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

Lecturer in Entrepreneurship

Dr. Tabitha Sindani is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Programme Leader for the Postgraduate Research Degrees (PhDs and DBA) at the Executive Business Centre (EBC), University of Greenwich Business School. Tabitha designed and leads the first-ever flagship Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme and also serves as EBC’s lead representative on the Faculty Research Ethics Committee. She holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship (University of Roehampton, Business London), an MSc in Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (Newcastle University Business School), and is a Mandela Washington Fellow in Civic Leadership (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA) and YALI Fellow on Business and Entrepreneurship (Kenyatta University, Kenya). She is a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Before joining academia, she worked for the African Union Commission and other international development organisations, focusing on strategic policy planning, public-private sector partnerships, resource mobilisation and design-driven entrepreneurship. Her consultancy work includes projects on gender justice, women's empowerment, capacity-building and leadership development programmes for women and youth across Africa.

At Greenwich, her teaching portfolio as module leader and tutor spans across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including the MBA International Business, MBA Global and Executive MBA modules in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology management, and applied corporate strategy. She is also a personal tutor for the MBA Programmes, supervises PhD and MBA dissertations and internship/placements.

Tabitha’s research explores informal sector (Jua Kali) women’s entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa through feminist intersectionality, incorporating reflexive, visual ethnographic methods. Her work has been published as proceedings at the Academy of Management (AOM), British Academy of Management (BAM), Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), and European Group of Organisation Studies (EGOS) conferences and recently published in Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice (CABS 4*). She has actively led Knowledge Exchange projects as Principal Investigator, including the recently concluded collaborative project with Kenya Marine Research Institute (KEMRI) on women’s entrepreneurship in the downstream marine sector, an external partnership with the Global Sourcing Association (GSA), and contributes to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy notes on women’s entrepreneurship policy in Africa.

Beyond academia, Tabitha is passionate about women's empowerment, and her scholarship earned her recognition through prestigious leadership programs, including the Mandela Washington Fellowship, Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), the Commonwealth Scholarship and delivered a TED talk on unemployment. She’s currently supervising PhD students and welcomes supervision inquiries.

Business and management

Responsibilities within the university
  • Module leader for Global Strategy Analysis and Practice, International Entrepreneurship and digital innovation and Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Programme Leader for the Postgraduate Research Degrees (PhDs and DBA)
  • Designed and leads the flagship Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme
  • Lead School Representative on the Faculty Research Ethics Committee
  • Placement and Personal tutor for the MBA Global Programme
  • Supervisor for PhDs and MBA Global dissertation and internship/placements

Awards
  • 2023 Best Development Paper (Entrepreneurship Track), at the 37th British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Sussex, UK
  • 2024 Best Full Paper (African Studies Track), at the 38th British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Nottingham, UK
  • 2024 Best Paper (Entrepreneurship and Minority Track), at the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference, Sheffield, UK

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. (2025). Unpacking Work-Care Realities of Jua Kali Women Entrepreneurs: A Feminist Intersectional Perspective. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2025, No. 1, p. 24092). Valhalla, NY 10595: Academy of Management.
  • Garcia, R., Atkin, R., Bonillas, E., Brush, C., Gartner, W., Welter, F., Espinosa, J.E.A., Al-Dajani, H., Berglund, K., Dodd, S.D., Dey, P., et al (2025). How should we study heterogeneity in entrepreneurship? Moving the field to an inclusive approach. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, pp.1-168.
  • Sindani, T. (2025). Unmasking Patriarchy and Coloniality in Kenya’s Political Regimes: A Feminist Intersectional Analysis of Women’s Marginalisation in Palgrave Handbook on Decolonising Entrepreneurship
  • Sindani, T. (2025). The Influence of Extended Family on Women Entrepreneurship: Lessons from Rural Kenya in the Emerald Handbook of African Studies
  • Sindani, T. (2024). Examining the Influence of Extended Family Contexts: Lessons from Rural Kenya. In Proceedings of 38th British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference: Achieving transformation for the greater good: Societal, organisational, and personal barriers and enablers, 2-6 September 2024, Nottingham, UK. Available at: https://www.bam.ac.uk/conference-proceedings.html
  • Sindani, T. and Henry, C. (2024). Examining the Ineffectiveness of Women’s Enterprise Policy for Jua Kali Women Entrepreneurs in Rural Kenya. In Proceedings of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference: Entrepreneurship research, policy and practice for a more equitable world. 3-5 October, 2024, Sheffield, UK. Available at: https://www.isbe.org.uk/resources/conference-papers/
  • Sindani, T. and Al-Dajani, H. (2024). Beyond Survival: Unpacking the Hidden Empowerment of Jua Kali Women Entrepreneurs in Rural Kenya. In Proceedings of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference: Entrepreneurship research, policy and practice for a more equitable world. 3-5 October, 2024, Sheffield, UK. Available at: https://www.isbe.org.uk/resources/conference-papers/
  • Irene, B., Olorunfemi, D., Yeroz, H., Sekyere, K., Nwaozuzu, D., Onoshakpor, C., Ibukun,T., and Sindani, T. 2024. Building the Kingdom of God or Man? Heterodoxy and Legitimisation in African Neo-Pentecostal Entrepreneurialism, Presented at Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE)Conference, Sheffield, UK, 6-7 Nov 2024 https://www.isbe.org.uk/events/isbe-2024/
  • Onoshakpor, C., Sindani, T. and Irene, B., 2024. Redefining women's entrepreneurial financing mechanism in Kenya and Nigeria: the emergence of Chama and Esusu, In: Babson College Diana International Research Conference 2024, 1-3 June 2024, Stockholm, Sweden. pp71-72.
  • Sindani, T.M., 2022. From the Margins to the Centre: A feminist intersectionality perspective on the influence of contest on Jua Kali rural women entrepreneurship in Kenya. University of Roehampton (Doctoral dissertation, Doctoral dissertation).
  • Sindani, T.M 2021. We are all in ‘Jua Kali’: the influence of gender on women entrepreneurs in rural Kenya. Proceedings in the Gender Work and Organisation 11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference, 2021, pp 83-84,

