Acknowledged nationally and internationally, CISEI conducts interdisciplinary cutting-edge evidence-based research on Inclusive and Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It engages with a diverse set of stakeholders in order to challenge and empower individuals and organisations to tackle critical equality, diversity and sustainability challenges in the context of entrepreneurship and innovation. CISEI is at the heart of the inclusivity and sustainability agenda at the University of Southampton, playing a pivotal role in advancing research strands on sustainability, diversity and inclusiveness and translating their outputs to business and societal practices.
Email: cisei@soton.ac.uk
CISEI offers an inclusive platform for trans-disciplinary and impactful research on inclusiveness, diversity, equality and sustainability in the main domains of entrepreneurship and innovation scholarship.
CISEI’s Mission is to undertake cutting edge research on socially inclusive and/or sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation, with a view to engage a diverse set of stakeholders in order to challenge and empower individuals and organisations to tackle critical equality, diversity and sustainability challenges in the context of entrepreneurship and innovation.
CISEI’s Objectives are
CISEI’s Vision is to equip individuals, organisations and communities with socially inclusive, humanitarian and sustainable ways of organising and co-creating value.
CISEI’s Director: Dr Rashedur Chowdhury
CISEI’s Founding Director: Mine Karatas-Ozkan
The CISEI research and impact activities are organised around its 9 Labs where CISEI researchers are experimenting with new and creative ways of connecting academics with entrepreneurs, practitioners, and policy makers. The CISEI team engages with them in such fashion that allows all parties to co-create value, and transform their individual and organisational experiences.
The Ecosystem Lab examines the ecosystems within which enterprises operate, and the new possibilities they create for different types and sizes of organisations - small, medium and large; commercial and social; technology driven and human centric. The Lab explores intertwined and complex relationships between different actors in the ecosystem and the dynamics of such relationships, helping organisations to successfully navigate through them via developing effective strategies. The Lab conducts research that helps business to deploy their own proprietary ecosystem that can maximize their potential for success and growth. The Lab advances understanding of how the ecosystems are orchestrated, and helps organisations co-evolve and redefine their capabilities to thrive witin their ecosystems. The lab develop metrics to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual ecosystems.
Lead: Shahnaz Ibrahim & David Baxter
Associated projects:
2018-22: The roles of Science Parks in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation; Royal Thai Government (Rom Pairsuwan)
The Philosophy and Entrepreneurship Lab endeavour to contribute to fundamental questions of entrepreneurship, such as the nature of entrepreneurial opportunity, uncertainty and luck. Adjacent problems concern the role of language and logic in the development of relevant to the real world understandings of entrepreneurship. Researchers of this lab also explore how major philosophers can facilitate the development of more profound insights on the entrepreneurship phenomenon.
Lead: Stratos Ramoglou
The (Non)Opportunity lab investigates the ways in which economic and social structures generate entrepreneurial opportunities as well as the mechanisms through which opportunities can become more widely accessible to aspiring entrepreneurs. Research carried out in this lab has important implications for public policy. It helps inform policies on economic growth and the no less pressing problem of social inequality.
Lead: Raymond Xiaoti Hu
The Knowledge Exchange Lab brings together academics and practitioners with internationally acknowledged expertise in knowledge exchange, academic entrepreneurship, university engagement with the public, private and third sector organisations, university management and organisational change, diversity and inclusivity dimensions of academia, personal knowledge transfer networks, and spatial dimensions of knowledge exchange. The Lab has an extensive experience collecting and analysing large scale quantitative and qualitative datasets on knowledge exchange, including national surveys of academics and qualitative censuses of technology transfer offices. The Lab advocates an inclusive notion of academic entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange, analysing a range of commercial and non-commercial academic activities that can be entrepreneurial in nature and could include consultancy, contract research, informal advice, public lectures, community activities, etc. It argues this approach is essential for illuminating the nature and extent of academic entrepreneurial activities in non-STEM subjects where non-patent based activities are particularly common but often remain overlooked in the academic and policy debate.
