John Dobson

Professor of Practice

John’s mantra is to ‘help students make a living around their passion’.  

He is the founder of the DYME institute, which uses problem-based learning approaches to help students develop their entrepreneurial skills.  Prior to joining academia, John was a successful entrepreneur.  He started his own venture as an undergraduate student, so he understands the challenges of launching a successful business. The business focused on connecting indigenous producers to global markets to improve livelihoods and markets. After selling his business, he transitioned into academia help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. He has a master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and a Doctorate from the University of Manchester (UK). 

He is currently associate professor at Clark University and teaches courses on the Entrepreneurship & Innovation minor. He teaches and travels widely and has taught at various global settings such as Canada, China, Colombia, France, Honduras, Mexico, Malaysia, Nepal, Spain, The Philippines, Uganda, & the UK.  

Through his DYME institute, he has worked with many universities to help develop their entrepreneurship program. He hosts an annual faculty development workshop at Clark, where he brings faculty from around the world to learn about the DYME methodology of Teaching and Learning entrepreneurship.   

He conducts multiple service-learning missions every year in developing countries to help to help marginalized communities use entrepreneurial skills to improve their lot in life.  He is currently developing a prison entrepreneurship program to help returning citizens become productive members of society.   

He has published numerous articles and books designed to help nascent entrepreneurs develop their ideas into entrepreneurial opportunities. His current project involves developing online teaching and learning material to give small scale producers in developing countries access to world class entrepreneurial education through the development of online learning materials, which can be found at dymeinstitute.com  

His doctoral research focuses on the adoption of Information Systems by small and micro enterprises in developing countries. His most recent publication focuses on the dialectics impacting institutionalization of Information systems by micro and small enterprises published in the Journal of the Association of Information Systems.

Degrees

  • D.B.A. in Business Administration, University of Manchester, 2014
  • M.S. in Development Management, London School of Economics, 2007
  • B.A. in Modern Languages, St. Francis Xavier University, 1988

Affiliated Department

School of Business

Scholarly and creative works

  • Chapters In Books

    The Annals of Entrepreneurship Education
    Chapter: The Virtuous Cycle of Entrepreneurship: Developing a student-centric approach to teaching and learning entrepreneurship

    Published by Edward Elgar
    2023
    John A. Dobson
  • Chapters In Books

    Theorising Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education.
    Chapter: Success Through Failure: Towards a Problem-Based Approach to Entrepreneurship Educ

    Published by Springer,
    2022
    John A. Dobson, Lisa T Dobson
  • Book

    Develop Your Model of Entrepreneurship (Spanish Edition)

    2020
    John A. Dobson
  • Book

    How to Start Your Entrepreneurial (Ad)venture with Just $1.00

    2018
    Middleton, De.
    USA
    John A. Dobson, Lisa T. Dobson
  • Chapters In Books

    How to Become and Entrepreneurship Educator
    Chapter: Student-Centered Action Learning

    2020
    John A. Dobson, Colin Jones
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Success Through Failure: Towards a Problem-Based Approach to Entrepreneurship

    Published in Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy
    2019
    John A. Dobson, Yovani Castro, Lisa T Dobson, Andreina Moros
  • Book

    Develop Your Model of Entrepreneurship

    2019
    ISBN #9781675131077
    Middletown, DE
    USA
    John A. Dobson
  • Book

    Develop Your Model of Entrepreneurship

    2019
    John A. Dobson
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Exploring the dialectics underlying institutionalization of IT artifacts

    Published in Journal of the Association for Information Systems
    2017
    John A. Dobson, Brian Nicholson
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Toward an experiential approach to entrepreneurship education

    Published in Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
    2017
    John A. Dobson
  • Other Scholarly or Creative Work

    Institutional influences on the adoption and non-adoption of information systems innovations: case evidence from the Taxco Silver Handicraft Sector

    University of Manchester
    John A. Dobson
  • Chapters In Books

    What Kind of Information Society? Governance, Virtuality, Surveillance, Sustainability, Resilience
    Chapter: Utilising the Internet to improve peasant artisan incomes: Evidence from Mexico

    Published by Springer
    2010
    John A. Dobson, Brian Nicholson, Richard Duncombe

Awards and grants

  • Entrepreneurship Training – ARPA Funding

    City of Worcester

    clock icon Sep. 18, 2023 – Oct. 30, 2023
  • Towards Financial Empowerment 2023

    Mass Department of Economic Development

    clock icon Feb. 1, 2023 – Jun. 30, 2023
  • Liberal Arts for Returning Citizens (LARC)

    Clark University

    clock icon Dec. 15, 2021 – Dec. 31, 2022
  • Towards Financial Empowerment

    Urban Agenda: Massachusetts State

    clock icon Feb. 15, 2022 – Jun. 17, 2022
  • Urban Agriculture: Botanical Garden

    CESA/ Javeriana

    clock icon May. 10, 2022 – May. 16, 2022
  • Re-Entry Entrepreneurship

    Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, Commonwealth of Massachusetts

    clock icon Mar. 22, 2021 – Jun. 30, 2021