
Virginia Simón Moya, professor in the Deparment of Business Management "Juan José Renau Piqueras" has become the new Principal of the University Institute of Research on Social Economy, Cooperativism and Entrepeneurship (IUDESCOOP) of Universitat de València
Virginia Simón was the sole candidate for the position and the Council voted unanimously on 4 June.
Simón has replaced professor María José Vañó who had beeen Principal of IUDESCOOP from 2009 to 2015 for two whole periods of three years each, the maximum allowed by the UV regulations.
IUDESCOOP has continued to offer high quality education for university students and professionals of social economy. Among its sucessesthere are the start of the Official Doctorate Studies on Social Economy in Spain directed by professor Domingo Ribeiro, or the Official Master’s Degree on Social Economy (Cooperativism and Non-lucrative Entities) on its 20th edition under the direction of professors Teresa Savall and Rubén Cuñat.
Recently, IUDESCOOP has started important projects like the Longevity Laboratory collaborating with ILUNION or the POWERCOOP Project for renewable energy autoconsume communities. It also participates in Erasmus+ EEE3S+ with reports on university education for Social Economy in Spain, Latin America, United Kingdom and EU.
Professor Simón became part of IUDESCOOP in 2013 starting her PhD thesis “Success factors analysis in company creation process. Impact on survivability and innovation ability”, directed by Domingo Ribeiro Soriano and Lorenzo Revuelto Taboada. The thesis is a comparative study between social and capitalist entrepeneurs.
Social Entrepeneurship Reseach
As a member of IUDESCOOP, Virginia Simón has been secretary of the Social Economy Master’s Degree Programme, as a IUDESCOOP secretary last year and as a member of the Academic Coordination Comission (CCA) of the Social Economy Master’s Degree.
Her researcher career has been devoted to social entrepeneurship as her main focus. She also has done her research on institutional entrepeneurship, human resources management and entrepeneurship success factos. She has been crredited for six years of research.
She is head co-editor of the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal magazine and has published in first-rate magazines such as: Review of Managerial Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Innovation & knowledge, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Ethics, British Food Journal, Management Decision and CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social i Cooperativa.
She won the Editor of Distinction Awards 2025 by Springer Nature for best editorial contribution.