Lead: Vadim Grinevich
Associated outputs:
Associated Projects:
2018-22: The roles of Science Parks in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation; Royal Thai Government (Rom Pairsuwan)
2018-22: Knowledge Production and Dissemination in a Complex Institutional Environment: The Case of Business Schools, ESRC South Coast DTP (Samuel Redgrave)
2017-21: University-Industry Collaboration: Toward an Understanding of Innovation Capabilities and Appropriability Mechanisms from the Industry Perspective, Royal Thai Government (Takron Opassuwan)
2016: Diversity and Academic Entrepreneurship in STEM Research Base’, EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship Scheme (Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Yehuda Baruch, Laura Costanzo)
2015-17: Drivers for entrepreneurial universities: role of technology transfer offices in emerging markets, British Academy & Newton Fund (Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Serdal Temel, Stratos Ramoglou, Vadim Grinevich)
The Digital Lab serves as an interdisciplinary hub for research on digitally enabled business models, and their implications for individuals, organisations, community and society.
The Lab’s particular interest is in the emerging sharing economy phenomenon. Enabled by digital platform technologies, the sharing economy allows households, individuals, businesses, government and non-government organisations to engage in collaborative production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. The Lab investigates the antecedents of the sharing economy, its organizational forms and novelty, enabling and constraining factors, and impacts. To develop an integrated understanding of the sharing economy phenomenon, its drivers, forms and implications, the Lab engages with relevant trading bodies and different strands of academic scholarship representing management and business studies, economics, geography, legal studies, sociology, and political sciences, among others.
Lead: Vadim Grinevich
Associated outputs:
Baines, L., Grinevich, V., & Karatas-Ozkan, M. (2019). Digitalisation and the role of the board. In J. Gabrielsson, W. Khlif, & S. Yamak (Eds.), Research Handbook on Boards of Directors Edward Elgar.
Grinevich, V., Huber, F., Karatas-Ozkan, M., & Yavuz, C. (2017). Green entrepreneurship in the sharing economy: utilising multiplicity of institutional logics. Small Business Economics, 52(4), 859-876.
Hausemer, P., Rzepecka, J., Dragulin, M., Vitiello, S., Rabuel, L., Nunu, M., Rodriguez Diaz, A., Psaila, E., Fiorentini, S., Gysen, S., Meeusen, T., Quaschning, S., Dunne, A., Grinevich, V., Huber, F., & Baines, L. (2017). Exploratory Study of consumer issues in peer-to-peer platform markets. European Commission.
Grinevich, V., Huber, F., Baines, L., & Eder, M. (2015). Upscaling in the sharing economy: insights from the UK. University of Southampton; University Seeburg Castle.
Baines, L., Grinevich, V., & Karatas-Ozkan, M. (2019). Digitalisation and the role of the board. In J. Gabrielsson, W. Khlif, & S. Yamak (Eds.), Research Handbook on Boards of Directors Edward Elgar.
Grinevich, V., Huber, F., Karatas-Ozkan, M., & Yavuz, C. (2017). Green entrepreneurship in the sharing economy: utilising multiplicity of institutional logics. Small Business Economics, 52(4), 859-876.
Hausemer, P., Rzepecka, J., Dragulin, M., Vitiello, S., Rabuel, L., Nunu, M., Rodriguez Diaz, A., Psaila, E., Fiorentini, S., Gysen, S., Meeusen, T., Quaschning, S., Dunne, A., Grinevich, V., Huber, F., & Baines, L. (2017). Exploratory Study of consumer issues in peer-to-peer platform markets. European Commission.
Grinevich, V., Huber, F., Baines, L., & Eder, M. (2015). Upscaling in the sharing economy: insights from the UK. University of Southampton; University Seeburg Castle.
