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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the status of university accelerators (UAs) in Australia, expanding a similar paper on related entrepreneurship education (EE) in 2019. The aim is to review neoteric global best practice UA, aligning context and specific inference to the impact of UAs in Australia. Design/methodology/approach: The authors introduce an iterative and emergent inquiry into multi-method research, including a quantitative examination of Australian UAs, Leximancer algorithmic analyses of entrepreneurial strategic intent and narratives from best practice applications. Findings: The paper highlights the sparse and inconsistent distribution across UAs in Australia, further characterized by significant symbolic motives of operation. Furthermore, the integration of EE evidenced on global UA is not as evident in Australia, highlighting outcomes more specific to the success of nascent (student) startups as opposed to educational outcomes. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the availability and accuracy of online documents and data, although implications have been mitigated using multi-method research design. Practical implications: Despite the provision of critical grounding for practitioners and researchers in developing UAs, further research is recommended regarding the efficacy and impact of these accelerators. Originality/value: This study is the first multi-methods emergent inquiry into UAs in Australia, coupled with integration of EE. The authors provide guidelines and inferences for researchers, educators, policymakers and practitioners alike as they seek to explore and act upon the impact of UAs.

Purpose: The purpose of this practitioner paper is to explore whether the principles of Design Thinking and the Lean Startup could be employed in developing a disruptive model for delivering educational programs within higher education in a way that attempts to eliminate the multitude of problems facing this industry, while simultaneously adhering to the principles of frugal innovation and meeting relevant sustainability goals. Design/methodology/approach: The authors followed a design thinking approach, employing tools such as empathy mapping, customer journey, value proposition and semi-structured interviews to obtain a deep level of understanding of the problems educators and students within the context of entrepreneurship education are facing. Throughout the process they drew on the practice of emergent inquiry and customer co-creation to help guide decision making. Findings: The authors successfully derived a conceptual solution in the form of a Minimum Viable Product of which the features were tested against the multitude of user needs and requirements. It was possible to demonstrate how the solution meets all nine of the requirements for frugal innovations while simultaneously adhering to applicable sustainability principles. Practical implications: The proposed solution offers a potential opportunity to first-movers in chosen academic disciplines to become leaders in online education. Originality/value: Even in an industry such as higher education there is a dire need for frugality and finding sustainable solutions for educators and students in both developed and developing markets. With this paper the authors succeed in presenting innovative combinations of digital artefacts, platforms and infrastructure to arrive at a novel crowd-sourced solution that is unique in its design.

Disadvantage in schooling is often constructed as a crisis in need of fixing. Global policy reforms tend to emphasise that solutions for disadvantage often lie beyond the capacity of the state, necessitating private/philanthropic intervention. This paper seeks to contribute to this line of analysis by investigating the rise of philanthropy in Australian public schooling. Our analysis focuses on the intermediary organisation, Schools Plus, which works to connect donors to disadvantaged public schools. Through qualitative content analysis and stakeholder interviews we demonstrate how philanthropy has come to be seen as a solution to the complex problem of disadvantage, or more specifically in this case, the perceived inadequacies of public education provision. The consequence of this, we suggest, is the changing of responsibility for addressing disadvantage from government to individual schools that have been able to establish an entrepreneurial culture to market their disadvantage.

Marketisation and competition within public schooling systems impact the work of principals in varying ways. Previous work on the marketisation of schooling and school autonomy has drawn attention to the 'entrepreneurial principal' as an effect of marketisation. In this paper we explore principals' engagements with marketisation based on 21 interviews with public school principals across two Australian states. Using the work of Christiaens (2020), we highlight a difference between entrepreneurialism and utility-maximisation in marketised systems, evident in how principals engage with leadership within these systems. For most principals in our study, engagements with marketisation were entangled with different orientations toward utility maximisation. Evidence of genuine entrepreneurship was far more scarce. We argue that the need to ensure school survival in a saturated market gives rise to a performative veneer of entrepreneurialism that is largely absent of innovation and the 'leap of faith' that lies at the heart of true entrepreneurialism.

Educational entrepreneurship refers to the competence of educational entrepreneurs in making changes and taking initiatives in vision-driven innovation and value creation. Research of educational entrepreneurship needs further investigation, especially in the context of complementary education. This paper explores the educational entrepreneurship of three principals working in the context of community language schools (CLSs) in Australia. Using a set of educational entrepreneurship traits as an analytical tool, this study conducts a detailed qualitative analysis of the interviews and reflective journals of three CLS principals to reveal their educational entrepreneurial traits displayed in the process of establishing and running the CLSs. Findings indicate that these principals display multiple educational entrepreneurial traits in combination when dealing with challenges encountered in their individual context. The empirical data enriches the understanding of the distinctive features of educational entrepreneurship, especially the influence of prior experience. The findings reveal some key traits and practices of educational entrepreneurship amongst CLS principals in the Australian context. This study provides context-specific empirical evidence to better understand the nature and features of educational entrepreneurship. The findings highlight the need for more research and explicit training of entrepreneurial skills for school leaders in non-mainstream schools.

