Dr Vicky Nowak
Senior Lecturer
Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability
My profile
Biography
I joined MMU as a Lecturer in April 2019, and have since taught across the Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) and the BA in Business and Management.
My research focuses on social and sustainable enterprise, micro-business and self-employment in context, particularly the context of place.
Before academia I worked in the public and non-profit sectors in research and policy roles.
Interests and expertise
I am interested in how entrepreneurialism and social enterprise can create economic, social and environmental justice in local communities. This has led to research on how social value creation within social enterprises is influenced by multiple contexts including policy and place. I am also interested in how for-profit small and micro businesses create social value, focusing on their embeddedness in place.
Research outputs
I adopt a critical approach that draws on Karl Polanyi’s conception of embedded economies, which informs current research surrounding social and sustainable enterprise, micro-business, self-employment and inclusive growth. I have particular interest in rethinking concepts of entrepreneurialism and social enterprise away from economistic and ‘heroic’ conceptions, especially as related to opening up possibilities for economic, social and environmental justice in urban environments. My publications include articles in Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, International Small Business Journal and Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
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Reports
Heap, H., Nowak, V., Schwaller, E., Southern, A., Thompson, M. (2019) Growth, sustainability and purpose in the community business market in the Liverpool City Region. Power to Change Trust.
Chambraud, C., Nagamootoo, N., Radcliffe, L., Schaefer, A., Nowak, V., Walne, S., Hardy, C., Mokhtar, D. (2018) Equal Lives: Parenthood and Caring in the Workplace. Business in the Community.
Southern, A., Thompson, M., Davies, J., Nowak, V., Furmedge, P. (2017) How to deliver great jobs: towards a regional industrial strategy for the Liverpool City Region. University of Liverpool: Institute for Public Policy and Practice.
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Journal articles
Bull, M., Curtis, T., Nowak, V. (2022) 'Editorial Presentation: Critical perspectives in social innovation, social enterprise and/or the social solidarity economy.' NOvation - Critical Studies of Innovation, (4) pp. 1-7.
Curtis, T., Bull, M., Nowak, V. (2022) 'The rising tide of criticality in social entrepreneurship and social innovation.' NOvation - Critical Studies of Innovation, (4) pp. 8-34.
Nowak, V., Raffaelli, P. (2022) 'The interconnected influences of institutional and social embeddedness on processes of social innovation: A Polanyian perspective.' Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 34(3-4) pp. 319-342.
North, P., Nowak, V., Southern, A., Thompson, M. (2020) 'Generative Anger: From Social Enterprise to Antagonistic Economies.' Rethinking Marxism, 32(3) pp. 330-347.
Thompson, M., Nowak, V., Southern, A., Davies, J., Furmedge, P. (2020) 'Re-grounding the city with Polanyi: from urban entrepreneurialism to entrepreneurial municipalism.' Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(6) pp. 1171-1194.
Parkinson, C., Nowak, V., Howorth, C., Southern, A. (2020) 'Multipartite attitudes to enterprise : a comparative study of young people and place.' International Small Business Journal, 38(4) pp. 293-317.
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Conference papers
Bull, M., Nowak, V. (2023) 'How Social enterprise organisational ontologies influence practice.' In EMES International Social Enterprise Conference. Frankfurt, 11/9/2023 - 14/9/2023.
Bull, M., Nowak, V., mccloughlin, K. (2022) 'Exploring the valuation practices of social enterprises in cocoa supply chains.' In International Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference. York, 27/10/2022 - 28/10/2022.
Bull, M., curtis, T., Nowak, V. (2022) 'The rising tide of criticality in social entrepreneurship and social innovation.' In International Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference. 27/10/2022 - 28/10/2022.
Nowak, V. (2021) 'The performative (de)legitimation of entrepreneurial identity through business support.' 8/7/2021 - 10/7/2021. European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS),
Raffaelli, P., Nowak, V. (2021) 'All you need is love: Affective practices of caring in Social Enterprises.' In Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics SASE Virtual. Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics (SASE) Virtual, 2/7/2021 - 5/7/2021.
Nowak, V. (2021) 'From ‘Varieties of’ to ‘Variegated’ entrepreneurship: Understanding entrepreneurship through a Polanyian lens.' In Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics. Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics (Virtual), 2/7/2021 - 5/7/2021.
Nowak, V., Raffaelli, P. (2017) 'Heroic entrepreneurship in the social and solidarity economy - a miraculous cure for neoliberal economic hegemony, or part of the disease?.' In 6th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 3/7/2017 - 6/7/2017.
Thompson, M., North, P., Southern, A., Nowak, V. (2017) 'The Whole Economies Research Collective (WERC): Working towards urban transformation in Liverpool.' In 6th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 3/7/2017 - 6/7/2017.
Nowak, V. (2017) 'Resilience, vulnerability and entrepreneurship: Contested concepts and power relations in the post-industrial city through a substantivist Polanyian lens.' 5/4/2017 - 9/4/2017.
Nowak, V. (2016) 'Understanding entrepreneurship in low-income communities: A substantivist approach.' 19/5/2016 - 20/5/2016.
Parkinson, C., Southern, A., Howorth, C., Nowak, V. (2015) 'Young people and entrepreneurial cultures in low-income communities.' In 8th ICEIRD Conference ‘Entrepreneurship, Employment and Exclusion’. Sheffield, 18/6/2015 - 19/6/2015. pp. 188-204.