Projects:
2020-21: Vulnerability in the sharing economy, SBS Research Fund
2019-2022: Computational measurement of value co-creation behaviour in peer-to-peer lending platforms, EPSRC Web Science DTP (Mark Dix)
2017-19: Electricity Satnav - Electricity Smart Availability Topology of Network for Abundant electric Vehicles, EPSRC
2016-17: The B2B sharing economy: Is there a case for policy intervention, Web Science Institute Research Collaboration Scheme
2016-17: User behaviour in digital platform environments: The case of the sharing economy, EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship grant
2016-17: The exploratory study of consumer issues in the sharing economy, funded by the Consumers, Health, Agriculture, and Food Executive Agency, European Union
2014-15: Scaling up the Sharing Economy: The case of the UK, SBS Research Fund
Societies and businesses are increasingly affected by unpredictable and rapid changes. Transition to new business models, approaches and methods is imperative. Family firms, the dominant form of businesses in most advanced and developing economies, have a responsibility and an opportunity to be agents of this transition. Researchers in the family business lab form an active community of scholars to tackle fundamental questions such as - what does this transition mean for family businesses, particularly small and medium-sized family businesses? How can family businesses stay in tuned with societal and technological innovations and benefit from them, as part of wider entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems? How can they both accommodate family and business interests to remain in sync with the evolving external environment? What role do tradition and history play in their innovative and entrepreneurial trajectory? As family business scholars, we are cognisant with the importance of effective goal-setting and succession planning for family firms, considering the longevity and the emotional nature of family owners’ relationship with the business. Therefore, we are keen in tackling critical questions surrounding successions such as - how can family businesses manage inter-generational change for value-creation and renewal of the business? How can they protect their socio-emotional wealth which is key to their longevity? Through this lab, we help family businesses formulate effective strategies and implement them, especially in the context of rapid transitions and transformations. We also inform policy domains in this field by making our research knowledge useable and accessible for policy makers.
Lead: Laura Costanzo
The Extraordinary Innovation lab studies organisations who excel in innovation, and who repeatedly deliver excellent products and services. The Lab studies the methods and finds out what works, when and why. The Lab also aims to help companies transform from being regular performers to becoming extraordinary innovators.
Innovation is central to improving the prosperity and wellbeing of nations, regions, organisations and individuals. When we think about innovation, as the successful introduction of something new, we usually talk about the outcome. What exciting new gadgets are being showcased at CES? Sometimes we talk about how to get those new products or services. The business models that now allow us to lend or borrow a car, house or clothing. The hidden aspect of innovation is the business process that brings it into being. The process can be difficult, messy and frustrating. It is always creative, and sometimes it is inspiring and rewarding. The innovation process is adapting, at pace, across every industry and sector. New methods are being applied at every stage, from generating ideas to engineering. Some of these methods include crowdsourcing, co-creation, design thinking and and open innovation, experimental development methods such as Lean Startup, crowdfunding as a new way to finance projects, and agile methods for managing projects. This Lab investigate such processes and methods in order to help companies and industries transform themselves by developing and adapting their innovation methods.
Lead: David Baxter
The (In)Equality and Social Inclusion Lab forms an active community of international scholars tackling with grand socio-economic and political challenges surrounding inequality and social exclusion, particularly in the context of socially inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation. Through its applied and impactful research knowledge, the Lab helps individuals, organisations of all kinds and policy makers develop critical management tools to address these challenges and engage with a diverse set of stakeholders effectively, with the ultimate objective of influencing business practices and related policies. The Lab puts particular emphasis on policy outcomes of related research activities as we view the concepts of social exclusion and inequality closely inter-linked, and there is so much scope for change in policies and initiatives to reduce inequalities associated with individual and organisational practices. The Lab enhances the impact and interdisciplinarity of research in this area to bring new and meaningful insights to advance organisational practices as well as research and policy agendas at the intersection of equality, social inclusion and diversity, with the emphasis on inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation.
Lead: Mine Karatas-Ozkan
Projects
2017-21: The role of Social Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development and Community Empowerment, University of Southampton Faculty of Social Sciences Scholarship (Joseph Kimaro)
This lab examines noncooperative spaces which are dominated, manipulated and constrained by uncooperative sociostructure. Noncooperative spaces are widely spread across the globe. Consider the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, which now house more than 1.1 million refugees. The Rust Belt in the USA, once famous for steel production and heavy industry, is now experiencing higher inequality and unemployment rates. Sunk and council housing estates in the UK are seeing increasing social problems. Ghettos in Europe are home to minorities because of socio-economic discrimination; and, in townships in South Africa, disadvantaged black populations live in extreme poverty and racial inequality – these are only a few examples of increasingly noncooperative spaces. This lab also explores how to achieve cooperative sociostructural intervention and changes so that research does not remain stuck in the noncooperative paradigm.
Lead: Rashedur Chowdhury
Find out more about our staff members who are experts in their own field and provide their expertise in Inclusive and Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Doctoral Researcher, Engineering and Computer Science & Southampton Business School
Project: Computational measurement of value co-creation behaviour in peer-to-peer lending platforms.
