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Research by University of Huddersfield Business School has delivered regional and national impact in the field of entrepreneurship and enterprise. It has informed the award-winning delivery of business start-up and growth support programmes across Yorkshire and the Humber, contributing to the regional economy through additional business and job creation. It has helped to shape policy on national entrepreneurship and enterprise education for undergraduates, graduates and postgraduate research students. It has also influenced policy and guidance in the areas of enterprise and entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship support and social enterprise across the UK through researchers' involvement with national incubation, education and research-based organisations.
The Leading Enterprise and Development (LEAD®) programme has supported skills development by over 3,000 small-and-medium sized enterprise (SME) owners, creating over 10,000 jobs. Four franchises now operate: LEAD North West, South West, London and Wales. Developed by the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (IEED), LEAD's syllabus includes action learning, coaching, shadowing, exchanges and reflection. LEAD has featured on BBC TV and Radio 4, and cited in the House of Lords Select Committee SME Exports report. The research insights and impact of LEAD informed a successful £32 million Regional Growth Fund bid to support business growth in 20 UK cities.
This case study details the impact of research at Durham University Business School (DUBS) in changing the way that notions of enterprise are used within education to develop the personal attributes of young people. This "enterprise approach" has been widely adopted within primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions across the UK and internationally. The impact of the research is significant in reshaping curriculum and learning in different levels of education - towards producing "enterprising young people" regardless of the subject being studied. The reach of the research is reflected in its application across all levels of education (primary, secondary and tertiary) as well as in the numbers of institutions — across a wide range of countries — who have adopted the model.
Research at the University of Nottingham has augmented the aspirations and entrepreneurial capabilities of academic researchers through participation in the Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) business plan competition.
The content and pedagogy of the competition are built upon research pioneered by the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI), delivered together with research councils and industry. Since 2008, more than 2,000 researchers have participated in the scheme and an independent evaluation demonstrated that it has enhanced their entrepreneurial skills, augmented their career aspirations and increased their engagement in the process of commercialising academic research.
Research by Professor Richard Thorpe from 2003 to 2010 at Leeds University Business School (LUBS) on management learning and leadership in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has impacted three groups: (i) business education providers (universities, colleges and training organisations), who have used the research to improve the training and education they provide for SMEs; (ii) SME owner-mangers, who have been exposed to the research when attending business programmes, which has enabled them to build on their entrepreneurial behaviour and improve their strategic planning; (iii) government, regional and sector policymakers, who have used the research in policies designed to generate growth in SMEs.
This case study relates to the application of entrepreneurship education research to entrepreneurship development practice internationally. The socio-economic impact of the research has been tracked with impact maps and demonstrates impact upon entrepreneurship policy, advisory agency stances and university practice in the UK, continental Europe, other industrially-developed countries and developing countries. In addition to universal entrepreneurship education research and associated impact, the work has had specific impact upon specific facets of entrepreneurship including ethnic minority enterprise, creative industries entrepreneurship and e-entrepreneurship.
The research of the Centre has had a wide range of impacts including economic, commercial and organisational impacts at the level of individual firms, impacts on public policy at the UK level and impacts on practitioners and professional services at the international level. Featured here are examples of each of these types of impact, including an example of impact being made by the whole team on the Nigerian undergraduate entrepreneurship provision and examples of impacts being made at the level of individual firms through the business incubator, on professional practices in a Scottish context through TalentScotland and on UK government policy through work with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) by individual team members.
Impact is primarily economic and organizational, resulting from more effective leadership processes and practices by small firm owner-managers. The mechanism of impact was a programme known as LEAD (leadership, enterprise and development), which drew a significant community of owner-managers of smaller firms in Greater Merseyside into the Management School, to enable them to use research findings about managerial and entrepreneurial learning, leadership and business support in the running of their firms. The resulting impacts were on management practices and processes, and firm performances. Practitioners engaging with the University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS) LEAD programme experienced turnover increases averaging 21%. The beneficiaries are small firms, their employees and business support partnerships.
Research into entrepreneurship and business start-up at Manchester Metropolitan University has created know-how to support new entrepreneurs and to guide established businesses through renewal and change. With an emphasis on "knowledge in action", MMU's entrepreneurship research has provided a cornerstone for start-up, growth and leadership programmes offered by the university's Centre for Enterprise (CfE), and seen by owner-managers themselves as positively impacting directly on their businesses. Utilising research-based knowledge, CfE has worked with 150 start-ups and 1,500 small firms and social enterprises in the North West of England, fostering job creation, access to funding, and business growth.
Professor Jay Mitra's research has developed both a novel theory of entrepreneurship and a series of recommendations for effective teaching in entrepreneurship, with specific emphasis on how entrepreneurship education can help emerging economies. His research has informed his consultation work as a specialist in entrepreneurship training for the OECD's Local Economic and Employment Development Programme. Much of this research was conducted as part of a UK Government-sponsored Education Partnership in Africa programme, which established Mitra's links with education authorities and universities in Africa. The entrepreneurship education framework developed in the research has since been implemented nationwide in Nigeria as a result of these links.