Center for Microentrepreneurship Studies

The Center for Microentrepreneurship Studies (Núcleo de Estudos sobre Microempreendedorismo – NUME) is a research center dedicated to the understanding and capacity building of microentrepreneurship in Brazil. The Center’s objective is to develop academic and applied research in order to build knowledge and technology for microentrepreneurs. Microentrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group that includes self-employed professionals and individuals who seek to develop their own businesses for purposes of subsistence, independence, or growth. Occasionally called base-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs, they can be formal or informal professionals. In either way, their services and goods are of great relevance to the local economy and to the social and economic development at large.

Some of our research themes are:

  • Resilience and adaptation: study of microentrepreneurs capabilities to create solutions and to overcome adversities;
  • Entrepreneurial behavior and growth: how individual characteristics, such as gender, education, migration background, influence the entrepreneurial process, their business performance and growth;
  • Entrepreneurship and development: how can the institutional environment (i.e. through organizational sponsors) promote and facilitate entrepreneurship and local development and address grand challenges;
  • Impact assessment: study of the effects of changes and interventions, such as training, for this group;
  • Microfinance and cryptocurrencies: study of technologies and open platforms that enable economic exchanges between actors and promote financial inclusion.

NUME works both in the development of academic research and in the technical support for projects and partnerships that target microentrepreneurship.

Partnerships

SEBRAE-RJ – Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service.

Members

Our members are an international group of university professors and researchers, who are working in the intersection of entrepreneurship, poverty and inequality in resource-constrained settings. Each of the members contributes with passion and dedication to the understanding of microentrepreneurship and to the generation of applicable solutions.

Prof. Dr. Renata Peregrino de Brito  – renata.brito@iag.puc-rio.br
Professor & researcher – coordinator
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Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Lenz  – annakatharinalenz@gmail.com
Professor & researcher
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Prof. Dr. Leonardo Lima Gomes – leonardolima@iag.puc-rio.br
Professor & researcher
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Dr. Chris Sutter – sutterc@miamioh.edu
Professor & researcher
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Prof. Dr. Fábio de Oliveira Paula – fabioop@iag.puc-rio.br
Professor & researcher
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Prof. Dr. Marcos Cohen – mcohen@iag.puc-rio.br
Professor & researcher
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Researchers and Collaborators

Carla Geraldo de Moraes Teixeira Panisset
Researcher

Michelle Pacheco
Researcher
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Suzana Barroso de Mattos
Pesquisadora
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Viviane Linhares
Researcher
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LOCATION AND CONTACT

IAG – PUC-Rio Business School
Address: Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225 – Gávea
ZIP Code: 22541-900 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Telephone: +55 (21) 2138-9200
e-mail: renata.brito@iag.puc-rio.br