial life. VU University Amsterdam (PhD thesis).

Want to know more?
www.linkedin.com/in/karenverduyn