Professor Diane Holt

Profile

Diane Holt (BSc, MSc, PhD) is an experienced teacher, researcher, and academic administrator. At Queen's University Belfast (2007-2013) she was programme leader for a suite of postgraduate programmes in the sustainability area. She previously held a position as Principal Lecturer at Middlesex University Business School (1996-2007) including 1.5 years seconded to their Dubai campus responsible for the roll out of their Business Programmes. During her time at the University Essex (2013-2019) she held various roles including Head of the Management and Marketing group, and the grant holder for three externally-funded research grants focused on various aspects of inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, social innovation, value chain and hybrid social enterprises.

In summer 2019 she moved to the University of Leeds to take up a Chair in Entrepreneurship where she has been involved in a range of activities including Acting Head of the Management Department (Nov 2023 – June 24), Subject group lead for the Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies (June 2019-Nov 2023); and is currently Departmental Director for International for the Management and Organisations Department at Leeds University Business School (September 2024- present).

Diane has published over 50 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She has over 8400 cites in Google scholar in areas such as the role of business in development, social, entrepreneurship, green supply chain management and sustainability discourse. She has won over £980K of external funding with grants from UKRI, ESRC, NRF (South Africa), British Academy, British Council, Newton Fund and Nuffield Foundation. Other activities include contributions to the Youth Social entrepreneurship United Nations expert meeting in December 2018 and authoring the United Nations report on Youth Entrepreneurship published in 2020 and hosted on their SDGs page. She has also been a member of the ESRC & GCRF Peer Review College, the British Council Newton Fund Social Science Panel, a Marie Curie expert reviewer, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Responsibilities

• Departmental Director for International

Research interests

Diane is recognised internationally for her research activities. She has a broad focus on the role that enterprises (commercial, non-profit, social, hybrid) in both the formal and informal economy can play in sustainable development and poverty alleviation. She explores these organisations, their stakeholders and beneficiaries and various interactions with environmental and social issues especially in low-income contexts in the Global South. In particular her work explores various processes, decision making, use of innovations and strategy in such enterprises, as well as their impacts on communities and the natural world. In the case of her informal economy work this focus is on their reactive natures, their strategic gaps, links with the formal and role in livelihoods for millions in poverty. She is amongst the leading international scholars on hybrid social enterprises and businesses based in the informal economy (primarily in subsidence markets). Her work on the institutional and cultural-cognitive factors influencing hybrid firms in sub-Saharan Africa is on the cutting edge of narratives emerging in this field. Her Trickle Out Africa Project (ESRC First Grants Scheme (Feb 2011 - April 2013)), was the first to profile at a large scale social and environmental enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa and work from this contributed to impact activities including inputs into the social economy policy of South Africa produced by the ILO and her commissioned report on Youth Entrepreneurship for the United Nations.

Other awards/activities include:

- In the Brazilian Amazon (i) Newton Fund Impact Scheme – Brazil (May 2020- April 2022); (ii) British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship - Brazil (Sept 2016 - Aug 2019), “Inclusion and formalization of Amazonian informal entrepreneurs into MNC value chains-mechanisms, partnerships and impacts”

- In South Africa (i) ESRC- NRF PhD Partnering Programme – South Africa (Nov 15 - Oct 18), “South African PhD Partnering Network for Inclusive Growth through Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship - The SASIE Programme and Network”. In partnership with university of Witwatersrand (Wits), University of Pretoria and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan; (ii) British Council Researcher Links Workshop South Africa (5 days Sept 14), “Development through Enterprise - Inclusive and sustainable futures through entrepreneurial initiatives and cross-sector partnerships”. http://inclusivefuturesworkshop.weebly.com. Partnership with the University of Cape Town, Bertha Center for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship "http://inclusivefuturesworkshop.weebly.com/"

- Exploring the use of a low-tech tool for conservation agriculture: A Field Experiment in Kenya” - field experiment set in 41 subsistence farms in near Mount Kenya.

- Nuffield Small Grant (2009), “What future for green small businesses? Tracking the longitudinal evolution of ecopreneurial businesses from the 1990’s”

She is currently leading a project exploring informal economy /micro-businesses in Kenya in partnership with the University of Nairobi.

Qualifications

• PhD (Management) Middlesex University 2005
• MSc Environmental Management, University of Stirling, 1993
• BSc (Hons) Environmental Science, 1991

Professional memberships

• Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Student education

Areas of teaching interest include:

- social purpose ventures

- social entrepreneurship

- supply chains

- sustainable management