Entrepreneurs are rarely satisfied with keeping things small. They have an appetite to grow and mature their ventures. As such, our research explores the ways in which entrepreneurs can achieve ‘high growth’, by rapidly progressing from small-scale operations to a large and thriving business.
This may involve growing in terms of size but also breadth, ie covering new territories (possibly internationally) and servicing new markets.
Staff
- Dr Lucrezia Casulli
- Dr Russell Matthews
- Dr Suzanne Mawson
- Professor Eleanor Shaw
Research
Lucrezia Casulli
Lucrezia’s research, teaching and knowledge exchange activities focus on firm leaders’ thinking and mindsets in different settings, and at different stages of venture development. She is interested in entrepreneurial judgement and decision making under uncertainty, experiential learning, cognitive heuristics and biases, entrepreneurial identities and the thinking styles that underpin entrepreneurial behaviour.
She was co-investigator on a research and evaluation project on how Scottish SMEs make decisions to internationalise and de-internationalise. The project was co-founded by Scottish Enterprise and ESRC. Lucrezia is currently co-investigator on a project looking at how entrepreneurs learn from feedback from funding competitions.
Lucrezia’s recent work has been published in the academic journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, International Business Review, Entrepreneurship & Reginal Development and International Small Business Journal. Her work has also been presented at a number of International Business and Entrepreneurship conferences.
She is currently interested in the role that entrepreneurial mindsets play in the resilience and adaptation needed for post-Covid-19 economic and social recovery.
Russell Matthews
Russell Matthews’ recent work has focused on the role that disruptive digital technologies play in enabling emerging business models. Examples of this include his research on blockchain-enabled entrepreneurship in the music industry. This research stream is underpinned by studies of fundamental entrepreneurial practices (early-stage selling) and of broader enterprise policy mechanisms, such as business advisory services.
Suzanne Mawson
Suzanne Mawson’s research focuses on rapidly growing ‘high growth firms’ – how some firms are able to achieve rapid growth and what we can learn from them to help other entrepreneurs, support agencies and the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem.
She is a co-investigator on the longitudinal ESRC/UKRI funded project on the impact of Covid-19 on UK high growth entrepreneurs (ERICC project). This project will generate insight into how high growth entrepreneurs and their businesses respond to the crisis in order to identify relevant policy support measures. Emerging findings relate to mental health and well-being, the entrepreneur as a ‘parent figure’ and business model innovation for resilience.
Eleanor Shaw, Dr John Anderson & Professor Sarah Dodd
Professor Eleanor Shaw, Dr John Anderson and Professor Sarah Dodd have drawn on the research base spanning the Hunter Centre and the field of entrepreneurship more broadly, to design and deliver a portfolio of entrepreneurial learning experiences focused on supporting the growth of high potential entrepreneurs.
The Growth Advantage Programme (GAP) was launched in 2015 and has supported the fast growth of circa 90 entrepreneurial ventures. GAP has been fully accredited by the ScaleUp institute as one of only two entrepreneurship leadership programmes designed and delivered by a university.