Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

University of Reading research produced a tool to measure the key drivers of stakeholder behaviour. This has been applied in a wide range of situations — notably when organisations have set out to improve relationships with stakeholders in complex and potentially high risk situations.

Four examples are given here.

• Shell, which has used the tool as the foundation of its global stakeholder engagement policy. Some of the company's senior leaders from around the world have been trained in how to use the tool, which guides interaction with stakeholders on issues such as gas exploration, the use of unconventional gas and employee engagement.
• Unilever, where the tool is used to inform communications strategy in relation to sustainability among key stakeholders, particularly employees, key opinion formers and across the global supply chain.
• HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), where the tool is used to guide and improve relationships with individual, SME and large corporate taxpayers, thus leading to more efficient tax collection.
• Oxfam where the tool is used to train the charity's lead officers around the world how to better respond to emergencies and humanitarian disasters.

Summary of the impact

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:

• Informing the approach taken by enterprise initiatives toward enterprise development, and challenging existing practice on enterprise education (particularly using findings around learning process, active learning and cohort-based enterprise education);
• Increased enterprise start-up rates and sustainability of start-ups through enhanced enterprise activity and initiatives secured as a result of the research profile gained (also indirectly contributing towards economic sustainability);
• Development of resources (both HE and practitioner) which took a new approach to enterprise education, based on the underpinning research;
• Policy implications locally and regionally.

Summary of the impact

Multi-disciplinary research in strategic management and marketing at Northumbria University's Newcastle Business School has helped Renown Engineering Group (RE) to reposition itself from a "product manufacturer" to a "knowledge based high margin service provider". The direct impact of the university/RE partnership is a significant £4 million increase in sales; a 30% increase in sales margins and a significant increase in profits. Applying insights from the same body of research the Business School has also assisted NE-based companies TASS and Modrec (through different KTPs) to implement successful business and brand development as well as product and market diversification strategies and helped Sunderland City Council (SCC) develop their branding tools and values.

Summary of the impact

Lynda Gratton has examined how the transformational forces of globalization and technology are changing the nature of work and how organizations can prepare for this transformation. This has been particularly infb02uential for multinational corporations that are seeking to become more innovative and productive in the face of the extraordinary transformation of their external context. Gratton's research has achieved substantial and far-reaching impact via her highly infb02uential books and practitioner-orientated articles; its signifb01cance is recognized by major prizes and awards from the business community; and it illustrates the use of specifb01c channels (Gratton's Hot Spots Movement; and The Future of Work Consortium) to convert academic research into real-world impact.