Portrait of Dr Ruben van Werven

Dr Ruben van Werven

Lecturer in Entrepreneurship

Cass Business School, Faculty of Management

Contact

Visit Ruben van Werven

Room 4041, Bunhill Row

Postal address

Cass Business School
106 Bunhill Row
London
EC1Y 8TZ
United Kingdom

About

Overview

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

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

Publications

Journal articles (4)

  1. van Werven, R., Bouwmeester, O. and Cornelissen, J.P. (2019). Pitching a business idea to investors: How new venture founders use micro-level rhetoric to achieve narrative plausibility and resonance. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 37(3), pp. 193–214. doi:10.1177/0266242618818249.
  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.
  3. 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.
  4. Engel, Y., van Werven, R. and Keizer, A. How Novice and Experienced Entrepreneurs Name New Ventures. Journal of Small Business Management.

Professional activities

Events/conferences (5)

  1. EGOS Colloquium. (Conference) Naples, Italy (2016).
    Paper: Achieving narrative plausibility and resonance: A study of the micro-level arguments underlying entrepreneurial narratives
    Author: van Werven R
    Co-authors: Bouwmeester, O., and Cornelissen, J.P.
  2. Academy of Management Conference. (Conference) Anaheim, US (2016).
    Paper: New venture founder's responses to third-party feedback
    Author: van Werven R
    Co-authors: Cornelissen, J.P., and Bouwmeester, O.
  3. EGOS Colloquium. (Conference) (2014).
    Paper: Enacting and selling an unpredictable future: A study of how new venture founders combine multiple roles for action
    Author: Van Werven R
    Co-authors: Bouwmeest, O., and Cornelissen, J.P.
  4. Academy of Management Conference. (Conference) (2013).
    Paper: Stressing legitimacy or distinctiveness? The argumentation strategies of new firm founders
    Author: Van Werven R
    Co-authors: Bouwmeest, O., and Cornelissen, J.P.
  5. EGOS Colloquium. (Conference) (2012).
    Paper: Resource acquisition by nascent entrepreneurs: Communicating a legitimate identity
    Author: Van Werven R
    Co-authors: Bouwmeest, O., and Cornelissen, J.P.