Shumaila is an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship. She completed her PhD from Cardiff University, UK (2005), PG Diploma in Research Method from Cardiff University (2003), MSc in Electronic Commerce from Coventry University (2001) and BSc in Physics and Mathematics from University of Baluchistan Pakistan (1997).

Her international reputation in research is demonstrated by 63 publications (23 articles mainly in international high impact journals, 4 edited books and 7 chapters with major publishers and 28 international conferences). She serves as Associate Editor of Small Business Management, reviews funding applications for ESRC and articles for leading 4* and 3* journals in her field. She is also on the editorial team for a special issue with ERD on the contextual embeddedness of women’s entrepreneurship research (3*) and have edited four research anthologies on women’s entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability with Routledge.Her status as an internationally established expert and the cumulative impact of her work is further reflected in an overall h-index of 18 (Google). Her papers have received 3183 citations (Google).

Shumaila’s research establishes the relationship between the socio-economic focus of entrepreneurial pathways and empowering the disadvantaged e.g., women, immigrants, refugees, youth, transgender and disabled. Based on institutional theory, GLOBE’s cultural dimensions and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, her research looks at the factors that can effectively address the matrix of disadvantages that arise from gender- and physical ability-based discrimination. Her work has an important engagement and impact component with the potential to influence governmental and NGO policy.

She has supervised fifteen PhD dissertations and over 100 MBA/MSc thesis and has received various research grants from UK and EU funding bodies.