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Centre for Enterprise, Environment and Development Research (CEEDR)

Supporting sustainable business, finance, inclusive socio-economic development and wellbeing

Welcome to the Centre for Enterprise, Environment and Development Research (CEEDR).

Our research examines the economy to help build stronger communities. We study small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), social enterprises, and sustainable businesses in the UK and internationally.

The economy, society, and the planet face significant challenges. Our research explores how responsible, resilient, and sustainable businesses respond to these challenges. We examine how they can provide good work, inclusive prosperity, innovation, wellbeing, and a regenerative economy.

Our research

Our research

Our work has an established reputation for high quality, independence, and meaningful impact. It informs policy and practice in business and place-based economic development.

We work internationally and ensure that our research reflects the local context wherever it has an impact.

Our research themes

CEEDR staff and associates

Postgraduate Research

Postgraduate Research

We offer postgraduate research degree programmes with dedicated supervision. Students can study full-time or part-time.

As a research student, you will join a community of scholars and academics who will support you throughout your programme. You will also take part in a development programme. This provides the advice and guidance needed to pursue an academic career. It will also help you maximise the impact of your work through knowledge exchange.

We welcome PhD and DProf applications in the following core research areas:

Sustainable business organisations

  • Circular economy business models
  • Nature based solutions
  • Green finance.

Social enterprise

  • Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise
  • Measuring social value
  • Innovation and public services
  • Social investment and green finance.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) growth, innovation and finance

  • Financing SME growth
  • Home based business
  • Migrant and ethnic minority businesses
  • Measuring firm performance.

Local/regional economic development and regeneration

  • Clusters in developed and developing economies
  • Informal economic activities
  • Diversity and urban economic development
  • Sustainability and the green economy.

Goodwork, wellbeing and employment

  • Maternity protection in SMEs
  • SME regulation and employee relations
  • Labour market and skills policy and analysis.

For further discussion of PhD possibilities, please contact Bianca Stumbitz.

Postgraduate researcher Title of study Supervisor(s)
Gretchen Faguingas Fedcheck Pathways to Sustainable Indigenous Entrepreneurship in the Cordillera Uplands of the Philippines Bianca Stumbitz, Patrick Elf, Joanna Masangkay
Folakemi Brown-Emodi From Compliance to Influence: How Corporate Social Responsibility Enables SME 
Collaboration with Government on Social Sustainability Policy in the UK		 Patrick Elf and Meri Juntti
Shan Wang Incentivising social enterprise financing: the case of social investment tax relief Robyn Owen (Fergus Lyon)
Vitor de Moura (based at KCL) Co-production of Socially Inclusive Atmospheres: The Institutional Key to Broaden Societal Change, Marketplace Inclusion, and Marginalised Groups' Empowerment Patrick Elf
Salma Talla (based at De Montfort) Emerging Digital Economic Activities: Organisational Framing and the Co-production of Structural Interdependence and Institutional Evaluation - The Case of Digital Fashion Patrick Elf

Postgraduate researcher Title of study Supervisor(s)
Perihan Abdelghaly, 2025 Examining small and medium enterprises’ responses to public personnel petty corruption: the case of “The Arab Republic of Egypt” Leandro Sepulveda (Salma Soliman)
Joanna Masangkay, 2025 Impact measurement in social enterprises: rationales & current practices in an Australian context Fergus Lyon (Ian Vickers and Orthodoxia Kyriacou) 
Safia Minney, 2025 Crafting a post growth future in the fashion industry Patrick Elf and Andrea Werner
Ambrose Massaquoi, 2024 The role of the Christian faith in the emergence of social entrepreneurship in Lagos, Nigeria Fergus Lyon (Brian Jennings)
Craig Dearden-Phillips, 2023 A life in social entrepreneurship: exploring my learning, beliefs and my future through autoethnographical, institutional, motivational and critical lenses.  DProf thesis Middlesex University 
Helwig, N. 2023 From ballet studio to business school: dancing in the social enterprise in-betweens DProf thesis Middlesex University 
Lisa Borley, 2022 Regulation as an opportunity for learning and small business development: The case of Environmental Health inspections and good learning behaviours: Middlesex University Research Repository Ian Vickers (Alan Page)
Jude Kenechi Onyima, 2022 Immigrant business breakout in a transnational environment: A study of Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs Leandro Sepulveda (Stephen Syrett)
Adeyemi Adelekan, 2021 Circular Economy strategies of social enterprises in Lagos: a case study approach Fergus Lyon (Andrea Werner)
Theresia Harrer, 2021 Communicating values: essays on trust and legitimacy as dynamic drivers of decision-making in crowdfunding Othmar Lehner (Fergus Lyon)
Sarah Machado Marques Sampaio, 2020 Gender practices and the business-household nexus: Women’s entrepreneurship in São Paulo, Brazil Stephen Syrett (Bianca Stumbitz)
Maria Irurita, 2019 The emergence of social innovation within the social economy: the case of social enterprises in England Fergus Lyon (Ian Vickers)
Salman Khan, 2018

