Search results

Arguably waste management, in its various guises, has been subjected to more analysis at the community level than any other environmental sector to date. This attention spans geographical boundaries with community-based waste organisations, particularly those focused on recycling, minimisation and reuse, subjected to critical analysis across Africa (Myers, 2005) and Asia (Forsyth, 2005), as well as in North America (Adhikari, Trémier, Martinez & Barrington, 2010; Weinberg, Pellow & Schnaiberg, 2000), New Zealand (White & du Preez, 2005) and the UK (Luckin & Sharp, 2003). While all focused broadly on matters of sustainability and governance, the first explicit analysis of community-based waste initiatives as grassroots sustainability enterprises was undertaken in Ireland in the mid-2000s (Davies, 2009).

A series of research experiences provoked this paper. In the spring of 2003, I was asked to act as an assessor, for the Island of Ireland Seed Corn competition¹. There I came across academic start-ups (ASUs), directly linked to Irish public sector science and technology (S&T) funding. Several of the competition teams consisted of young scientists, who presented business plans. Probing demonstrated that the teams appeared to possess little understanding of the business concepts these contained. Another consistent finding was that any market reference made was focused on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries already located in the country. Intrigued by this, together with a colleague, we then began looking at ASUs, university-based funded S&T research centres and the activities of the newly created Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI).²

Women entrepreneurs face gender‐specific barriers surrounding access to: networks of information, assistance, finance and investment funds, in addition to socio‐cultural barriers. Business incubation literature indicates the supports provided to tenant incubator companies (including: assistance from incubation managers, access to academic institutions and facilities and access to contact networks), generally increase survival rates and can accelerate growth in turnover, employment levels and export sales. Business incubators could, therefore, offer an ideal environment for women entrepreneurs to overcome many gender‐related barriers. The Irish Government has invested, via “Enterprise Ireland”, over €46 million in campus‐incubators but the gender composition of incubation tenants accessing this state funding has not been explored.

A study of all “Enterprise Ireland” funded campus‐incubators in Ireland was undertaken between November 2006 and March 2007. A survey of 100 per cent of centre managers explored their background, demands on time, the contact networks and relationships with the academic host in each centre and services provided. For cross‐referencing purposes, some tenants and prospective tenants were also surveyed in relation to tenant expectations and service delivery; the culture of incubation centres; incubation centres' policies are: tenant recruitment and selection.

This paper highlights the under‐representation of women‐owned businesses in Ireland's campus incubation centres.

These findings highlight key areas requiring attention from researchers, policy makers and incubation managers to facilitate best practice.

This paper contributes to current knowledge as there has, to date, been no comprehensive study or evaluation of gender equality, or suitability of services provided, in campus‐incubators.

Adopting an EU policy lens, this chapter primarily addresses the proposed pivotal role of firm-level innovation capability (FLIC) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a stimulant of sustainable development (SD) and green growth in Ireland/Wales. The chapter specifically examines the scale and scope of the green economy (GE), and considers the importance of organizational inherent “green” innovation capabilities (GICs) to achieve it. Underpinning the study is the methodology and concept of utilizing a facilitated cross-border multi-stakeholder learning network to enable knowledge transfer and exchange practices to flourish between partners, acting as a significant predictor of the development of SME GICs structures. Specifically, against the backdrop of the Green Innovation and Future Technologies (“GIFT” hereafter) INTERREG 4A Project, the research assesses how academic–industry partner exchange and inter-group learning and cooperation facilitates the development of GICs in smaller enterprises to realize a sustainable smart green economy in Ireland.

Recent research has demonstrated that small firm performance in Northern Ireland has benefited from the availability of a comprehensive and well‐funded programme of selective financial assistance provided by the Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU), the small business agency for the region. Such assistance to small firms was seen to overcome many of the constraints of doing business in a peripheral location such as Northern Ireland. However, one question remains unanswered by that research and that is the precise way in which LEDU financial assistance impacts upon business performance. One interpretation of the research to date could be that the relatively better performance of LEDU‐assisted small firms is due to the fact that they are more likely to be faster growing businesses in the first instance, because either they are self‐selecting in presenting themselves for LEDU assistance or else the LEDU engages in a “creaming” process, which results in the granting of assistance to the more successful firms in Northern Ireland. In order to probe further into the impact of LEDU assistance, it is necessary to examine the differential impact on growth of the wide range of support programmes and initiatives for small firms operated by the small business agency in Northern Ireland. This paper will report the results of the first stage of such an analysis by analysing the business performance of two broad groups of LEDU‐assisted clients who have received different levels of assistance in the 1990s – “Growth” and “Established” clients. The analysis is based on information drawn from a specially created database of approximately 1,600 small firms who were in receipt of LEDU financial assistance in the period 1991‐97. The analysis of the employment and turnover performance of LEDU‐assisted firms revealed that Growth clients grew faster than Established clients in the 1991‐97 period and provides tentative evidence that a more intense and directed package of assistance is clearly associated with faster business growth. The age of Growth firms was much older than Established LEDU clients and, therefore, this differential growth performance cannot be related to a simple life‐cycle explanation. The shift in LEDU policy in the 1990s towards a greater concentration of effort on firms with growth potential would appear to have been successful.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the paper aims to identify and explain the behaviour and intentions of students in their decision to start entrepreneurial activities and establish an enterprise. Second, the paper aims to identify whether students in tertiary level institutions in Ireland display the personality traits of an entrepreneur, which are necessary to found an enterprise.

