Naja Pape

Hi,

I’m Naja. I am a PhD Candidate in Management at INSEAD.

I’m on the academic job market in 2025.

My research interests revolve around inequality in entrepreneurship at the earliest stages of the entrepreneurial journey, with a focus on female and other minority entrepreneurs such as job seekers who express a desire to transition into entrepreneurship. I study how individuals develop and act on business ideas, as well as how organizations such as incubators and government agencies play an enabling role in helping early-stage entrepreneurs in their fledgling efforts to launch, innovate, and grow.

To conduct this research effectively, I build deep relationships with entrepreneurial support organizations and community partners. Within these real-world contexts, I conduct field experiments and thorough qualitative fieldwork to understand my research setting and inform my research.

In my dissertation, I examine why differences in entrepreneurial intentions, persistence, and actions persist across genders and develop experimental interventions that can be deployed along key steps of the pre-entry phase to mitigate the internal and external barriers that aspiring female entrepreneurs face.