The pilot project, scheduled from April to July 2025, aims to develop and test a growth mindset intervention tailored for employees with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This initiative seeks to foster inclusive work environments by addressing challenges faced by neurodiverse employees while leveraging their unique strengths.
Dr Distel and Dr Verheul will serve as principal investigators, leading the research efforts. The project is conducted in collaboration with Silatha, a company specialising in employee support programmes including mindfulness and well-being. Silatha's founder, Veroniek Vermeulen, will act as the primary contact person for this partnership.
This research underscores RSM's commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion within organisational settings, aligning with the school's broader mission to drive positive change in business and society.
The researchers
Dr Andreas Distel is assistant professor at RSM. He holds a PhD from Copenhagen Business School. His research explores the micro-foundations of strategic adaptation, corporate entrepreneurship, and open innovation, examining how entrepreneurial workers and managers drive performance and change. His interdisciplinary work integrates insights from strategic management, psychology and AI, and has been published in leading journals. Key contributions include studies on knowledge absorption in firms, the impact of hiring former entrepreneurs, and the role of management consultants as strategic human capital. He has advised the European Commission on innovation policy and is currently researching the neuro-foundations of management and AI’s role in assessing research impact. At RSM, he teaches corporate entrepreneurship and technological transformation, and supervises projects on managerial skills in dynamic environments.
Dr Ingrid Verheul is associate professor of entrepreneurship at RSM. She earned her PhD from Erasmus School of Economics, focusing on gender differences in entrepreneurship. Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding entrepreneurial behaviour and performance, with an emphasis on inclusive entrepreneurship. She studies topics such as female entrepreneurship, mental health in entrepreneurship, necessity-based ventures, and the talents of neurodiverse entrepreneurs. Her work is widely cited in both academic and popular media, appearing in top journals across entrepreneurship, management, economics, psychology and medical sciences. She teaches entrepreneurship courses at the BSc and MSc levels and recently developed Onbeperkt Ondernemen (Entrepreneurship Unlimited), a training programme for entrepreneurs with ADHD, in collaboration with the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship.
De Groot Foundation for Entrepreneurship
The De Groot Foundation for Entrepreneurship offers money to start-up entrepreneurs at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, whether they are students or academics. The support is intended to contribute to the early development of new technologies, innovative products, and services. The fund also supports new entrepreneurship research or new educational entrepreneurship programmes. Han de Groot founded the fund in 2017.
