“Understanding the role of resources in building resilience in marketing systems of refugee-run businesses in Europe”

Professor Stefanie Beninger (IE Business School – Marketing Department),  has been recently awarded with  a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship of the EU H2020 Research Program for the study of the impact of refugee-run small-scale businesses on resilience of marketing systems within refugee settlements.

Resilience is the ability of a system to recover in the face of disturbances. The project will seek to understand the resource sets in the marketing system in relation to resilience through employing an integrated capitals framework that includes nine resources (financial, physical, social, natural, human, cultural, public, political, and health) and bridges seven existing capitals frameworks from academia and practice. The project includes a longitudinal fieldwork to collect observational and interview-based data in a refugee settlement in Europe and will inductively analyse this data towards the creation of theoretical models that could further academic understanding of resilience, marketing systems, and involved resources, while aiming to create actionable models that can be used to strengthen economic activities related to refugees.

The running of small businesses is of key importance towards supporting refugees’ integration. Resilience is named as a part of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals related to communities. The understandings that will be contributed through this project are important to the refugees themselves, their host countries, and the public and private sector, and thus to the future of Europe and the wider global community.

The Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowships is one of the most prestigious and competitive Sub-Programs of the EU H2020 Program, awarded to support promising best researchers that mobilize to develop their research career in Europe. Professor Beninger is a Dutch researcher that obtained her PhD in Marketing from Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and has been a guest lecturer at that University (where she received an award for her outstanding teaching), and at Nyenrode Business University (the Netherlands),  and the University of Mandalay (Myanmar). Before her academic career Dr. Beninger worked in marketing and management in Canada and the Netherlands.