Dr Emilio Costales

Dr Emilio Costales PhD, MA, BA, AFHEA

Senior Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Dr Emilio Costales is a Senior Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Executive Business Centre, Greenwich Business School and a Visiting Lecturer in Smart City Development at the University of Edinburgh-Napier’s Innovation Policy Lab.

His research sits at the intersection of Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation and Urban Development, with a particular emphasis on the spatial dimension of social entrepreneurship. Ultimately, the goal of his research is to dissect the role of Social Entrepreneurship in the development of Smart Cities and inform policy decisions for inclusive, sustainable, and liveable urban development. His research incorporates Systems theory, Sociomateriality, and the ethics based framework of Ordonomics to examine Business’ role in systems change.

Urban Development is an area very close to him, which has encouraged the use of autoethnographic, ethnographic, and netnographic field work to gain insight into the lived experiences of various persons living in the urban context, and explore the extent to which social entrepreneurship as a tool may shrink the gap between public participation and socioeconomically disadvantaged demographics. His research interests are primarily of an exploratory nature favouring abductive approaches. Methodologically, his research draws on multiple methods to complement his (auto)ethnographic field work such as diary studies, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, netnography, and systematic literature reviews. His work has been presented in well recognised international conferences, such as the Academy of Management.

Before coming to the United Kingdom, He taught financial literacy in New York City while completing his Bachelor Degrees in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University. Once in the UK, he worked extensively with local NGOs and volunteering organisations as a member of the Politics, Development and Sustainability Group, while he completed his MSc in Sustainable Development from Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2023 he completed his PhD in Business and Management from Royal Holloway, during which time he worked as a Research Assistant and Ideation Consultant for the Royal Holloway Enterprise Hub. In his capacity as Ideation Consultant, he supported student ventures through multiple rounds of funding of up to £50,000. As a research assistant he implemented data collection and analytical processes for a range of global research projects totalling over £1m in grant funding.

He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a member of the Academy of Management, a Fellow of the Ivey Sustainability Academy, and holds a certificate of Carbon Literacy from the Carbon Literacy Project. Dr Costales has ample experience in teaching undergraduates, postgraduates and offering mentorship to early-stage PhD researchers, and welcomes supervision inquiries from potential PhD Students.

Business and management

Responsibilities within the university

Dr. Costales is the PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) Faculty Co-Lead at the Greenwich Business School

Research

  • Research on the trajectory of Smart City development and decentralised urban development models
  • Research on Inclusivity and Justice in the Smart City
  • Research on the spatial dimension of Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation, and Entrepreneurship as Practice (EaP)
  • Research Project developing a blue-print for sustainable transition to a civic university

Teaching

  • Programme leader of new Executive MBA (EMBA) and Senior Leader Apprenticeship (SLA) programmes
  • Teaching modules on International Entrepreneurship
  • Teaching tutorials on the foundations of scholarship and research, and Global Business and Sustainability
  • Expert Speaker on Help 2 Grow programme
  • Developing Innovation Systems Change masterclass

Programme development

  • Lead curriculum and module design for Executive MBA (EMBA) Programme
  • Lead curriculum and module design for Senior Leader Apprenticeship (SLA) Programme
  • Developed Grand Challenges and Global Corporate Citizenship executive module
  • Co-Developing a University of Greenwich wide Sustainability Module for 1st year undergraduate students

Awards
  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Member of Academy of Management: Entrepreneurship and Social Issues in Management divisions
  • Committee Member of University of Greenwich Early Career Researchers Network
  • Member of University of Greenwich Green Champions Network
  • Fellow of the Ivey Sustainability Academy

Recognition
  • Visiting lecturer in Smart City Development at the University of Edinburgh-Napier Unity Lab https://www.unitylab.science/team
  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Member of Academy of Management: Entrepreneurship and Social Issues in Management Divisions
  • Fellow of the IVEY Sustainability Academy
  • Chair of University of Greenwich Early Career Researchers Network
  • Reviewer for the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship division
  • Reviewer for Revista di Sociologia del Territorio journal
  • Reviewer for Cities journal
  • Reviewer for Culture and Organization journal

