Otioma Chuks
Otioma Chuks is a PhD Fellow at UNU-MERIT/School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He specialises in economics of innovation and technology, with focus on Africa. His PhD (research) focuses on the links between digitalisation, entrepreneurship and innovation in the African context. This is aimed at understanding the links between digital technologies and business process innovation in firms on the one hand, and the conditions under which digital technology-based start-ups/firms advance. His research draws inspirations from macro-level frameworks/indicators for mapping digital technology-based entrepreneurial activities, combined with firm level analysis and case studies. His broader research interests cover innovation economics, regional economics and economic geography.
Prior to obtaining his Master’s degree from the University of Twente (Netherlands) and joining UNU-MERIT, Chuks worked in consulting and telecommunications industry. He worked as a consultant in data service companies; implementing projects and providing support for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications in public utilities and spatial development. He also worked in Globacom; a telecommunications operator in Nigeria.
Apart from organising the annual UNU-MERIT Internal Conference, Chuks has been engaged in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics. He has taught courses in innovation and economic growth, institutions and firm performance in emerging economies, and the economics of European integration (the welfare effects of the EU’s Single Market and other regional policies).
Chuks has been involved in the CatChain Project (as Early Stage Researcher, ESR), funded by European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions. CatChain is a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral knowledge-sharing project focused on understanding the role and challenges of business models in the process of catching-up both at country and firm level. CatChain has afforded him the opportunity to be an ESR/visiting researcher at Tswane University of Technology (TUT), South Africa.
