Founder and entrepreneur Murshid M. Ali defended his dissertation for the Ph.D. degree in Management, Economics, and Tourism at the UiS Business School on December 6th, 2021.
The title for his dissertation is The Impact of Norwegian Government Funding Policies Through the Lens of an Entrepreneur.
The Norwegian policy instruments, especially Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Research Council, are essential and world-class for companies during their ideas and growth phases. When it comes to the scaling phase, there is minimal support, especially concerning internationalization.
For seven years, Ali has conducted action research, he has started companies, followed external companies closely, analyzed and seen how the policy instruments affected the companies. Two of the companies he created during his doctoral work, listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange - Euronext Growth, have nearly 100 employees.
One of the companies is Huddlestock, which makes it easier for ordinary people to buy shares based on professional investment advice.
The other company is Norwegian Solar, working on solar energy projects in developing countries, where the alternative is often diesel fuel.
The research can contribute to politicians, bureaucrats, economists, and entrepreneurs in Norway to understand how to build and scale companies in the country and best use the policy instruments to ensure they succeed.
Murshid M. Ali has a master's degree in International Business from the Grenoble Ecole de Management and a bachelor's degree in economics from NTNU. Ali is a graduate of the University of Oslo Entrepreneurship School, including an internship in Cape Town. Finally, he did Entrepreneurship and Management at the London School of Economics. Ali is now a co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer in Skyfri Technologies AS, a cleantech company in Stavanger.
Ali grew up in Stavanger, lives in Oslo, and was born in Sri Lanka.