Personal profile
Biography
Dr Helen Eccleston is Associate Director at Edge Hill University Business School, where she leads on strategic priorities relating to student outcomes and recruitment.
She holds an MSc in Business Management and a PhD in Management (Entrepreneurship and Strategy) from the University of Lancashire. In 2017 she was awarded a fully funded doctoral studentship by the Centre for SME and Enterprise Development to investigate how small and medium-sized enterprises in the North West of England practise strategy through routinised organisational activities. That same year she was appointed Associate Lecturer in the School of Management at the University of Lancashire. She joined Edge Hill University in 2020 as Lecturer, progressing to Senior Lecturer in 2024, when she also became Programme Leader for BSc Business Management. In 2025 she was appointed Associate Director.
Research interests
Her ongoing research adopts both a processual and social practice lens to explore the day-to-day entrepreneurial activities in small family business. She also conducts research in management education, with a particular focus on how principles of human and ecological flourishing can inform teaching and learning. She has presented her work at numerous international conferences, addressing topics such as strategising, practical coping, and the emotional dimensions and lived experiences of entrepreneurship. Helen's most recent work published in Human Relations examines the political potential of affect and how it matters for entrepreneuring as organisation creation.
Teaching
Helen is an accomplished educator who brings a wealth of expertise and passion to her teaching practice. She assumes a leadership role across multiple modules: BUS2019 Employability and BUS3037 Organisational Misbehavior. Helen has experience teaching across undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive education programmes.
Education/Academic qualification
Teaching in Higher Education, PGCert
Award Date: 31 Oct 2022
Management (Entrepreneurship and Strategy), PhD, "Doing Strategy" - A practice-based study of small- and large-scale phenomena in SMEs, University of Central Lancashire
Award Date: 26 May 2021
Business and Management Research Methods, PGCert, University of Central Lancashire
Award Date: 1 Aug 2019
Business Management, MSc, University of Central Lancashire
Award Date: 1 Sept 2017
English Language (Hons), BA, Cardiff University
Award Date: 2 Sept 2013
Other positions
External Examiner, Birmingham City University
2024 → …
External Examiner, University College Cork
2022 → …
Research Groups
- Community Owned Businesses Research Group
- SustainNET
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 4 Quality Education
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SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
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SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
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SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
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SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Deflated in shame and puffed up in pride: How affective practices matter for entrepreneuring
Marsh, D., ECCLESTON, H. & Śliwa, M., 30 Jan 2025, In: Human Relations. 78, 6, p. 694-720 27 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (journal) › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Link opens in a new tab Citations (Scopus)11 Downloads (Pure) -
From critical entrepreneurship research to critical entrepreneurship in the classroom
ECCLESTON, H. & Marsh, D., 5 Sept 2024.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
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When reason fails: How emotions grounded in unknowingness disclose alternative modalities for learning how to navigate paradox
ECCLESTON, H. & Marsh, D., 7 Nov 2023, p. 1-4.Research output: Contribution to conference › Abstract › peer-review
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Beyond the fixed body: Entrepreneur’s bodily enactments and entrepreneuring
Marsh, D., ECCLESTON, H. & Śliwa, M., 26 Jun 2025.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
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Glitching with the Anthropocene: An aesthetic-artistic experience as an alternative mode of knowing
Marsh, D., ECCLESTON, H. & Śliwa, M., 25 Jun 2025.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review