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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.
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.
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.
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.
This case study focuses upon enterprise and enterprise education. It describes the impact of intellectual endeavours in this area, mainly surrounding the production of a framework to foster entrepreneurial behaviour, and the emergence of an enterprise support approach that continues to support entrepreneurs.
Impact includes:
UEL's Black Business Observatory (BBO) works with black entrepreneurs, business support providers and government agencies to promote enterprise development among British Africans through coaching, advice and assistance with business planning and start-up support. Since 2008, its interventions have supported the establishment of 15 companies and some 120 new jobs within London. As well as supporting individual entrepreneurs and contributing to the UK economy through its facilitation of entrepreneurship, business start-ups and the creation of new jobs, the BBO has informed UK business policy via its production of evidence-based conceptions of black entrepreneurialism, developed through collaborative engagement with primary stakeholders.
The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) developed by Professor Autio and colleagues has been designed to address the shortcoming that policy makers lack robust measures for effective guidance for national entrepreneurship policy analysis, design and implementation. GEDI profiles National Systems of Entrepreneurship. The main impact has been as follows:
The ultimate beneficiaries of more effective policies are the businesses, taxpayers, and populations of these countries.
The Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship and Science (IDEAS) programme, worked with 60 `technology focused' small-and-medium sized enterprises to explore how they could be supported to facilitate growth. Workshops conducted at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus (DSIC) resulted in 55 jobs being created and 10 safeguarded. The programme provided business owners with an understanding of their networks, based on research indicating that business growth can be stimulated by optimising the variety of contacts available to them. The successful application of these concepts, at Daresbury, contributed to the generation of approx. £13.1m of funding for new regional, national and international programmes to support a further 2,900 SMEs.
Since its inception in 2005, Bangor Business School's Centre for Business Research (CBR) has developed a research agenda focusing on the North West Wales (NWW) EU convergence region, which is dominated by Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a distinctively bilingual (Welsh/English) flavour operating in a rural setting. This research has had a significant impact on both local and regional economies by changing the strategies for innovation and growth of individual SME's. The achieved impact came in the form of tangible growth (5% in one instance), successful bidding & grant acquisition (£400K in one case), improved marketing and customer-management, and enhanced knowledge transfer partnerships, which are reflected in greater employment opportunities as evidenced from the supportive statements of the main users of this research
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.