We are delighted to share that Mohammed Bendaanane, Doctoral candidate at the Professorship of Corporate Sustainability, has been awarded the G. Dale Meyer Iconoclast Award for Best Paper at the 2025 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC).
The award, presented by Babson College and the G. Dale Meyer Iconoclast Fund, recognizes the best paper with a doctoral student as lead author. Mohammed’s paper, “Afraid of Their Own Shadow? Unpacking the Link Between Entrepreneurs’ Intersectional Social Categorization and Their Perceptions of Crime in an Informal Economy Context,” examines how entrepreneurs’ social identities and perceptions of risk shape their actions in informal economies.
This achievement highlights not only Mohammed’s academic excellence but also the Chair’s ongoing commitment to impactful research on entrepreneurship and sustainability 🌱
Mohammed’s research interests span broadly entrepreneurship and organization theory. In his doctoral work, he studies how energy entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa address societal challenges at the intersection of poverty and energy access. While his dissertation primarily applies qualitative methods, he also has an interest in quantitative approaches, particularly spatial data analysis in entrepreneurship and organizational research.
Special recognition also goes to Mohammed’s co-authors, Prof. Siddharth Vedula (Technical University of Munich and Miami University) and Prof. Robert Nason (McGill University), whose collaboration contributed to this outstanding work.
Congratulations to Mohammed on this well-deserved honor! 👏