Research & Innovation

Research Interests and Approach

Prof. van der Westhuizen’s research interests span entrepreneurial education, leadership development, innovation ecosystems, and youth psychology. She takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from psychology and management to create practical models for entrepreneurship development.

Central to her work is the idea that effective youth entrepreneurship requires nurturing both the internal capacity of young entrepreneurs (their mindset, confidence, and skills) and the external support ecosystem (networks, institutional support, policy). This led her to develop the SHAPE–SALAR framework: SHAPE provides the strategy for engaging multiple stakeholders to “shift hope and activate potential” in youth, while SALAR provides the iterative action-learning process to implement that strategy.

Her research has yielded substantive models and tools. For instance, she introduced the concept of the Triple H of Entrepreneurship Development – addressing Heartset (passion and resilience), Mindset (innovative thinking), and Handset (practical skills) of young entrepreneurs. By applying Theory U (a change management theory) and design thinking principles, she created a series of 11 iterative engagement cycles to gradually build students’ entrepreneurial orientation. This novel methodology (the SALAR cycles) is one of her key academic contributions, and she has shared it through conference presentations and publications.

Key Research Projects and Funding

Prof. van der Westhuizen has been principal investigator on several major projects:

SHAPE Youth Entrepreneur Support (YES) Network: A multi-year research and intervention project funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Thuthuka programme (2017–2022). Through SHAPE, she engaged university students with eight categories of external stakeholders – from local communities and government agencies to large corporations and international partners – to cultivate their entrepreneurial mindset.

The project was groundbreaking in South Africa as the first to apply a systemic action learning approach to entrepreneurship development. It produced measurable results, including sustained growth in students’ Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation over time, and it culminated in two scholarly books that disseminate the theoretical framework and practical tools developed – including her Triple H model.

Innovation for African Universities (British Council IAU) Project (2021–2022): As UKZN’s principal investigator, Prof. van der Westhuizen led an international consortium to develop agri-entrepreneurship curricula addressing youth unemployment and climate change. She secured a £100,000 grant for this project, partnering with Swansea University (UK), University of Cape Coast (Ghana), the CSIR in South Africa, and local industry. Her leadership was pivotal – she initiated the collaboration, co-authored the proposal, and steered the interim report that unlocked full project funding.

Entrepreneurship Policy and Ecosystems: In her EDHE roles, she has been involved in nationwide projects to align university entrepreneurship initiatives with national development goals. For example, she has worked on policy review teams to ensure South African tertiary institutions incorporate entrepreneurship in their strategies. Phase 1 of one such project involved reviewing and updating entrepreneurship policy across universities. She views policy engagement as part of research impact – translating research findings into practice and institutional change.