Projects

I’m interested in innovation – that is how new products, services, business models and patterns of behaviour emerge over time – and I’m happy to look at that in a range of contexts, generally from  a qualitative point of view.  I’m also interested in the role of the entrepreneur in effecting change, particularly how managers of entrepreneurial firms anticipate industry change and make decisions.  Finally, I like to investigate how entrepreneurs exist as social constructions in the media, the myths and stories they create and that they create themselves.  I’m interested in theoretical and conceptual work, practical applications and innovation in teaching.  More specifically:

1. I have been working with Ted Fuller (Lincoln), Friedericke Welter and Paul Argyle on how we can use complexity theory to look at the emergence of novelty in uncertain conditions.  Paul is CEO of FlightDirectors, a firm in the airline services industry, that has to be agile and foresightful in a dynamic business context – what behaviours are necessary to sustain the firm?
2. Again with Ted Fuller, I have been working to apply and develop the ideas from the work above into the creative industries sector.  This was supported by EPSRC www.creatorproject.org and is continuing with colleagues in the industry, such as Proboscis, and other academic leaders such as Sally-Jane Norman, with particular focus on the Digital Economy.  In the same vein, I work with Paul Walland at the IT-Innovation company, part of our Computing faculty at Southampton Science Park.  Of particular interest here os the notion of the ‘value creating system.’
3. More mainstream work reflecting on the decision-making frameworks in new product development in large companies is underway with Domink Kunz, an ex-Masters student at Southampton who is now working in the photovoltaic industry.  My PhD student Muhammad Nouman could be grouped here – he is looking at how SMEs in low tech environments can innovate.
4. I am naturally concerned by the policy environment in which innovation might taker place in the UK and am working with Fumi Kitagawa (Bristol) and Marc Eatough (Genecon Ltd) on the linkages between HEIs and RDAs.  This builds on a number of projects looking at incubators both in Loughborough and Southampton.
5. Linked to the above, while I was at Loughborough, Grahame Boocock and I, along with others, evaluated best practice in the teaching of technology-based entrepreneurship, based on best practice at MIT, and more directly, North Carolina State University.
6. Along with Simon Down, Alistair Anderson and Robert Smith, I have worked on the construction of entrepreneurial identity.  Latterly, I edited a special issue of Tamara, and am developing another (with Rob) on Restorying Entrepreneurship http://sc-moi.ning.com/notes/TAMARA_call%3A_%22Restorying_Entrepreneurship%22%2C_closes_January_2010 and,  we have an interest group under the auspices of David Boje’s group, scMOI, http://sc-moi.ning.com/group/entr .  We like to look at alternative publishing formats and alternative entrepreneurs such as Takafumie Horie , Vance Miller, and groupings such as the Scottish Entrepreneurial Exchange.
7. Last and not least, I enjoy working with Lisa Harris http://www.lisaharrismarketing.com, Jas Dhaliwal http://www.jasdhaliwal.com/ , Tim Greenhalgh and Lloyd Gofton, http://www.liberatemedia.com/team/  (and others such as Kelly Smith at Huddersfield University)  on social media and it’s potential role in disrupting traditional education and publishing formats.  See http://www.liberatemedia.com/blog/tim-greenhalgh/ for some guest blog posts with Liberate Media.