Der Kamp Maarten Van

Background

Dr Maarten van der Kamp is Director of the MSc in Management and Entrepreneurship and the MSc in Cleantech Entrepreneurship, and a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Bettany Centre in the School of Management. Within the University he focusses on stimulating student-led entrepreneurship and supporting early stage commercialisation of ideas coming out of the Schools of Technology. 

He is the Programme Lead for the ERDF-funded Growth for the Green Economy programme under the IMAGE project; the programme aims to support SMEs in the Clean- and Greentech sector in the SEMLEP region.

Maarten’s current research focuses on entrepreneurship as a set of practices, science and technology entrepreneurship, and business models for social and environmental impact ventures:

1. Journey from lab to life: what are trajectories for research-led venture ideas from the lab into the field? How are different components (funding, people, support, market) assembled and what are the consequences for how a technology makes it to market? And building on the previous question, what are suitable commercialisation strategies for Cranfield technologies, and how does decision-making affect future growth opportunities?
2. Following the emergence of the cleantech industry, what business models are suitable for environmental technologies to build a robust classification of cleantech ventures?
3. More broadly, what are successful business models for social impact, and how are tensions between social and economic objectives managed in practice?
4. Following the practice turn in management, how can entrepreneurial action be conceptualised as a web of distinct practices, and how do these shape sociomaterial relations?

He is currently supervising two DBA/PhD students.

Maarten''s previous research examined the management of sustainability in the production and consumption of certified goods at Lancaster University Management School; and included an Academy of Business in Society funded study about the integration of sustainability in mainstream leadership development programmes for the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. 

He is also the Founder and Managing Director of Value in Enterprise, a consultancy helping organisations innovate for a more sustainable society. It is his mission to develop entrepreneurs that are equipped to respond to current and emerging environmental and social challenges to create a more sustainable society. 

Maarten started his career at Royal Philips Electronics as a senior engineer, and after moving to the UK ran UKSEC (now EEUK), a network of enterprise centres at UK Higher Education Institutions. 

Maarten is an Assessor for the Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneur Awards, sits on the Board of the startup StopMyCraving, and is an advisor to the Venture Lab at the American University in Cairo. 

Current activities

Course Director MSc in Management and Entrepreneurship (Cranfield and Muscat) and the MSc in Cleantech Entrepreneurship (Cranfield)

Programme Lead for the ERDF-funded Growth for the Green Economy programme