Ayodotun Stephen Ibidunni (PhD)
August 28, 2025 2025-08-28 13:16Ayodotun Stephen Ibidunni (PhD)
Ayodotun Stephen Ibidunni is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship with over 15 years of experience as a Management Consultant, University Faculty, and Start-up mentor. In 2012, he worked with Raitas Consulting, where he served as the Research Manager for the Southwest region on the Growing Enterprise Leaders (GEL) Training. He was also a Team Member reviewing the research and development report on the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
He obtained his PhD degree in Business Administration from Covenant University and has since then focused his research and teaching in the areas of Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship, and Operations Management.
Ayodotun previously lectured at Covenant University (2013 - 2021); he coordinated modules and supervised students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Ayodotun has served as a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique (2022), and an External Examiner to North West University, South Africa (2022), and Landmark University, Nigeria (since 2023).
He has contributed to more than 130 articles in reputable international peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and conferences. His works have appeared in highly referred international journals, including Technological Forecasting and Social Change, the Journal of Technology Transfer, Managerial and Decision Economics, the African Journal of Economics and Management Studies, the Journal of African Business, the Journal of Workplace Learning, Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning among others. He is the co-author of the textbook titled Comparative International Marketing and the author of the edited book titled Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the Informal Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the Associate Editor of RAE-Revista de Administração de Empresas and has been a guest editor of the International Journal of Business and Globalisation, Managerial and Decision Economics, and World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development.
Ayodotun is the recipient of many international and local awards, including being named the Most Influential Lecturer of the Year from 2015 – 2019 in the Department of Business Management (Business Administration Unit) at Covenant University.
In 2018, Dr Ibidunni was named a recipient of the Covenant University Chancellor’s Award of Exceptional Researcher for his laudable efforts in advancing meaningful research. This further resulted in him being named the Covenant University SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) Champion in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 respectively for his extensive research works covering the goal’s tripartite scope of knowledge and practice. He has been listed multiple times among Elsevier’s top researchers of the year by scholarly output (2018 – 2023).
He is a member of several associations, including a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Administration (CIA), a Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), and a Member of the Institute of Strategic Management of Nigeria (ISMN).
In November 2021, he joined Chrisland University as a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Business Administration Department. He was also the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development Studies (CELDS) at Chrisland University. He redesigned the entrepreneurship curriculum of the University to demonstrate a clear trajectory of entrepreneurship teaching and learning that shows a clear progressive path from developing entrepreneurship as a mindset to product creation, commercialization, scaling, and continuously innovating. Dr. Ibidunni invented the Chrisland University Sustainability Project (CLUSP) and the Chrisland University Entrepreneurship Festival (CLUEF) as annual events that showcase innovative products created by the Students. In August 2024, Ayodotun was appointed as Chairman of the Directors of Entrepreneurship Centers across Nigerian Universities (Southwest region, Nigeria).
Ayodotun joins James Hope University as an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Innovation, Intrapreneurship, and Entrepreneurship (IIE). He is the Coordinator of the IIE Programme and the Director of the Directorate of Enterprise and Innovation (DEI) of James Hope University. He brings his wealth of expertise and experience into teaching, researching, and leading innovative projects to drive James Hope Business School’s and the DEI’s impact within the University’s internal and external communities.
Dr. Ibidunni is the pioneer Director of the International Centre for Policy Research and Industry Linkages (ICePRIL), where he also serves as the Chairman of the International Conference on Africa’s Sustainable Development (ICASuD), a flagship annual international conference hosted by ICePRIL. He founded the African Entrepreneurship Educators’ Workshop (AEEW), a monthly webinar for Entrepreneurship Educators across Africa. Ayodotun founded the Impact Publishing Workshop (IPW), a monthly webinar for early- and mid-career researchers across Africa. In 2018, Dr Ibidunni became a member of the MSME cohort of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).