Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Heart of Research at Sprott
In this fast-pasted world of rapidly evolving technology, it has become increasingly important for businesses to stay on top of—even ahead of—these changes. The future of business relies heavily on innovative strategies to improve value creation, promote growth, and remain competitive. Simply, companies must innovate to stay relevant. This is true for existing businesses and for entrepreneurial start-ups that must include innovation as a key part of their strategic management.
But innovation and entrepreneurship is not just about a fiduciary goal; it must also consider the moral obligation and accountability to its community and society; embracing inclusive, equal, and multidimensional perspectives that allow businesses to grow and be profitable concurrent to the cultural, societal, and environmental realities.
The Sprott School of Business lives and breathes this ideology—one that considers global perspectives, inclusivity, and staying relevant. The Sprott team also recognizes that it is an exciting time for innovation and entrepreneurship given the level of technology and capital available in a market with unlimited growth potential. Sprott is committed to fostering excellence in programming, teaching, and research to create solutions to the most pressing global challenges.
As such, Sprott is excited to open their first ever Innovation Hub in the new Nicol building in 2021. The Hub will be a fantastic opportunity to bring work from around the university, students, and community partners to one location and allow collaborative research and training within entrepreneurial sphere to flourish. With many entrepreneurial initiatives on the go, the mission is to foster mentorship, ideation, and relevant skills.
The research happening at Sprott is focused on addressing critical questions that examine innovation and entrepreneurship from a multidimensional lens—one that understands the importance of value maximization and likewise, inclusivity, equality, and a global imperative.
For example, Rick Colbourne’s (Assistant Dean, Equity, and Inclusive Communities) perspective is that Indigenous entrepreneurship is a process of extracting and contributing value that is anchored in a community’s socioeconomic condition. Indigenous entrepreneurship allows Indigenous peoples to exercise their rights to design, develop, and maintain culturally relevant political, economic, and social systems or institutions that promote sovereignty, self-determination, and socioeconomic well-being. One of Colbourne’s research goals is to create ethical spaces for engagement that bridge Indigenous ways of being and knowing with Western ones to challenge colonization and develop alternative perspectives and understandings. Moreover, Colbourne is working on integrating the consideration of urban, rural, and northern influences, along with territory and community values, Aboriginal law, treaty, community and corporate governance, and even the legacy of colonization, into a wholistic framework for understanding Indigenous entrepreneurship and economic development. “It’s not about helping—it’s about enabling self-determination and socioeconomic well-being. It’s about community working in their traditional territories and creating ventures that address their specific socioeconomic needs and values.”
Rodney Nelson (Instructor III, International Business) uses his expertise and sagacious insights to explore innovative ways of looking at sustainability and social issues in business. Nelson’s work in economic sustainability and agritourism in Northern Italy, for example, describes how small, once economically depressed communities are creating “locality” for local farmers, generating revenue and jobs through a regeneration of old farming practices. Young, educated locals are coming back to their homes, creating experiences for tourists that are enriching, authentic, and immersive. They are driving tourism with unique and successful business models. In fact, much of Nelson’s research centers around how small business ecosystems in Indigenous communities in Canada and around the world create successful business ventures, and he is inspired to share their success stories; narrating the ingenious ways members of communities have learned to overcome socioeconomic challenges and achieve entrepreneurial success. What is fantastic is that Nelson has experienced and witnessed, firsthand, the people and their practices: “Working with diverse people and understanding their ways and practices is so valuable. This gives you a true perspective on their issues and what their needs are.”
Stoyan Tanev (Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship) examines the changing landscape of how entrepreneurs identify opportunities, shape new businesses, and articulate value to customers to compete in the international market. One area of Tanev’s research examines how a new firm can articulate an effective value proposition and integrate it into its business model narratives so that it resonates with new customers and ensures success in the global market. This includes exploratory research based on publicly available online information combined with topic modelling and text summarization tools. Tanev also explores the linguistic aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation management by emphasizing that they are both dependent on effective conversational skills and the specific language used by the companies to articulate value to customers. This approach appears to be highly valuable as most companies, especially start-ups, struggle to articulate their value propositions in a clear, competitive, and viable way.
Mika Westerlund (Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship) educates aspiring entrepreneurs in Carleton’s Technology Innovation Management (TIM) master’s degree program. In fact, Westerlund is all about entrepreneurship and his research program includes a robust and diverse look into entrepreneurship that includes emerging technologies, business model innovation, entrepreneurial marketing strategies, and management models in high-tech and service-intensive industries, among others. One area that his highly noteworthy includes his work examining “Green Business Models” and sustainable entrepreneurship. “We need entrepreneurs and leaders with the courage and conviction to take bold action ahead of others. We also need radically new business models that create true value for the environment and society, bring competitive advantage to companies, and have the potential to transform industries globally.”
Francois Brouard (Professor, Accounting) is taking a unique perspective on the comedy industry in Quebec. His research aims to elucidate successful business strategies for comedians. “Comedians are entrepreneurs; they need to manage their business and their careers to ensure they are successful and to potentially become famous.” Brouard is looking at this from many angles, including the factors that distinguish “A” listed comedians from those less successful, such as commonality in script content, to venue location and production—teasing out the factors that allow a comedian to rise to stardom. Brouard also examines how female comedians fare in the industry—a very sensitive and important issue in entertainment and business alike. To date, males dominate the comedy world, but as female representation grows, Brouard is interested in comparing female and male perceptions of women in this industry.
Gerald Grant (Professor, Information Systems) has spent decades reframing the narrative on how business looks at the governance of innovative information system (IS) integration and how to help both public and private organizations optimize value. If innovation is all about technology, then it is essential that organizations understand how to use the power of technology for good and not evil, so to speak. Grant describes how companies see technology and innovative ideas as instrumental, yet most have a limited perspective on technology’s role in a company. “It’s not about the technology itself; it’s about understanding how the technology will add value to your consumer and how an organization manages the process of integrating innovation and digital systems.” Grant understands that the mindset and process need to be responsive and improvisational to the dynamic environment of an organization and culture. As such, Grant devotes much of his research to helping organizations, countries—people—build their capabilities and leverage technology successfully.
This is just some of the work happening within Sprott’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. For more information, visit: https://sprott.carleton.ca/faculty-research/