The challenge of enterprise/innovation: a case study of a modern university

ABSTRACT

In the prevailing economic and political climate for Higher Education a greater emphasis has been placed on diversifying the funding base. The present study was undertaken between 2012 and 2014 and addressed the implementation of an approach to the transformation of one academic school in a medium-sized modern university in Wales to a more engaged enterprise culture. A multimethod investigation included a bi-lingual (English and Welsh) online survey of academic staff and yielded a 71% response rate (n = 45). The findings informed a series of in-depth interviews (n = 24) with a representative sample of those involved in enterprise work (support staff, managers, senior managers), and those who were not. The results provided the platform for the ‘S4E model’ for effective engagement with enterprise: (1) Strategic significance for Enterprise, (2) Support for Enterprise, (3) Synergy for Enterprise, and (4) Success for Enterprise. The outcomes of the research and the recommendations from it have potential to inform practice in other academic schools within the university and, in a wider context, within other Schools of Education regionally, nationally and internationally. Its original empirical exploration of enterprise within education studies is a significant contribution to that body of knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Enterprise
• innovation
• entrepreneurship
• management

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the editor and to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to the participants who shared their experiences and views so generously.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For operational clarity, an inclusive operational definition of ‘enterprise’ is adopted:

… the application of creative ideas and innovations to practical situations [by using] a set of skills and attitudes that can enable a culture of innovation, creativity, risk taking, opportunism … that underpins employability, enables entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and facilitates knowledge exchange. (Vitae 2011, 1)

2. The empirical research was conducted by the first author, a senior manager with responsibility for enterprise in the school.

3. Importantly, one respondent indicated that the availability of the survey in Welsh affected her motivation to participate positively: ‘it’s this point of principle … if I receive things in Welsh, I am much more likely to respond … [it’s about] respect towards the language.’ The response rates from Welsh-speaking participants (80%, n = 10) was better than from English-speaking participants (70%, n = 37).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gill Jones

Gill Jones was the Director of Learning and Teaching in the Cardiff School of Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University having previously held the post of Director of Enterprise in the same School. As a member of the School’s Senior Management Team she had responsibity for developing academic engagement in enterprise. She contributed to the University’s international agenda lecturing in Singapore and Saudi Arabia and has spoken at conferences in the UK and in Saudi Arabia. Since retirement, she has used the skills developed as an academic intrapreneur to establish the Rural Skills Centre, an education facility that promotes creativity in an agricultural setting.

Scott Fleming

Scott Fleming is Executive Dean for Research, Knowledge Exchange and External Engagement at Bishop Grosseteste University. A former Chair of the Leisure Studies Association, and a former Managing Editor of Leisure Studies, he is the co-editor of The Research Process in Sport, Exercise and Health: Case Studies of Active Researchers (2013) and of Events management: Education, impacts and experiences (2006). Previously a Visiting Lecturer at the World Leisure International Centre of Excellence, ‘Leisure, Tourism and the Environment’, he is an Honorary Research Fellow at Asia-Pacific Centre for the Study and Training of Leisure, Zhejiang University, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Janet Laugharne

Janet Laugharne is Professor Emeritus of Language in Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She has a long-standing research interest in the learner’s voice in Welsh and bilingual settings and in exploring bilingual speakers’ metalinguistic knowledge. Her work has been published with Bloomsbury, Springer and Multilingual Matters. Previous roles in the university have included Director of Research in Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy, Director of the Language and Reading Centre and Ed D (Professional Doctorate) Pathway Leader. For several years she had pursued her interest in writing fiction and poetry. She writes separately and with Jacqueline Harrett under the name J.L. Harland.