Assistant Professor
DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University
lashitea@mcmaster.ca

Nonresident Fellow
Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution
alashitew@brookings.edu

I have made important contributions to vital research topics on women entrepreneurship, inclusive business and corporate sustainability.

An key part of my research agenda is understanding the institutional and organizational constraints that hold back women entrepreneurs. As an author of a recent top journal publication at Entrepreneurship Theory and Practices, I was able to compile a global database of firms from diverse sources, which enabled us to study the performance effects of the pandemic on women entrepreneurs.

The results, which were also shared as a policy piece that was published by Brookings Institution, has documented how a change in work-life balance during the pandemic had had a negative effect on the performance of enterprises managed by women.

The results also revealed how sound public policies in some countries were able to reduce the negative effect of the pandemic on women entrepreneurs.