Ruben Van Werven

Ruben van Werven is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at Cass Business School. Prior to joining Cass, Ruben was an assistant professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he also wrote his PhD thesis. He is mainly interested in early-stage entrepreneurship, with a focus on pitching and mentoring. Specifically, he examines the rhetoric entrepreneurs use when trying to convince investors to fund their new venture. He also applies a linguistic perspective to studying how entrepreneurs respond to feedback provided by third-party advisors.

Languages

Dutch; Flemish.

Expertise

Primary Topics

Entrepreneurship

Additional Topics

• Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management
• Venture Capital

Research Topics

• Convincing investors to fund a new venture Studying the communicative practices of entrepreneurs during the process of resource acquisition
• Entrepreneurs and third-party feedback Examining how entrepreneurs respond to the feedback they receive from third parties, such as mentors in business incubators

Journal Articles (2)

• van Werven, R., Bouwmeester, O. and Cornelissen, J.P. (2015). The power of arguments: How entrepreneurs convince stakeholders of the legitimate distinctiveness of their ventures. Journal of Business Venturing, 30(4), pp. 616–631. doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2014.08.001.
• Bouwmeester, O. and van Werven, R. (2011). Consultants as legitimizers: Exploring their rhetoric. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(4), pp. 427–441. doi:10.1108/09534811111144601.