In order to implement the study linkages with Ireland's Network of Teachers and Researchers in Entrepreneurship was utilized in the formation of a database. This resulted in a stratified random sample of tertiary level institutions being collected. Data were collected from 248 randomly chosen third‐level students.

The study presents some encouraging findings concerning the intentions of students to start a business. Some 82 per cent of respondents have had some thoughts or have started with the realisation and founded a business. This indicates that even at a young age Irish people are creative in their thinking and also see self‐employment as a career option. The study further examined the personal background for entrepreneurial activities of the respondents. In applying aspects of personality to the respondents, the findings indicate that the majority are extroverted; they are highly compatible and conscientious and highly stable in terms of their emotions. These findings are quite heartening as these personality traits are important for entrepreneurs when establishing and running a business.

The study identifies areas of improvement such as the development of selling skills; making students aware of the sources of funding available in Ireland and the incorporation of non‐business students into the entrepreneurship classroom.

This paper presents original findings in a highly relevant, but under‐researched field, that being tertiary level students and their intention to establish their own business.

Biotechnology is now considered a key emerging sector in Ireland's economic landscape. Defined as the ‘application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents’ (Forfás Report, 2005), biotechnology is now the main high-technology driver affecting industries as diverse as food, agriculture human health and environmental protection. In 2002 it was estimated that over 400,000 people worldwide were employed in biotech (InterTradeIreland, 2002), with the market for biotechnology products worth an estimated 100 billion (European Commission, 2002). However, according to the Technology Foresight Ireland Report (1999), these figures are predicted to increase significantly, with the expectation that, by the end of 2006, the biotechnology sector will be worth an estimated 250 billion and will employ more than three million workers.

The Government of Ireland, through the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DoFHERIS), sets the framework for the national research ecosystem. Within that ecosystem, the Research Management and Administrators (RMA) community evolved in response to changing circumstances and continues to evolve becoming a more professional and expert community. The profile of the community, admittedly based on a small sampling, is normal with a hint that females occupy the most senior roles. Most Irish research-performing organisations (RPOs) including the HE sector, College and State Research Organisations (CSRO), and the Health Service have RMA members active in The European Association of Research Managers and Administrators (EARMA). The next step in the profession’s evolution in Ireland has to be the development of a single, national, and inclusive RMA network providing a representative voice for the profession with respect to issues such as career development and career paths.

This chapter reviews and critiques the recent evolution of place-based entrepreneurship policy in the United Kingdom, in particular the governance of policies targeted at the regional level to promote economic development and competitiveness. The focus of the chapter is the evolution occurring from 1997, when the Labour government came to power, through to the period leading to the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, which came to power in 2010.

A review and critique of key academic and policy-based literature.

The chapter shows the way in which governance systems and policies aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship have permeated regional development policy at a number of levels in the United Kingdom. In general, the overarching themes of enterprise policy are similar across the regions, but the difference in governance arrangements demonstrates how emphasis and delivery varies.

Place-based enterprise policy needs long-term commitment, with interventions required to survive changes in approaches to governance if they are to prove effective; something which has been far from the case in recent years. Whilst the analysis is drawn from the case of the United Kingdom, the lessons with regard to the connection between regional modes of governance and effective policy implementation are ones that resonate across other nations that are similarly seeking to stimulate the development of entrepreneurial regions.

Evidence of ongoing disparities in regional economic development and competitiveness, linked to differences in regional business culture, suggest the continuance of market failure, whereby leading regions continue to attract resources and stimulate entrepreneurial opportunities at the expense of less competitive regions.

The time period covered by the chapter – 1997 onwards – forms an historic era with regard to changing regional governance and enterprise policy in the United Kingdom, with the emergence – and subsequent demise – of regional development agencies (RDAs) across English regions, as well as the introduction of regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which were handed certain powers for economic and enterprise development from the UK central government.

Entrepreneurial learning has recently become a topic of significant interest, with academics and economists alike recognising that the success of any new business venture is closely linked to the learning and knowledge of the entrepreneur. To date, research into entrepreneurial learning and the specific ways in which entrepreneurs learn is severally limited. By way of extending research in this area, this study examines the role of multinational companies (MNCs) as an important source of learning for entrepreneurs, and as a catalyst for new business creation and growth. Based on a small‐scale qualitative study of a group of indigenous entrepreneurs in the information technology sector in Ireland, this paper presents evidence consistent with the argument that multinational enterprises provide an important source of learning for mall to medium‐sized enterprise entrepreneurs. The evidence suggests that MNCs have a positive impact at the firm level, both at the formation and growth stage of development.