The Importance Of Innovation In Transformational Entrepreneurship

International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship Think Tank: March 2019

A need exists for renewed thinking regarding the role of entrepreneurship within socio-economic growth in the local, regional, national and international environment. In this regard, the International Centre for Transformational entrepreneurship (ICTE) is leading discussions through its international think tanks focusing on potential current and future entrepreneurial solutions for sustainable socio-economic development in regions locally and globally. These think tanks seek to identify suitable means to translate this thought leadership into a stream of appropriate outputs and, in this manner, disseminate these outputs to governments, industry and educational institutions who are either directly and/or indirectly involved in the promotion of entrepreneurship.

The Coventry Transformational Entrepreneurship Think Tank II held in March 2019 followed on from a highly successful inaugural Think Tank which focused on transformational entrepreneurship in an international context. The focus at Think Tank II was on innovation and entrepreneurship. Extant literature indicates that there is general agreement that one of the important traits of entrepreneurs is their ability to innovate and has been recognized as one of the most important factors in fostering socio-economic growth. The process of bringing an idea to commercialization involves numerous parties and the creation of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem has been considered to be an effective way to nurture and support this process. However, the classification of innovation into first (e.g. innovation is incremental and often involves a linear process) or second order (e.g. where innovation is often disruptive and involves business model innovation) brings a new debate to innovation and its specific relevance to socio-economic growth. Questions that were addressed during this second Think Tank at Coventry University included how can entrepreneurs be supported to think in a more innovative manner; what is the role of entrepreneurs in innovation ecosystems; how can the measurement of the success/impact of innovation be improved; how can we assist policy makers creating and implementing appropriate policies stimulating innovation; how can we educate for innovation.

Attendance of this colloquium is normally restricted to allow for maximum interaction amongst participants. Attendees at these Think Tanks are normally from various countries such as the UK, Germany, Africa, Ukraine, and South East Asia. A declaration is in the final stages of formulation and will act as basis to measure progress at the next Think Tank in March/April 2020.

 

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