Thekla Dekker

Introduction

Since June 2026, Thekla Dekker has been a research associate at LEMEX at the University of Bremen, where she works on the Interreg project CONNECT.

Prior to that, she had been working at the Chair of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the University of Göttingen since January 2022. In her dissertation, she examines sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in European innovation hubs such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Zurich. Her research focuses on how structural configurations, institutional logics, and actor interactions influence the development and governance of sustainable startup ecosystems.

Her research interests include sustainable entrepreneurship, migrant entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as knowledge transfer and collaboration between academia and practice. She has presented her work at numerous international conferences, including EURAM, DRUID, and the Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Summer School.

In addition to her research, Thekla has taught at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. Research stays have taken her to the Stockholm School of Economics and Loyola University New Orleans, where she was awarded the Gerald N. Gaston Eminent Fellowship in Entrepreneurship.