IFI professor Matthias Fink gave a well received research talk to entrepreneurship and innovation scholars at the University of Sydney Business School, ranked among the top 20 by the Financial Times. The session was hosted by the head of the Entrepreneurship Research Group, Prof. Andreas Rauch and sponsored by Leanne Cutcher, head of the department. Matthias presented the latest insights from a research stream at the intersection of entrepreneurship, innovation and rural development recently published together with IFI fellow Ralph Richter, IFI researcher Richard Lang and IFI guest professor Daniela Maresch in Journal of Rural Studies and a Routledge Monograph titled “Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Europe”. The participants intensively exchanged their views on how innovation and change can be induced in rural regions by entrepreneurship and innovation. It was extremely interesting to experience the differences and similarities across the Australien, British, Asian and European contexts that the participants could bring to the table as their backgrounds. The vivid discussion also revolved around the question whether or not social innovation as a subfield of entrepreneurship research is distinct enough to contribute theoretical concepts that are specific to social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. (Credit: private)
