Birgit Leick

Birgit Leick is a professor in innovation and entrepreneurship with a particular research focus on the nexus of entrepreneurship and regional development. She currently serves as professor in University of South-Eastern Norway’s School of Business, Department of Business and IT, and visiting professor in Kiel University, Working Group Economic Geography, Germany. Birgit works both conceptually and empirically (with a preference for qualitative research and mixed-methodology approaches). A cross-cutting theme of her recent research is the question: how can firms and their entrepreneurs in rural and peripheral regions support sustainable regional development, and vice-versa, how can regional planning and policymaking help entrepreneurs in such regions grow and develop sustainably – despite the manifold locational disadvantages that entrepreneurs face in such places? Recently funded projects have addressed creative entrepreneurship in rural-remote Norwegian regions (EURAM Research Grant 2019, principal investigator), business models in the Danish sharing economy (Southern Jutland Regional Research Fund, 2020-2022, collaborator), and Airbnb hosts and sustainable development of Arctic regions and societies (NAPA/Nordregio Arctic Co-operation Programme, 2021-2023, principal investigator). Since 2025, Birgit is furthermore researching the phenomenon of senior female entrepreneurship as start-up business activities by females aged 50 or older.