Funded: EPSRC Web Science DTP, 2019-2022
Mark's doctoral research involves the analysis of user behaviour to investigate processes of online collaboration. Based across Southampton Business School and the department of Electronics and Computer Science, he takes an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses the fields of computational social science, business strategy and systems thinking.
Supervisors:
Les Carr
Vadim Grinevich
Contact email: M.E.Dix@soton.ac.uk
Doctoral Researcher, Southampton Business School
Project: The role of Social Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development and Community Empowerment
Funded: University of Southampton Faculty of Social Sciences scholarship
Joseph Kimaro has MSc in International Transport and Logistics and Bachelor in Business Administration in Procurement and Logistics management. Joseph’s research interests revolve around (Social) Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Tourism, and Community Empowerment.
His doctoral project investigates the role of Social Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development and Community Empowerment within the context of tourism in Tanzania. Following the increased global scholarly interests in Social Entrepreneurship and the sprung of Social Enterprises within the tourism sector, Joseph explores the potential of socially oriented enterprises in addressing wicked, grand and chronic community tensions within the tourism sector. He investigates this by using a multidimensional empowerment framework, which accommodates numerous sustainability dimensions. This doctoral project is comprised of three papers which have so far been presented in esteemed conferences, workshops, and Doctoral Consortium such as Academy of Management Annual Meetings, Organising Studies Workshops, and International Symposium on Cross-Sector Social Interactions.
Joseph worked as an academician in Tanzania for 10 years before he joined the University of Southampton. During his time at Southampton, he was also able to complete a three-month placement with Southampton City Council assisting in enhancing Sustainable and Ethics Public Procurement Policy, which was arranged by Public Policy at the University of Southampton.
Supervisors:
Mine Karatas-Ozkan
Shahnaz Ibrahim
Vadim Grinevich
Contact email: J.M.Kimaro@soton.ac.uk
Doctoral Researcher, Southampton Business School
Project: University-Industry Collaboration: Toward an Understanding of Innovation Capabilities and Appropriability Mechanisms from the Industry Perspective
Funded: The Royal Thai Government
This PhD thesis focuses on university-industry collaboration (UIC) and aims to understand innovation capabilities as the factor influencing UIC and firms’ performance, and appropriability mechanisms as the determinant of UIC. This thesis consists of three papers. The first is a systematic review of literature on capabilities in UIC studies aiming to answer two questions: (1) what are the measures of capabilities and performance in UIC studies? and (2) How do capabilities affect performance?. A review reveals that literature uses a variety of capabilities and performance measures but mostly rely on quantifiable measures such as R&D and patent counts. Existing literature also focuses mainly on the technological aspect of capabilities, but offers little insights into how non-technological capabilities play a role in UIC. Addressing the gap from Paper 1, the second paper empirically investigates the effects of firms’ technological innovation capabilities (product and process) and non-technological innovation capabilities (marketing) on the relationship between UIC and innovation performance. Based on a sample of 830 innovative firms in the Thailand Community and Innovation Survey collected in 2015 and 2017, marketing innovation capability enhances firms innovation performance when firms use contract research, consulting, and research facilities from universities. In addition, marketing innovation capability complements the effects of process innovation capability when adopting collaborative research. The last and on-going paper explores the roles of formal and informal appropriability mechanisms in the firm’s propensity to engage in UIC and the collaboration breadth.
Supervisors:
Vadim Grinevich
Pelin Demirel
Katia Pina
Contact email: T.Opassuwan@soton.ac.uk
Doctoral Researcher, Southampton Business School
Project: The roles of Science Parks in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Funded: Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Royal Thai Government
The entrepreneurial ecosystem has recently gained interest among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The approach seeks to explain the phenomenon that entrepreneurs, organizations, institutional factors, and other elements within the ecosystem interrelate in such a way that promotes the emergence of growth-oriented entrepreneurship. Science parks have been shown to play an important role in Regional Innovation Systems, but their roles in entrepreneurial ecosystems are under-explored. The study aims to explore what roles science parks can play in entrepreneurial ecosystems, and how entrepreneurial ecosystems have an influence on the performance of science parks.
Supervisors:
David Baxter
Dorrie Chao
Vadim Grinevich
Contact email: R.Pairsuwan@soton.ac.uk
Doctoral Researcher, Southampton Business School
Project: Knowledge Production and Dissemination in a Complex Institutional Environment: The Case of Business Schools
Funded: ESRC South Coast DTP, 2018-2021
Samuel is a doctoral researcher within the Department of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Southampton Business School. He previously completed his BSc and MSc also at the business school. His research aims to explore the experiences of academics within UK business schools through the lens of institutional theory.