Research / Scholarly interests

Dr Costales’ research interests sits at the intersection of Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation and Smart Cities. The dominant understanding of a Smart City is an urban environment which accelerates sustainability transitions though the continuous expansion of digital solutions to urban challenges. Social entrepreneurship refers to the implementation of entrepreneurial principles and business strategies to provide innovation solutions to social and environmental problems, often emphasising marginalised demographics. Social Innovation involves new ideas, practices, or approaches that extend beyond the scope of micro-level entrepreneurs and involves a macro-level perspective. Dr Costales’ research extends our understanding of the intersection of these domains by focusing on the spatial dimension of social entrepreneurship and social innovation to explore the extent to which Smart City models should focus less on technological solutions and more on human-focused solutions. To do so, his research incorporates Second-order Cybernetic Systems theory as a lens for highlighting the impact of Social Entrepreneurial Rule-Setting Behaviour and technological solutions as a complement to this behaviour.

Scholarly Expertise: Grand Challenges; Wicked Problems; Smart Cities; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Innovation; Systems Theory; Morphogenesis; Ordonomics

Methodological Expertise: Ethnography, Autoethnography, Netnography, Diary Studies, Systematic Literature Reviews

Dr. Costales welcomes PhD supervision enquiries related to the above areas

Key funded projects

  • Supply support to SME Community in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, (CO-I), Royal Borough of Greenwich, 1/2024-03/25
  • Tangible and Intangible Aspects of Socio-Cultural Regeneration: A Study of Engagement of Young People in Greenwich, (CO-I)., Regional Innovation Fund, 1/2024- 6/2024
  • EBC Innovation Support Scheme (EBCISS), (CO-I)., Regional Innovation Fund, 1/2024 -1/2025
  • Future-proofing the visitor offer of Royal Museums Greenwich – an analysis of ethnic minority and disadvantaged young visitors’ experiences with a special emphasis on sustainability (CO-I)., NUSC Small Grants Fund, 2/2024- 7/2024,
  • Student-Led Carbon Literacy (PI), GBS Student Progress initiative, 11/2023- 3/2024

Recent publications
  • Costales, E. (2022). Identifying sources of innovation: Building a conceptual framework of the Smart City through a social innovation perspective. Cities, DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103459,
  • Costales, E., & Zeyen, A. (2022). Social Capital and the Morphogenesis of Actors: Lessons from International Social Entrepreneurs. In The International Dimension of Entrepreneurial Decision-Making (pp. 193-222). Springer, Cham.
  • Costales, Emilio & Zeyen, Anica (2022) Social Entrepreneurship and Grand Challenges: Navigating Layers of disruption from COVID-19 and beyond. Palgrave pivot, Palgrave Macmillan,  ISBN: 978-3-031-07450-9
  • Costales, E., & Zeyen, A. (2022). Social Systems and Modern Society. In Social Entrepreneurship and Grand Challenges (pp. 33-49). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Presentations
  • Costales, E., Zeyen, A., & Branzei, O. (2022). Choreographing Space for Living One’s Calling: Lessons from COVID-19. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2022, No. 1, p. 13284). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
  • Costales, E., Zeyen, A., & Branzei, O. (2021). The Spatial Dimension of Social Entrepreneurship: Manifesting the Imaginary during COVID19. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2021, No. 1, p. 13277). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management

Recent Conference Paper Acceptances

  • Costales, Emilio & O’Rourke, Grace (2024) ‘Bridging the Gap: Cultivating Sustainability Initiatives in Post-92 Universities—A case Study of the University of Greenwich’, UK*I PRME Conference, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, June 19-21, 2024.
  • Costales, Emilio & Zeyen, Anica (2024) ‘Social Entrepreneurship and the Practice Tradition’, 20th Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference, Lausanne University, Switzerland, April 18-20, 2024.
  • Costales, Emilio & Zeyen, Anica (2023) ‘Navigating the Spatial Turn’, Lincoln Entrepreneurship and Innovation Colloquium 2023, Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
  • Costales, Emilio & Zeyen, Anica (2023) ‘(Social) Entrepreneurship as Spatial Practice’ 8th Annual Entrepreneurship as Practice Conference,  Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany, March 29-31 2023.
  • Costales, Emilio & Zeyen, Anica (2022): ‘Pluralism and the ideal city: Making sense of the human-centric smart city’, Paper presentation 38th EGOS Colloquium, Vienna. Sub-theme 57: Smart and Livable Cities SDGs in Urban Governance and Organization, 7th July- 9th July, 2022.