RESEARCH
Entrepreneurship
Research in the field of ‘Entrepreneurship’ focuses on the instruments and mechanisms that support entrepreneurs, future entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Ninety-nine per cent of all companies in the European Union are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). That means that there are 23 million SMEs in the EU overall. Supporting innovative entrepreneurs is of particular interest as entrepreneurship is viewed as a key impetus for innovation, economic growth, competitiveness, employment and social integration.
Research into ‘entrepreneurship’ relates to a range of different areas and includes individual stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs and teams, as well as economic organisations such as companies, incubators and regional clusters. Researchers attempt to explore the social, technological and economic opportunities of entrepreneurship in relation to structural aspects of continuity and discontinuity. The perspectives used in this research can be varied: they can be historical, economic, sociological, geographical, legal, cultural, socio-political, specific to a certain technology or connected to the employment market or economic evaluation.
Current research into entrepreneurship at AAU is not only informed by the specialist expertise of the Faculty of Economics, it also enables cross-faculty synergies and potential areas for cooperation to be identified quickly. It’s not just economic and legal subjects that can contribute to the development of research in this area: sociology can also facilitate this through contributions on the employment market, start-ups, opportunity in entrepreneurship, market research, special themes such as ‘female’ and ‘ethnic’ entrepreneurship, competition, cooperation and team formation, networks and other social competencies.
The university’s ‘build!’ initiative is a start-up incubator that is a source for innovative, growth-orientated projects. A study into spin-offs in the Alpen-Adria region was also conducted in cooperation with the University of Maribor and the innovation centre in Udine.
Key research projects
Research coordinators
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