Jodyanne Kirkwood

Jodyanne Jane Kirkwood is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the Otago Polytechnic, and a senior lecturer at the University of Otago. She specialises in teaching and research on entrepreneurship. Kirkwood's interests include tall poppy syndrome, mumpreneurs and social entrepreneurs.

Academic career

Kirkwood completed a PhD titled One size doesn’t fit all: gender differences in motivations for becoming an entrepreneur at the University of Otago in 2004. Kirkwood then joined the faculty of the Otago Polytechnic, rising to full professor. She is also a senior lecturer at the University of Otago, where she teaches in the Master of Entrepreneurship course.

Kirkwood's interests include tall poppy syndrome, which is a tendency to mock, belittle or denigrate successful people, and her inaugural professorial lecture focussed on whether tall poppy syndrome was holding New Zealand entrepreneurs back. Her research showed that the negative comments which had the most impact on entrepreneurs were face-to-face comments from peers, rather than social media comments. Kirkwood has also researched mumpreneurs and social entrepreneurs, and the role of family members in encouraging entrepreneurship.

In 2014 Kirkwood was awarded a Top 12 Supervisor award by the Otago University Students Association, and has supervised more than 100 master's students and five doctoral students.

Selected works

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