Born of a Tunisian mother and a Dominican father and married to a French citizen, Rachida likes to describe herself as a product of globalization. “I am very versatile and, in that respect, the cultural diversity and openness to change of IE University provides me with an ideal environment where I can develop my potential to its fullest extent” says Rachida.
It is this atypical profile that underlies Rachida’s interest in fields like women entrepreneurs or social enterprises, often challenging widely held assumptions about the role of gender and non-economic goals in entrepreneurial outcomes. As an example, her ongoing research looks at the individual and firm-level contingencies that influence the extent to which a social enterprise creates social and economic value over time. Her work has been published in several academic outlets such as the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Ethics, as well as in several book chapters. She has been granted several awards from her research, including the including the “Outstanding award for Best Dissertation” from the UAM, the “Best Women’s Entrepreneurship Paper Award”, from the Academy of Management Conference, and the Social Entrepreneurship Award for Excellence in Scholarship from the U.S. Assoc. for Small Business. She also currently leads the Impact Bridge-IE Chair of social entrepreneurship and impact investing and acts as Associate Editor of several renowned Academic Journals.
In teaching entrepreneurship at several academic levels (Executive, Graduate, Undergraduate and PhD), Rachida strives to develop student’s awareness of the power of entrepreneurship to address Sustainable Development Goals and create sustainable and social value. She has developed numerous papers and multimedia teaching materials, and won several teaching cases awards, including the EFMD Responsible Business Case Writing Competition.
Rachida is highly engaged in action research and community outreach. She sits at several boards and has served as Academic Director for the BBVA-Momentum, a Social Business Accelerator operating in 5 countries. She also served as a policy advisor for the European Commission, as well as heading the Entrepreneurship Department for the past four years. Most recently, she was elected Program Chair for the Entrepreneurship Division of the esteemed Academy of Management.
ACDEMIC EXPERIENCE
• Program Chair, Academy of Management Program, 2022 – Present
• Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship, IE University, 2016 – Present
• Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship, IE University, 2006 – 2016
• Head of the Entrepreneurship Department, IE University, 2018 – 2022
• Academic Director of the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator, Momentum-BBVA program, Headspring, 2016 – 2019
• Member of GECES (Expert group of the European Commission on Social Entrepreneurship), 2012 – 2015
ACADEMIC BACKGOUND
• Ph.D. in Economics and Development, Cum Laude, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
• Entrepreneurship Teacher’s Program, Harvard Business School (USA)
• BA in Business Administration, with honors, IHEC University (Tunisia)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
• Cruz C., Justo R., Roche J. (2021) “Engaging in a New Field: Business Owning Families’ Differential Approach to Impact Investing.” European Journal of Family Business, 11(1), 21 – 32
• Slimane, K.B., Justo, R., Khelil, N. (2020). “Commoning at Crossroads: A Study of Institutional Incongruence in a Tunisian Oasis”. Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 66 (4): 673 – 690
• Cruz, C., Justo, R., Larraza-Kintana, M., Garcés-Galdeano, L. (2019). “When Do Women Make a Better Table? Examining the Influence of Women Directors on Family Firm’s Corporate Social Performance”. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 43 (2): 282 – 301
