Lidwien Jacobs

Lidwien Jacobs is a lecturer-researcher at the Economics in Common professorship. She focuses on key factors in business models for the circular economy, especially in construction.

Career

Lidwien studied Psychology of Work and Organization and Communication Sciences in Nijmegen, completed the Social Studies teacher training course and completed the vocational furniture making journeyman training course. Due to this mix between the social sciences and technical-craft knowledge, the career remained a learning experience. Through a 2.5-year traineeship, Lidwien became a consultant and practical researcher at GITP. He then worked abroad. Through personnel and organizational development plus marketing and range development, she became business manager at manufacturer Atag. That company was way ahead of its time with issues such as share ownership for all employees, local positive impact and cradle-to-cradle product design. She held various line positions. To date, she has remained broadly informed in the technical field. Since 1997, Lidwien has been affiliated with Avans University of Applied Sciences at the Academy for Value Creation and Entrepreneurship as a business administration teacher and educational developer. She and her teams realized several Avans-wide programs such as the program for study success and bonding, the Avans honors program Chance and the Extra program.

Expertise

Lidwien’s expertise lies in understanding business models in the light of multiple value creation and investigating the true cost. She focuses on realization, also in the complex organizational context of a large corporate, and conducts practical research. As a developer, she focuses on project design and concept testing of designs that must be scalable to a large size. In connection with a sustainable society, she has recently delved into social entrepreneurship and behavioral psychology. Now she returns to the technical discipline and does so in the context of construction. She is currently studying the specialty of material connections for detachable construction. She has recently started living among nature reserves and is therefore privately researching the phenomenon of ecological gardening.

Research

Lidwien participates in research into the operationalization and scaling up of aspects of the circular economy in construction in the Circular Bio-based Construction Industry (CBCI) project. She also conducts action research within the context of the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education.