Kevin Hindle

Public research commercialisation, entrepreneurship and new technology based firms: an integrated model

Entrepreneurship is the engine of innovation. The accumulated tacit knowledge and culture of the entrepreneur are the resources essential to create wealth from research commercialisation leading to technological innovation and the creation of New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs). The authors explore, in definitional terms, discovery of entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial capacity as the essential elements in the interaction between all types of tacit knowledge (technological, managerial, risk management, financial, etc.). These both derive from and affect interactions between the institutions (sets of rules), organisational culture and external business environment. They also interact with the entrepreneur’s own background and personality. This leads then to a wider analysis of the importance of such tacit knowledge as the glue bringing together effective mechanisms for wealth creation out of research commercialisation.

Brave Spirits on New Paths: Toward a Globally Relevant Paradigm of Indigenous Entrepreneurship Research

This is the first study in a series aimed at strengthening research in the emerging field of Indigenous entrepreneurship. A literature survey revealed two dominant themes: the need to reconcile tradition with innovation and the need to understand how Indigenous world-views and values impact upon enterprise. Four relevant theoretical contexts guided an empirical investigation employing depth interviews with 40 selected opinion leaders representing two cultures: Indigenous Australian and American Indian. Data evaluation culminated in the formal articulation of a paradigm for Indigenous entrepreneurship research. Discussion focused on utility of the paradigm and future research directions.

Teaching entrepreneurship at university : from the wrong building to the right philosophy

This authoritative and comprehensive Handbook showcases the nature and benefits of the new wave in entrepreneurship education emerging as a result of revised academic programmes developed to reflect new forms of entrepreneurship.

A grounded theory for teaching entrepreneurship using simulation games

A practical teaching difficulty provided the opportunity to turn a problem into a useful case study with generic implications for the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games in teaching entrepreneurship. Students playing the simulation game submitted written assessments that became the units of analysis for a single-case research project. Analysis produced a grounded theory consisting of four attribute categories and associated properties required of a simulation game to make it an effective teaching device in entrepreneurship contexts. The theory provides at the very least a useful checklist for teachers of entrepreneurship and, potentially, a basis for developing a quality standard for educational simulation games.

Brave spirits on new paths: toward a globally relevant paradigm of indigenous entrepreneurship research

Abstract This is the first study in a series aimed at strengthening research in the emerging field of Indigenous entrepreneurship. A literature survey revealed two dominant themes: the need to reconcile tradition with innovation and the need to understand how Indigenous world-views and values impact upon enterprise. Four relevant theoretical contexts guided an empirical investigation employing depth interviews with 40 selected opinion leaders representing two cultures: Indigenous Australian and American Indian. Data evaluation culminated in the formal articulation of a paradigm for Indigenous entrepreneurship research. Discussion focused on utility of the paradigm and future research directions.

The role of social networks at different stages of business formation

Abstract This study empirically tests the fundamental assumption that social networks are important to entrepreneurs. This assumption underpins most social network research conducted in the field of entrepreneurship and is seldom questioned. Empirical data were drawn from Australia’s participation in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project (GEM) from 2000-2005 – an aggregate sample of 14,205 randomly selected Australians. The study demonstrated: (1) statistically significant differences in social networks when entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs are compared and (2) that the structural diversity of social networks changes during the entrepreneurial process. It was found that structural diversity was most important to entrepreneurs in the discovery stage, least important to entrepreneurs in the start-up stage and of medium importance to entrepreneurs in the young business stage.

Relating Practice to Theory in Indigenous Entrepreneurship: A Pilot Investigation of the Kitsaki Partnership Portfolio

In Canada there are numerous studies about Indigenous entrepreneurship, most descriptive with little theory development or testing. This leaves a gap in the information available to researchers, policy makers and practitioners. In this paper we describe a research program intended to address this gap beginning with the activities of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, considered an exemplar of successful Indigenous entrepreneurship. From these activities, we draw propositions about Indigenous entrepreneurship that are compatible with generic theory. Finally, we describe how we will move from these propositions to a model of Indigenous entrepreneurship using grounded theory and structural equation modelling.

A Practical Strategy for Discovering, Evaluating and Exploiting Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Research-based Action Guidelines

Abstract It has been argued that entrepreneurship researchers do not place sufficient emphasis on making their research findings relevant to entrepreneurs and their advisors. The paper utilises five general principles introduced by Hindle, Anderson and Gibson (2004) to convert a complex range of entrepreneurship research findings into useful action guidelines for practicing entrepreneurs. The existing research-based knowledge concerning opportunity assessment is distilled into a diagrammatic framework. This framework and a sequence of ten, plain-English questions, provides entrepreneurs and SME operators with a strategic tool (nick-named the “4/10 strategy”) for discovering, evaluating and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities.

Indigenous Land Claims and Economic Development: The Canadian Experience

The current socioeconomic circumstances of the Aboriginal people in Canada are abysmal. According to the 1991 census, 42 percent of Aboriginal people received social welfare, as opposed to 8 percent of the Canadian population as a whole.1 In the same year unemployment among Aboriginal people stood at 24.6 percent, almost two and one-half times the national rate of 10.2 percent. The Aboriginal population will rise by 52 percent between 1991 and 2016, while the working age Aboriginal population will increase by 72 percent (compared to 22 percent and 23 percent respectively for non-Aboriginal people). This means that as bad as these circumstances are, the prospects for the future are worse unless something is done to change the relative socioeconomic circumstance of Aboriginal people vis-à-vis other Canadians. Aboriginal people in Canada have not been standing idly by accepting their socioeconomic circumstances. They have established development objectives and a process for attaining them (see figure 1). Entrepreneurship—the identification of unmet or undersatisfied needs and related opportunities and the creation of enterprises, products, and services in response to these opportunities—lies at the heart of this Aboriginal approach. Through entrepreneurship and business development they believe they can attain their socioeconomic objectives. These objectives include (1) greater control of activities on their traditional lands; (2) selfdetermination and an end to dependency through economic selfsufficiency; (3) the preservation and strengthening of traditional values and the application of these in economic development and business activities; and, of course, (4) improved socioeconomic circumstance for individuals, families, and communities. Indigenous Land Claims and Economic Development

Collaboration with entrepreneurship education programmes: building spinout capacity at universities

As University Spinouts (USOs) have become a highly desirable outcome for commercialisation efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesise that Entrepreneurship Education (EE) programmes ceterus paribus may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE programmes with four research goals in mind: 1) to determine whether or not there are perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programmes and technology transfer departments; 2) to identify specific factors that influence these perceptions; 3) to query academics regarding the perceived barriers to collaboration; 4) to identify whether collaborations already exist and categorise them. Our findings suggest that significant advantages from collaboration between these two functions are perceived and that indirect linkages are believed to be more important than direct linkages.