Governance, marketplaces and social capital: the role of Batkhela bazaar in the evolving governance of the Malakand region of Pakistan

 Stephen Syrett (Janroj Keles)
Stanislaus Maduka, 2018 An examination of debt financing of growth oriented SMEs in Nigeria Leandro Sepulveda (Robyn Owen)

Belinda Bell, 2018

 A career as a social entrepreneur: exploring social enterprise through institutional and critical theories

DProf thesis Middlesex University
Valentina Moretta, 2017 Territorial capital and firm performance: evidence from Italian regions

Stephen Syrett (Leandro Sepulveda)
Anthony Ayakwah, 2016 Internationalisation of business clusters: the case of fruit processing clusters in Ghana Leandro Sepulveda (Fergus Lyon)
Abdullah Al Faruq, 2016 Understanding Social Enterprise Growth: The Case of Bangladesh Ian Vickers (Fergus Lyon)
Ricardo Raimundo, 2016 Learning processes in growth-oriented SMEs: the Portuguese case Stephen Syrett (Ian Vickers)
Funders and Clients

Funders and Clients

When delivering contract research, we work closely with clients to produce rigorous outputs that meet their needs.

We offer a wide range of research consultancy services. These include policy and strategic evaluations, primary and secondary data collection, analysis, and action research.

Our activities receive grant-based research funding from organisations such as the Economic and Social Research Council and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. We also conduct contract research commissioned by:

  • national government departments
  • international organisations
  • local and regional bodies.

  • Economic Social Research Council
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council
  • Natural Environment Research Council
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
  • British Academy
  • Joseph Rowntree Foundation
  • Technology Strategy Board
  • Barrow Cadbury Trust

  • Arts Enterprise with a Social Purpose
  • Food Farming and Countryside Commission
  • Ikea
  • New Philanthropy Capital
  • Plunkett Foundation
  • Power to Change
  • School for Social Entrepreneurs
  • Unltd
  • Zurich Foundation

  • British Bankers Association
  • Department for Business and Trade
  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
  • Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
  • HM Treasury
  • Innovate UK
  • Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
  • Research England
  • Scottish Government / Scottish Executive
  • UK Research and Innovation
  • London Borough of Barnet
  • London Borough of Hounslow

  • British Council
  • Enterprise Ireland
  • European Commission/Horizon 2020-Marie 
    Curie-Research & Innovation Staff Exchange
  • European Commission – DG Employment
  • European Commission – Directorate-General for
    Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
  • European Institute of Technology Climate Knowledge 
    and Innovation Community (EIT Climate-KIC)
  • International Labour Organisation
  • World Health Organisation
  • Youth Business International
Keep in touch

Keep in touch

If you'd like to learn more about our research, academic staff or publications, please contact us:

Professor Fergus Lyon, Head of CEEDR

Email: f.lyon@mdx.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8411 6856

Pamela Macaulay, CEEDR administrator

Email: p.macaulay@mdx.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8411 5460

Address

CEEDR 
Middlesex University Business School 
The Burroughs 
Hendon 
London NW4 4BT 
United Kingdom