Karen Janssen

Karen Janssen is associate lector Collaborating for Regenerative Value Systems. As an enthusiastic researcher, she enjoys discovering and designing new knowledge. Karen believes it is important that the results benefit people, companies and the planet. In her research she strives to create positive impact, instead of reducing negative impact. Karen enjoys working with others, where she strives for a high level of involvement and quality. This with an eye for knowledge development and valorization, both for science and for practice.

Career

Karen studied Industrial Engineering and Management, specializing in Commercial Chemistry, at the Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede. She then studied Business Sciences, specializing in Strategy & Marketing at Radboud University in Nijmegen. She then worked as a researcher at a market research agency, but lacked the depth of research here. In 2006 she started her PhD research at Radboud University in Nijmegen, focusing on the organization of radical product innovation in the food sector. In 2011, she defended her dissertation ‘Driving the Dutch Food market – Proactive Consumer Involvement to support Radical Product Innovation’. In her subsequent postdoc, she investigated mechanisms for orchestrating value networks that arise through the integration of sustainability in innovation. She has been affiliated with Avans University of Applied Sciences since 2016.

Research

As Associate Professor of Collaboration for Regenerative Value Systems, she focuses her research program on how we can (re)design partnerships to achieve a fair and equal value network, in which the creation of multiple value and positive impact are central and in which both technical and biological materials flow continuously. (circular) in collaborative value models. This is based on learning through (radical) design and co-creation.