The inaugural lecture will see Professor Smith delivering an address entitled “Celebrating ‘The Scottish School of Entrepreneurship Research’ and the Emergence of an ‘Eco-Sphere Approach’ to Delivering Entrepreneurship Education in the 21st Century”.
There is a widely acknowledged and recognised need for universities to be more entrepreneurial in their approaches to business and to enterprise. This is particularly so in relation to ‘entrepreneurship’ as a subject discipline and overarching operational ethos.
Recent years has seen the creation of a number of academic ‘Centres of Entrepreneurship’ in the university sector which has resulted in a rich stream of research and a globally recognised Scottish entrepreneurship research community; what is becoming known in the academic community as the Scottish School of Entrepreneurship Research.
Traditionally, universities have operated as separate ‘branded’ institutions and compete against each other for funding and students. This system can be inefficient as it does not draw down on all available resources and this lecture will see Professor Smith discuss how a new business model of operating that efficiently pools resources is needed.
During his address Professor Smith will consider new, more entrepreneurial ways of working collaboratively by adopting a tailored entrepreneurial ‘eco-system’ approach. This approach seeks to understand markets and market forces holistically and as a unified system where all stakeholders work with each other to achieve mutually beneficial results by pooling knowledge and expertise. There are existing collaborative models of good practice such as The Scottish Institute for Policing Research [SIPR] and the N8 Research Consortium. There are potential advantages to setting up a new body or institution similar to SIPR or N8 to marshal, target and direct the enterprise resources and activities of Scottish academic institutions more efficiently and effectively.
Commenting on his lecture Professor Smith, who has published over 170 articles in peer reviewed journals and book chapters, said: “I am delighted to be delivering this lecture, which will focus on my current research in this area and the need to work more collaboratively in the HE sector in relation to entrepreneurship.
“Individually, many universities lack a critical mass of expertise in relation to entrepreneurship but collectively Scottish entrepreneurship scholars have a national, international and global reputation which can be capitalised on in relation to research activity, knowledge transfer and consultancy.”
The event is free and places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Please email christine.anderson@uws.ac.uk or call 0141 848 3354 by Friday 18 March if you would like to attend this event.
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