In this podcast oikos Student Reporter Melissa Paschall is interviewing Eliada Nwosu Griffith, Senior Lecturer at the GSB Cape Town, South Africa. Eliada is elaborating on her research objectives and the transformative ambition of doing research – She examines the social embeddeness of both social and small commercial enterprises within the African economic context. She investigates how contextual and social network facilitate the entrepreneurial process of (social) enterprise development. Eliada is also reflecting about creativity in research and the learning culture of the oikos Young Scholars Organizations Academy 2012.

Ignasi Marti Lanuza, Associate Professor at EMLYON is reflecting with oikos Student Reporter Melissa Paschall on his academic journey and process of developing an academic identity. In the podcast he is also elaborating on how to identify appropriate theories for analysing phenomena and theorizing. He is finally reflecting about his experience as a faculty member of the 2012 oikos young scholars organizations academy on Social innovation and Organizational Impact, which he experienced as an extremely unique setting for developing young scholars.

oikos UNDP Academy participants recently paid a visit to iHub, the innovative ICT hot spot located outside the city center in Nairobi, to discuss Kenya's booming ICT sector. After a Panel Discussion on ICT and Development Student Reporter Lindsay Shafer sat together with panelist Linda Kwamboka, co-founder of M-Farm, an innovative mobile phone application that aims to encourage farming by transitioning it from a subsistence-based model to agribusiness. Listen to the interview at the bottom of the article.

"The widespread use of SMS is what has helped M-Farm become so successful. Linda and her co-founders realized that while farmers own mobile phones, they are usually lower-end models without internet access. How can farmers find up-to-date prices for their crops without access to the Internet? Through M-Farm's SMS-focused design that gives farmers access to daily market prices and to buyers across the country. As Kwamboka explained, the company "targets farmers with one acre or less of land. A farmer will use SMS to see the price of the crop and the amount buyers need. Then the farmer can join with neighbor farmers to bring a bigger crop to market." Partnering ensures a better price for farmers and assurance that their crops will be sold. M-Farm makes a profit by charging a small fee per text message and by selling its market data to government agencies and NGOs."

At the 2012 Development Academy Student Repoerter Lindsay Shafer had the chance to speak to Catherine Dolan, Fellow of Green Templeton College and University Lecturer at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, on her research past and present, and how it fits in with the Academy's theme. Being an anthropologist, Catherine provides a perspective in market research management scholars are often not familiar with. She emphasizes the unique role of the oikos academy to bring together multiple disciplines to better understand the causes and effects of markets from multiple perspectives.

Listen to the interview with Catherine Dolan.

Student Reporter Lindsay Shafer sat down with Christopher Yenkey, Assistant Professor of Organizations and Strategy at the Unversity of Chicago Booth School of Business during the oikos UNDP Young Scholars Development Academy 2012 to discuss research and sustainability in emerging markets. Chris' research focuses on the construction of nascent financial markets in developing economies, specifically the establishment of the Kenyan stock exchange.

A lot of previous fieldwork in emerging markets has asked the question: what are the determinents of creating markets? It was just assumed that a market would have outcomes. Now researchers are going further and looking at effects of these markets, how they are developed, how they benefit participants, and the implications of creating these markets. Asking these questions will help us to better understand market structures.

Klaus Weber, Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at the Kellog School of Management at Northwestern University, sat down with Student Reporter Lindsay Shafer and discussed his views on oikos' unique program of giving Ph.D. students a platform to discuss their research with with peers and Academy faculty. While it is still important to go to larger conference and network with people in your field, doing what you do, it is also important to meet people who can give you a different view of your research. As Klaus says, the oikos program is so unique because of its "deliberate goal to develop young researchers" through small group interaction. We also discussed doctoral student and advisor relationships and how to choose the best advisor for your research.

Please listen and let us know what you think about the oikos Young Scholars Academy model.

Thomas Princen is Associate Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan. He has a background in biology, political science and economics and his research focuses on issues of social and ecological sustainability with a primary focus on sufficiency. In this podcast Professor Princen shares his views on sustainable organisations and, specifically, whether an organisation can be sufficient, efficient and grow at the same time. We also discuss how the principles of sufficiency can be integrated in management education and research. oikos PhD Fellow Liudmila Nazarkina met Thomas Princen at the 2012 Gronen Conference.

Jonathan Doh, Professor of Management at the Villanova School of Business, Director of the Center for Global Leadership, and Rammrath Chair in International Business, is talking about his case “Building and Scaling a Cross-Sector Partnership: Oxfam America and Swiss Re Empower Farmers in Ethiopia” which won the second prize in the 2012 oikos Global Case Writing Competition. Jonathan explains how and why this case was written, how it can be used in the classroom and which other methods can be used for teaching sustainability, in addition to cases.

What is Shared Value? Is this value measurable, and how do you convince business to pursue Shared Value in addition to profit? Find out about the roles of family businesses, how businesses can combine growth with shared value, and why leadership by example is so important with Marc Pfitzer, Managing Director of the Geneva Office of FSG Social Impact Consultants and Harriet Jackson, President oikos International.

Check out Creating Shared Value article in the Harvard Business Review January 2011 (link: http://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value) for more background information.

Kim Poldner, oikos PhD Fellow, participates at the Eeastern Academy of Management in Bangalore 2011 and chats with Professor James A.F. Stoner about h