Presentations
  • Sindani, T. (2025). Unpacking Work-Care Realities of Jua Kali Women Entrepreneurs: A Feminist Intersectional Perspective. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2025, No. 1, p. 24092). Valhalla, NY 10595: Academy of Management.
  • Sindani, T. (2025). Unpacking Intersectionality through Visual Ethnography: Insights into the Everyday Entrepreneurship of ‘Jua Kali’ Women in Rural Kenya Paper presentation, at the 41st EGOS Colloquium, Athens, Greece, submitted to Sub-theme 39: Innovating Intersectionality: Creative Frontiers for Epistemological and Methodological Perspectives, 4th July- 6th July, 2025
  • Sindani, T. (2025): ‘Stories from the Margins’ Keynote Speaker Presentation at the British Academy of Management, Gender Special Interest Group, online. 21-23July 2025
  • Sindani, T. (2025): From Theorising Otherness to Othering Theorising. Keynote Speaker Presentation, at the 15th International Interdisciplinary Gender Work and Organisation Conference in Nantes, France, 21-23July 2025.
  • Onoshakpor, C., Sindani, T. and Irene, B., 2025. Informal Entrepreneurial Financing Mechanisms: The Rise of Chama and Esusu in Sub-Saharan Africa. Paper Presentation submitted to African Studies Special Interest Group, at the 39th Annual Conference British Academy of Management, Kent Business School, UK, 1st- 5th September 2025
  • Onoshakpor, C., Sindani, T. and Irene, B., 2024. Redefining women's entrepreneurial financing mechanism in Kenya and Nigeria: the emergence of Chama and Esusu, In: Babson College Diana International Research Conference 2024, 1-3 June 2024, Stockholm, Sweden. pp71-72.
  • Onoshakpor, C., Irene, B., Chukwum-Nwuba, E., Sindani, T., Dewitt, S. and Felix-Faure, C. (2024).Uncovering the Darkside of entrepreneurship in Nigeria, through a gendered lens. In: 38th British Academy of Management Conference 2024 (BAM2024): 2nd - 6th September 2024, Nottingham Trent University, UK
  • Irene, B., Olorunfemi, D., Yeroz, H., Sekyere, K., Nwaozuzu, D., Onoshakpor, C., Ibukun,T., and Sindani, T. 2024. Building the Kingdom of God or Man? Heterodoxy and Legitimisation in African Neo-Pentecostal Entrepreneurialism, Presented at Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE)Conference, Sheffield, UK, 6-7 Nov 2024 https://www.isbe.org.uk/events/isbe-2024/
  • Sindani, T.M 2021. We are all in ‘Jua Kali’: the influence of gender on women entrepreneurs in rural Kenya. Proceedings in the Gender Work and Organisation 11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference, 2021, pp 83-84,
  • Sindani, T. (2020). The ineffectiveness of the Enterprise policy for Jua Kali women. Conference Paper Presented at the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) Conference at Kingston University, UK
  • 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