Supervisors:
Vadim Grinevich
Dorrie Chao
Contact email: sdjr1g14@soton.ac.uk
You can view the list of our publications here.
Our research centre hosts many events that explore a range of topics that look into cutting-edge research on socially inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation.You can find the list below.
Global and Local Implications of COVID-19 crisis for business and innovation ecosystems.
Excelling at the nexus of academia, policy and practice
CISEI generates impactful research that connects it firmly with individuals and institutions, such as entrepreneurs, policy makers and communities. The CISEI team is highly proud of, and grateful for, the contributions of academics and all the practitioners and policy makers, who work with CISEI across the world in developing cutting-edge scholarship that touches individual and organisational lives. CISEI works with, and for, disadvantaged groups with the objective to address grand societal challenges such as gender issues, inequality in business and management practices, and inclusive leadership. CISEI’s partners and collaborators benefit from a wealth of experience, expertise and connections that the CISEI team has built over the years.
CISEI researchers have established collaborations with Arts Council England, European Commission, EURAM, NESTA, SEUK, EBILTEM TTO, large and small businesses. Projects and outreach activities that have emanated from these collaborations benefit both the external stakeholders and the Southampton Business School’s academic and doctoral students. One recent illustration is CISEI’s collaboration with one of the leading online sharing platforms in Europe, where academics and practitioners work hand in hand to understand attitudes and behaviour of local communities towards sustainability, and translate this knowledge to sustainable business models and policy making.
Another international engagement has led to a British Academy funded (Newton Advanced Fellowship) project on entrepreneurial universities in emerging markets. A team of researchers in CISEI has worked with Technology Transfer Officers (TTOs), academics and policy makers in Turkish universities to undertake a pioneering study of the national innovation system, unprecedented in its scale and coverage. Their work has informed science policy development, and governance, leadership and inclusivity practices of TTOs.
Recent research grants
2019-2021: Female leadership, empowerment and social inclusion in art and design; Funder: the Arts Council England; PI: Mine Karatas-Ozkan; Co-Is: Yehuda Baruch; Vadim Grinevich; Collaborator: Louise Coysh
2017-2019: Electricity Sat Nav - Electricity Smart Availability Topology of Network for Abundant Electric Vehicles; Funder: EPSRC. PI: Jin Yang; Co-Is: Vadim Grinevich; Jillian Anable
2016-2019: Diversity and academic entrepreneurship in STEMM Research Base. Funder: EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship Scheme. PI: Mine Karatas-Ozkan; Co-Is: Yehuda Baruch; Laura Costanzo
2016-2018: Sustainable entrepreneurship in eco-tourism: Case of Turkey. Funder: the British Council-Newton Fund Institutional Links Scheme. PI: Mine Karatas-Ozkan; Co-Is: PIs: Pelin Demirel and Shahnaz Ibrahim; ECR: Emir Ozeren
2016-2018: Social entrepreneurship, diversity and social inclusion. Funder: ESRC Impact Acceleration Scheme. PI: Laura Costanzo; Co-Is: Mine Karatas-Ozkan; Shahnaz Ibrahim
2016-17: Consumer Issues in the peer-to-peer economy. Funder: European Commission. UoS PI: Vadim Grinevich; Consortium Lead: VVA
2016-2017: User behaviour in digital platform environments. Funder: EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship Scheme. PI: Vadim Grinevich; Co-I: Pelin Demirel
2016-2017: The B2B sharing economy: Is there a case for policy intervention Funder: Web Science Institute Research Collaboration Scheme; PI: Vadim Grinevich: Co-I: Dengji Zhao; ECR: Linda Baines
2015-2017: Entrepreneurial universities: role of technology transfer offices (TTOs) in emerging markets. Funder: by the British Academy Newton Fund Advanced Fellowship Scheme. PI: Mine Karatas-Ozkan; CO-Is: Serdal Temel, Jeremy Howells, Vadim Grinevich, Stratos Ramoglou; ECR: Dr Cagla Özgören
2014-2015: Upscaling in the Sharing Economy. Funder: SBS. PI: Vadim Grinevich; Co-I: Franz Huber.