Professor Orser is a Full Professor and the Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises. Her research, teaching and advocacy focus on entrepreneurship and women’s economic empowerment. Advisory roles include a Women20 (W20) Acting Head of Delegation Canada, UNWomen WE Empower Advisory Group Canada, board member of Women’s Economic Imperative, editorial board of the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, and Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Research Group.
She is the former Chair of the Taskforce for Women’s Enterprise Growth (2009 to 2011), a Canadian non-partisan consortium of prominent women business owners, service agencies, academics and industry associations. Prior to joining Telfer School of Management in 2005, she was an Associate Professor at Carleton and Ryerson University, and Program Manager of the Conference Board of Canada Centre of Excellence for Women’s Advancement.
Research Interests
Dr. Barbara Orser conducts research about entrepreneurial feminism, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth, and public policy. She is the co-author of bestseller Feminine Capital. Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs (Stanford University Press, 2015), co-author of two books on small business finance, and has led numerous large-scale studies about women’s enterprise growth.
Her work has been published in over 125 academic and trade journals, including Small Business Economics, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship, Theory & Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences and International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship. The quality of her research has been recognized through numerous awards from organizations, such Emerald Publishing, Canadian Journal of the Administrative Sciences, Administrative Science Association of Canada, Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and the International Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. See Telfer Women Entrepreneurship Research Exchange.
Teaching Areas
Barbara Orser teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Entrepreneurship.