Prof. A.U. Saka-Helmhout (Ayse)

Prior to joining the Nijmegen School of Management (the Netherlands) in 2014, Ayse worked as a Reader in the Department of International Business and Sustainable Systems at the University of Surrey (UK). She holds a PhD from Warwick Business School (UK). She has been a visiting scholar at BI Norwegian Business School, and John Molson School of Business, Concordia University.

Ayse's research focuses on how MNEs display social agency despite their institutional embeddedness. Her work has highlighted responses by MNEs to multiple institutional pressures from a comparative perspective and through processes such as translation. She was recently awarded a grant by the Food & Business Knowledge Platform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands to investigate the effectiveness of networks in institutionally void settings. The study was piloted in the development of the seed potato sector in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Recent publications
*Booltink, L. W. A. and Saka-Helmhout, A. (2018). 'The effects of R&D intensity and internationalisation on the performance of non-high-tech SMEs', International Small Business Journal, 36: 81-103.
*Doh, J., Rodrigues, S., Saka-Helmhout, A., and Makhija, M. V. (2017). 'International business responses to institutional voids', Journal of International Business Studies, 48: 293-307.
*Hotho, J. and Saka-Helmhout, A. (2017). 'In and between societies: Reconnecting comparative institutionalism and organization theory', Organization Studies, 38: 647-666.
*Saka-Helmhout, A., Deeg, R. and Greenwood, R. (2016). 'The MNE as a challenge to institutional theory: Key concepts, recent developments and empirical evidence', Journal of Management Studies, 53: 1-11.

Current PhD students
Amin Firuzabadi (2017-2021 with Bas Hillebrand): Business Ecosystems, Effectiveness and Evolution
Daniël Speldekamp (2015-2019 with Joris Knoben): Explaining Innovativeness in European Aerospace Clusters: The Role of Firm Networks and Institutions