Dr Chamindika Weerakoon

Biography

Dr. Chamindika Weerakoon is a Lecturer and Early Career Researcher in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the School of Business, Law, and Entrepreneurship. She is currently the convenor and the lecturer for the Lean Start-up Springboard Unit and the Industry Consulting Project Unit in the Bachelor of Business Degree at Swinburne University.

Dr. Weerakoon completed her Ph.D. in Management from the School of Management at RMIT University, Melbourne, and her Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Commerce degrees at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her research expertise is in the fields of Social Entrepreneurship and Social innovation. Her research mainly focuses on examining how venture behaviours and choices trace back to their micro-level foundations in the social enterprise context. To this end, she takes both theory-building and testing approaches that involve the intersection of theories across commercial entrepreneurship, strategic management, and social entrepreneurship making a novel impact on the emerging social entrepreneurship research field. She has published in journals including the Journal of Small Business Management, Knowledge Management Research and Practice, and Social Enterprise Journal. In addition, her book entitled “Theoretical and Practical Applications to Social Innovation” is released in 2021 with IGI Global Publishers, USA. Her current research projects examine value co-creation and capability development in social entrepreneurial ventures and initiatives; the emergence of the Sri Lankan social enterprise sector; and the business model innovation by Sri Lankan firms.

Dr. Weerakoon has extensive teaching experience in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She was an Associate Lecturer at RMIT University Melbourne and a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Management at the Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka. Her teaching expertise includes Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. In 2018, she was awarded the “Inspirational Teaching" award by the School of Management, RMIT University for her outstanding leadership and teaching in the field of entrepreneurship. She is passionate about entrepreneurship education and experimenting with and developing new teaching initiatives to enhance students’ learning experiences. She won Adobe Innovation Grant in 2021 and 2022 for two of her teaching initiatives aimed at improving the digital literacy skills of business undergraduates.