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Staff Profile

Professor James Cunningham

Prof of Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Background

James A. Cunningham is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom and is an affiliated member of Centre for Innovation Research at Lund University, Sweden. He has held academic positions at University College Dublin, University of Galway and Northumbria University. At University of Galway he held a variety of leadership positions including Head of Strategic Management group, Executive MBA Programme Director, Director of the Centre of Innovation and Structural Change, and founding Director of the Whitaker Institute. At Northumbria University he was subject group leader and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange for the Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy. 


Professor Cunningham’s research intersects the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategic management. His research focuses on strategy issues with respect to scientists as principal investigators, university technology transfer commercialization, academic, public sector and technology entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial universities, entrepreneurial ecosystems and business failure. 


His has papers published in leading international journals such as Research Policy, Small Business Economics, R&D Management, Long Range Planning, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Technology Transfer, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Rural Studies among others. Awards for his research include seven best paper conference awards and two case study international competition awards.


Professor Cunningham has published several books on the themes of strategy, entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and technology entrepreneurship with leading publishers such as Oxford University Press, Palgrave MacMillian, Routledge, Springer, and World Scientific Publishing. His most recent book publications include Technology and Innovation Policy An International Perspective (2021), Advanced Introduction to Technology Policy (2021) and Women and Global Entrepreneurship: Contextualising the Everyday Experiences (2021) and Technology Entrepreneurship: Bringing Innovation to the Marketplace (2020). 


Professor Cunningham has successfully secured research funding and is an experienced principal investigator leading large scale multi-partner publicly funded research programs for funded agencies such Northern Peripheries Programme (EU), the Irish Higher Education Authority, Irish Research Council, and Science Foundation Ireland. He is the author of numerous commissioned research reports for organizations such as the Australian Skills Council, the American Chamber of Commerce, Ireland, Galway City and County Councils, Galway Chamber of Commerce, and the Creative Edge. In addition, he has contributed to policy development processes on technology transfer, innovation, and entrepreneurship in Ireland. His most recent commission research for the EU Commission and the Joint Research Council was focused on project co-ordinators - scientists in the principal. investigator role. He co-authored two technical reports- Roles and Responsibilities of Project Coordinator: A Contingency Model for Project Coordinator Effectiveness and The Role of Project Coordinator in European Commission Framework Programme Projects. Professor Cunningham has also co-created impact toolkits for scientists in the principal investigator role.


Professor Cunningham regularly delivers invited keynote talks and presentations nationally and internationally to business, policy, and academic audiences as well as delivering executive master classes on strategy development, new venture creation, innovation and technology entrepreneurship.

Research

My research interests intersect the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategic management. My current research focus is on three main themes:


Academic Entrepreneurship and University Technology Transfer

Some issues of current issues of focus include the role of scientists in the principal investigator an how do they shaping science, markets and society? What is the impact orientation of scientists in the principal investigator role? How scientists in the principal investigator role create and capture value for diverse stakeholders? How scientists engage with entrepreneurial ecosystems and other stakeholders in commercialising their research?


Entrepreneurial University

As universities are extending their mission focus to technology and knowledge transfer some issues of current focus include business models, missions and drivers of entrepreneurial universities. The organisational structures, strategies and entrepreneurial architecture that entrepreneurial universities adapt to realise their mission focus in different contextual settings. How do entrepreneurial universities engage formally and informally with civic and societal issues? What is the role and capabilities of technology transfer offices in supporting entrepreneurial university mission expansion? 


Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policies

Different actors contribute to the development of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems and as such how do these ecosystems evolve overtime? What tensions emerge among ecosystems actors over the stage of entrepreneurship? What is the economic, technological and social impact of entrepreneurial ecosystems? What governance systems are used to support ecosystem evolution? What is the impact of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology policies? What is role of public sector R&D in realising innovation and technology policies?


For a full list of publications see ResearchGate. 


I welcome PhD and visiting doctoral enquires around these three research themes.


Teaching
James teaches on NBS8296 and also supervises MSc dissertations. 


Publications