Academic Positions - Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Position purpose

• The appointee will strengthen the Institute's research programme in enterprise life courses, survival and scaling. The role requires a scholar able to generate theoretically significant and practically useful evidence for African enterprise futures, develop postgraduate capacity and work across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree NQF 10 in Entrepreneurship or Small-business Development or Development Economics or Enterprise Development or Business Management or Economic Sociology or Public Policy, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A strong record of research and/or academic leadership, with demonstrated leadership in enterprise life courses, survival and scaling research.
• Substantial and sustained period of distinguished academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment, with recognised standing in the field.
• A sustained record of high-quality, cited research; competitive grant awards; international recognition; and leadership of substantial externally funded programmes.
• Evidence of excellent teaching, postgraduate mentorship, curriculum contribution and academic citizenship appropriate to appointment rank.
• A minimum of ten 10 DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline, with evidence of research quality and impact.
• Evidence of substantial record of successful supervision to completion of Master's and Doctoral students.
• Demonstrated success in securing competitive research funding grants, contracts or commissioned research.
• Evidence of leading multidisciplinary teams and building national/international research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• Longitudinal enterprise research; survival, failure and recovery; productivity and managerial capability; enterprise finance; informal-formal pathways; responsible scaling and employment quality.

Key responsibilities

• Provide senior intellectual leadership for the KwaZulu-Natal Enterprise Life-Course Observatory and establish a rigorous longitudinal panel of township, rural, informal, student and innovation-driven ventures.
• Advance comparative African scholarship on necessity- and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, enterprise resilience, household-enterprise interdependence, finance across the enterprise lifecycle and pathways to productive scale.
• Design and lead robust evaluations of enterprise-support interventions, including appropriate comparison strategies and mixed-method longitudinal analysis.
• Develop and sustain a focused programme of original, high-quality research within the designated Institute theme.
• Build ethical, mutually beneficial research partnerships with entrepreneurs, communities, government, industry and African or international universities.
• Translate research into evidence briefs, decision tools and demonstrable policy, enterprise or ecosystem use while maintaining academic independence.
• Comply with DUT requirements for research ethics, data governance, intellectual property, financial management, reporting and audit readiness.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary Institute seminars, postgraduate training, limited teaching where required, and the collegial life of DUT.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• An NRF rating or demonstrable eligibility for rating, or equivalent recognised research standing.
• Advanced competence in quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed research methods relevant to enterprise research, including ethical use of administrative, platform or longitudinal data.
• A record of engaged scholarship and credible knowledge translation for policy, industry, entrepreneurs or communities.
• Demonstrated commitment to inclusive development, with research addressing youth entrepreneurship, women-owned enterprises, informal economies, rural enterprise development, sustainability, or social innovation.
• Experience in translating research into decision-support tools, policy frameworks, enterprise-development models, diagnostic instruments, or other practical outputs with measurable external impact.
• Demonstrated contribution to entrepreneurship education, curriculum innovation, entrepreneurial learning, or the advancement of entrepreneurial university practices

Position 2

Associate Professor: Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Finance and Resilience

• Theme 1: Inclusive Enterprise Formation, Survival and Scaling
• Reference Number: 30002767
• Status of Position: Permanent
• Campus: Durban / Pietermaritzburg, as determined by DUT

Position purpose

• The appointee will strengthen the Institute's research programme in inclusive entrepreneurship, enterprise finance and resilience. The role requires a scholar able to generate theoretically rigorous and practically relevant evidence on enterprise formation, survival, productivity, resilience and scaling within diverse African contexts.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree NQF 10 in entrepreneurship or finance or development studies or economics or business management or behavioural science, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A good record of research and/or academic leadership, with demonstrated engagement in inclusive entrepreneurship, enterprise finance and resilience.
• A significant period of sustained academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment, with demonstrable expertise in inclusive entrepreneurship, enterprise finance and resilience.
• Evidence of research quality through appropriate bibliometrics, grant awards, academic leadership, very good teaching and meaningful disciplinary or community engagement.
• A minimum of seven 7 DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline, with evidence of research quality and impact.
• Successful supervision to completion of Master's and Doctoral students.
• Evidence of success in securing competitive research funding grants, contracts or commissioned research.
• Evidence of leading or contributing to multidisciplinary teams and building national/international research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• Inclusive entrepreneurial pathways; youth, women and community entrepreneurship; alternative finance; entrepreneur wellbeing; business continuity; informal enterprise development and second-chance entrepreneurship.

Key responsibilities

• Lead research on differentiated enterprise pathways in unequal and resource-constrained settings, with particular attention to township, rural and informal economies.
• Develop and validate diagnostics of survival, resilience, productivity, finance readiness and scaling constraints for distinct enterprise types.
• Build participatory studies with entrepreneurs and ecosystem partners that preserve research independence and produce actionable evidence.
• Lead or contribute to competitive grant proposals, commissioned research and multi-partner research programmes.
• Build ethical, mutually beneficial research partnerships with entrepreneurs, communities, government, industry and African or international universities.
• Translate research into evidence briefs, decision tools and demonstrable policy, enterprise or ecosystem use while maintaining academic independence.
• Comply with DUT requirements for research ethics, data governance, intellectual property, financial management, reporting and audit readiness.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary Institute seminars, postgraduate training, limited teaching where required, and the collegial life of DUT.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• An NRF rating or demonstrable eligibility for rating, or equivalent recognised research standing.
• Advanced competence in quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed research methods relevant to enterprise research, including ethical use of administrative, platform or