Dr Tabitha Sindani PhD, MSc, BBM(Hons), FHEA

Lecturer in Entrepreneurship

Tabitha is a lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Executive Business Centre, Greenwich Business School. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy with over ten years of experience in higher education. She holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship from Roehampton University Business School, UK and a Master of Science degree in Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship from Newcastle University Business School, UK. She’s currently involved in teaching postgraduate modules in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology management, leadership, applied corporate strategy, business policy as well as MBA dissertation supervision.

Her research primarily focuses on gender and women’s entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship contexts, informal sector (Jua Kali) everyday entrepreneurship, micro and small enterprises, and enterprise policy. Prior to joining academia, Tabitha worked for the African Union Commission among other international development organisations where she gained a wealth of experience in strategic policy planning, public-private sector partnerships and resource mobilisation and design-driven entrepreneurship. Tabitha’s previous consultancy work has been based on gender justice and socio-economic development projects, designing and implementing capacity-building and leadership development programmes for women and youth.She is passionate about advancing female empowerment in rural communities through scholarship and entrepreneurship which led to her admission in prestigious leadership programmes such as the Young African Leadership Initiative and other international public speaking engagements on TED talk where she shared her story of how "unemployment became the ruby in my life" in Germany.

Business and management

Responsibilities within the university

Module Tutor on the foundations of scholarship and research, Global Business and Sustainability, and Strategy and Decision Making

Supervising MBA dissertations

Awards
  • Best Development Paper Award, Entrepreneurship Track, British Academy of Management 2023 Conference
  • Best Conference Paper, 13th MBA International Management Conference 2019
  • 2019 PhD Research Poster Competition Winner 2019, Roehampton University Business School
  • 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow, Civic Leadership Track
  • 2015 Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), Business and Entrepreneurship Track

Recognition

Fellow at the Advance High Education (previously Academy of Higher Education)

TED Speaker’s Community

Research / Scholarly interests
  • Informal sector entrepreneurship
  • Critical entrepreneurialism and everyday entrepreneurship
  • Gender and women’s entrepreneurship
  • Feminist intersectionality perspectives
  • Grounder Visual ethnographic analysis and reflexive methodologies

Key funded projects

Principal Investigator on a £3500 Southlands Methodist Trust Grant 2023/2024 collaborative project with the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI). Project Title: Post harvest losses reduction in the downstream marine fisheries for women fish traders: the case of Majengo in Mombasa County, Coast Region Kenya

Media activity

TEDx Talk, on how unemployment became the ruby of my life - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COtlbyUsFWI&t=19s&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Recent publications
  • Sindani, T. (2022). From the margins to the centre: A feminist intersectionality perspective of Jua Kali rural women entrepreneurship in Kenya (Doctoral dissertation, University of Roehampton).
  • Sindani, T. (2021). The Vulnerability of Women Entrepreneurs in ‘Jua Kali’: Lessons from Rural Kenya. Proceedings in the Gender Wok and Organisation 11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference, 2021
  • Sindani, T. (2020). The ineffectiveness of Enterprise policy for Jua Kali women. Conference Paper Presented at Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at Kingston University, 2020
  • Sindani, T. (2019). Formal and Informal Institutions Influencing Rural Female Entrepreneurs in Western Kenya: A Critical Exploration, Conference Paper Presented at the Iv Cham International Conference Fcsh/Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
  • Sindani, T. (2018). Factors Influencing the Growth of Rural Female Entrepreneurs, a case of Vihiga County, Kenya (Master’s dissertation, Newcastle University).

Presentations
  • Sindani, T (2023) Exposing the ‘Dark Side’ of Jua Kali Entrepreneurial Spatial Contexts: Lessons from Rural Kenya. , 37th Annual Conference British Academy of Management 2023 Conference, University of Sussex, UK
  • Ineffectiveness of Women’s Enterprise Policy on Women Entrepreneurs in the Informal Sector in Rural Kenya, 37th Annual Conference British Academy of Management 2023 Conference, University of Sussex, UK
  • Examining the Everyday Mother-Worker Entrepreneurial Experiences of ‘Jua Kali’ Women Entrepreneurs in Rural Kenya. Gender, Work and Organization 2023 Conference, Stellenbosch Business School, CapeTown-South Africa.
  • Sindani, T. (2021). The Vulnerability of Women Entrepreneurs in ‘Jua Kali’: Lessons from Rural Kenya. 11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Gender Wok and Organisation Virtual Conference 2021.