Research Spotlight: Entrepreneurship and Innovation
We’re showcasing a successful few months for our Entrepreneurship and Innovation research colleagues, as well as highlighting the ongoing and impactful work taking place within the group.
13 October 2025
Publications
Edited books
Congratulations to Professor James Cunningham, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, for co-editing the book titled ‘Industrial, Science and Technology Policy in Africa’. The book explores the specific context of science and technology policy in African nations and outlines potential directions for future research in this area.
Professor Cunningham also recently co-edited ‘Research Handbook on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’.
Journal articles
Dr Jungho Kim, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and co-authors published the journal article ‘Balancing spatial equalities by place-based inclusive innovation policy: The cases of Israel and Korea’. This paper argues that the green energy transition focuses too much on CO2 reduction, overlooking other harmful gases and broader impacts. It calls for a more inclusive approach that considers environmental, social, and economic factors, promotes global cooperation, and uses diverse strategies like energy efficiency, carbon markets, and nature-based solutions. Policymakers are key to driving this broader, fairer transition.
Professor Jonathan Sapsed, Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Professor Giorgio Fazio, Professor of Macroeconomics, also co-authored a paper called ‘Becoming a complex innovator: the role of internal and external knowledge sources’. This paper explores how different sources of knowledge, both inside and outside a firm, affect whether companies adopt simple or complex innovation strategies (which combine technological and non-technological changes). Using Italian innovation survey data, the paper finds that all knowledge sources help firms become complex innovators, but only up to a point (following an inverted U-shape). It also shows that firms benefit most from absorbing knowledge through tools like machinery and software, while external research and development efforts have little direct impact.
Dr Kate Lewis, Professor of Work and Organisation, has successfully published the paper ‘Power, youth, and temporality: Capitalising on the symbolic in resourcing social entrepreneurship’ in the Social Enterprise Journal. Dr Lewis and her co-authors were also runner up for the Business and Society Best Paper Award 2024 for their paper ‘Advancing a contextualised, community-centric understanding of social entrepreneurial ecosystems’
Reports
Dr Jungho Kim recently published the report ‘Bolstering Deep Tech Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development in the ASEAN+3 Countries. funded by the ASEAN+3 Cooperation Program’. This is a policy report regarding a project for the ASEAN Plus Three (APT: ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea) startup program for promoting sustainable development. It sets the definition and concept of deep-tech startups in the APT context. It addresses why it is significant to support the creation and growth of deep-tech startups in the aspect of sustainable development in developing and developed APT countries. It compares the levels of entrepreneurial ecosystems among 13 APT countries by drawing on six dimensions of indicators. It also reviews a representative policy supporting deep-tech startups and analyses one or two startup cases in each country. Finally, it suggests 10 policy recommendations in terms of market and economic environments, financing and investment, human capital and talent, technology and knowledge transfer, infrastructure, deregulation, impacts and diffusions, public policies, and international collaboration. This report reflects a diversity of primary and secondary study results and opinions from the deep-tech EE stakeholders in the APT countries.
Conference presentations
Dr Lucy Hatt, Reader in Entrepreneurial Education, presented at the 10th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference at the University of British Colombia, Vancouver in early July.
The conference brings together an international community of educators and researchers to explore the threshold concept approach. Threshold concepts are transformative ideas or processes that, once understood, fundamentally change the way a learner sees a subject. It’s a space for sharing research and practice on how these concepts can be identified, taught, and used to support deep learning across disciplines.
Dr Hatt presented three papers as part of her ongoing work in entrepreneurial education:
- Hatt, L. (2025). Threshold Concepts to Develop Entrepreneurial Thinking in Strategic Leaders: Empirical Evidence of Value Creation
- Hatt, L. & Cash, P. (2025). Deliberate Process Navigation Through Sensing as a Design Thinking Threshold Concept
- Hatt, L. & Geiger, J.M. (2025). Signposting the Bridge Linking Craft and Science: A Threshold Concepts Approach to Teaching Entrepreneurial Thinking
Dr Hatt said: “The conference was a relatively small gathering with around 40 people in total, which made for rich discussions and useful feedback to consolidate the key messages in these papers. I’ll be taking forward in particular the work on design thinking with Professor Phil Cash (Northumbria University), as well as developing further the fourth paper I'd had accepted for the conference - Navigating Liminality: Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Toolkit - which had to be withdrawn at short notice due to my co-author Dr Jan-Martin Geiger (University of Münster) being unable to travel.
“UBC itself was beautiful, the campus is so close to the sea, there is a spectacular rose garden, and we enjoyed a conference dinner in a stunning setting. My personal highlight was a visit to the Museum of Anthropology, which gave a moving insight into the culture and history of the Indigenous peoples of that part of Canada.”
Dr Fiona Whitehurst, Associate Dean Engagement and Place, chaired the Cultural and Creative Industries Track at the British Academy of Management Conference in Kent. The papers were all strong and the sessions generated a very constructive debate. One participant emailed Dr Whitehurst after the conference saying "I would like to sincerely thank you for your support as chair during the session. I really appreciated how carefully you checked the pronunciation of my name and how encouraging you were in guiding the Q&A. As a junior researcher, your thoughtfulness and support made a real difference to my experience at the conference".
Appointments
Congratulations to Professor Jonathan Sapsed who has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Innovation Management (IJIM), succeeding founding editor Professor Joe Tidd.
International Visitors
Dr Fiona Whitehurst hosted Visiting Professor, Professor Karen Smith from Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand from 11 July to 6 October 2024 and 3 April to 16 May 2025. They are working on two research projects related to employer-supported volunteering.
PhD achievements
Abdullah Al Mamun was awarded his PhD for his thesis titled ‘The Role of Place in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Navigating Challenges in Resource-Constrained Environments’. He was supervised by our former colleague, Jonathan Kimmitt, Dr Fiona Whitehurst, and Professor Matthew Gorton, Professor in Marketing. His thesis was examined by Professor James Cunningham from the Business School and Professor Sreevas Sahasranamam from the University of Glasgow. Abdullah has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Birmingham. He will be based at their Dubai campus for the next three years to launch their new MSc programme in Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship.