The evidence behind the ideas
Peer-reviewed research on women artisan entrepreneurs, artisan social enterprise, and community resilience — from fieldwork across Zambia, Eswatini, and beyond.
The Ripple Effect of Artisan Entrepreneurship
When a woman in an under-resourced community or low-income country begins earning income from her craft, the impact doesn’t stop with her. It ripples outward — through her household, her enterprise, her community, her nation, and ultimately global society.
The Ripple Effect model maps those six spheres of impact and pairs them with a three-level research agenda — individual, organizational, and institutional — grounding the study of the artisan sector in entrepreneurship, international development, and empowerment theory. The through-line across every sphere is resilience.
Built from two decades of fieldwork and formalized in my doctoral research, it’s a working tool for development organizations, funders, brands mapping artisan supply chains, and artisan enterprises measuring their own impact.
Developed through two decades of fieldwork and formalized in my doctoral dissertation.
The Ripple Effect of Artisan Entrepreneurship (Edgar)
Selected scholarship
- Small Business EconomicsCommunity Resilience through Rural Entrepreneurship: The Case of Tribal Textiles2026
- Journal of Fair TradeCrafting community resilience in Zambia: An artisan social enterprise case study2024
- Social Enterprise JournalArtisan social enterprises in Zambia: Women leveraging purpose to scale impact2023
All publications on Google Scholar →
This research became the backbone of Artisan Economics — and the frameworks it teaches live on the Learn page.
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