Michael is a Senior Lecturer in Management and Head of Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise at Open University Business School. He previously served as Director of the Postgraduate Business Programmes (2018-2021). Prior to joining Open University in July 2013, he was part of the academic team that launched Coventry University London Campus in October 2010. His varied roles there included academic coordination of the BA Global business, BA Global marketing (top-ups) and leading the production and delivery of the MBA Oil and Gas Management Programme. Between 2007 and 2009 he held Associate Lecturer posts at Nottingham Trent and Sheffield Hallam universities. Michael studied in Cameroon (BSc Economics), Sweden (MSc Economics, MA Leadership in International Management and MA in Science, Technology and Society) before completing a PhD at the University of Nottingham.

Michael’s research advances entrepreneurial practice in disadvantaged communities/groups. His work has advanced the understanding that while highly embedded entrepreneurs and managers can easily access resources and win legitimacy resulting in improved practice, they can also become locked into established systems that constrain their decision-making. Empirical case studies uncover how addressing the lock-in effects enables the development of enterprises and thereby positively impact local communities/groups.

His most recent publications include women as vectors of social entrepreneurship, informal microfinance institutions and development-led tourism entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship and impact investing in Africa. Michael also has a long-standing interest in the study of how global partnerships and initiatives shape local practices in Sub-Saharan African, including globally-backed policies and initiatives in healthcare, tourism development, and petroleum local content development. His work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Small Business Management, Management and Organization Review, Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Social Science & Medicine, Health Policy & Planning, Energy Policy, Strategic Change and Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.