Nearly a quarter of all global start-ups are founded by hybrid entrepreneurs, that is, individuals that engage in self-employment activity while simultaneously holding a primary job in wage or remuneration work. This study is the first of its kind to examine hybrid entrepreneurship in Australia using five pragmatic and embedded hybrid entrepreneur mini case studies. Aligning with human capital and skill variety theory, we adopted an interpretivist philosophical paradigm of emergent enquiry action and exploratory research. The paper explores characteristics and antecedents in the forms of the benefits and challenges associated with this increasingly prevalent form of entrepreneurship, including contextual and theoretical foundations. We provide policy and pragmatic research recommendations to enhance the development of this form of employment not only as a steppingstone to full-time self-employment but also as a driver of economic and social benefit to global societies. Furthermore, we provide inferences for future scientific studies within this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an active collective of conservators in Melbourne, Australia, as a case study, this paper will provide practice-based insights into an alternative mode of practice for the private conservation sector. Through consideration of this collective of discrete but cross-pollinated small businesses, the implications of an adaptive, networked organisational model will be explored. Challenges faced by conservators in Australia have impacted employment in the profession, which could equally describe conditions overseas. The Collingwood Conservators' Collective model has been developed in response to these challenges, with the aim of breaking down barriers to entrepreneurship in conservation. The Collective currently comprises a mixture of early and mid-career conservators working in a shared space, undertaking a variety of private work and public contracts. The short-term benefits of the collective model include access to shared resources, interdisciplinary knowledge and communal support. In the longer term, this organisational structure has the potential to make entry into conservation practice more accessible to a broader range of professionals. The collective model offers conservators an adaptable work environment within which they can scale their participation to their capabilities, contribute to large-scale projects and foster project-centred interdisciplinary partnerships. We have found that collaborative solutions have become embedded in our practices as a result of the collective's working environment. The collective has emerged as a viable alternative model for early career conservators in addition to traditional institutional pathways, providing an adaptive platform for entrepreneurship and practice in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Elite communities' are the areas where the wealthy, and even 'superrich', live, socialize and raise their children as future economic and financial elites; they are the places where a few lead socially and economically privileged lives. Earlier studies have concentrated on the inner dynamics of these settings, focusing on the way residents are constructed and socialized as elites through their social, communicative and aesthetic abilities that are perceived as exemplary in contemporary neoliberal society. In this paper, we broaden the perspective, by exploring how these areas contribute to polarization, that is, how they generate distinctions based on money, morals and manners that are peculiar to neoliberalism's idealization of 'entrepreneurship', 'self-management', 'leadership' and the pursuit of an 'active lifestyle'. Our data come from two major ethnographic studies: one conducted between 2010 and 2015 of Sweden's wealthiest community, Djursholm, that is populated by the country's business and financial elites; the other conducted between 2016 and 2019 of three of Australia's most prestigious and economically privileged suburbs, Toorak (Melbourne), Mosman (Sydney) and Cottesloe (Perth). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad consensus exists that Australian economic activity is too heavily concentrated in capital cities, and regional employment creation should be encouraged. Given the magnitude of international migration to Australia, it is important to determine the impact of migration on regional development by investigating business ownership and job creation by international migrants in regional areas. This paper examines the probability that regional migrant business owners are employers – and thereby employment generators – using a multivariate logit model. We find that migrant business owners with staff are more likely to be male, married and live in regional NSW, metropolitan Victoria and regional and metropolitan Queensland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings on Middle Eastern immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. The extent to which perceived discrimination and acculturation influence their social and psychological capital, and the effects of social and psychological capital on their firm performance, are explored. We found that such immigrants, who are highly acculturated to the mainstream culture, not only tend to have many social interactions outside their community but also possess strong psychological capital. Although perceived discrimination has been associated with low social involvement outside an immigrant community, we found that perceived discrimination does not exert a statistically significant effect on psychological capital. Importantly, both social and psychological capital are found to exert positive effects on firm performance. The findings have implications for enhancing the capacity of policy makers to provide high impact to immigrant entrepreneurs. Specific interventions are suggested to assist such entrepreneurs to leverage their social and psychological capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As early as the 1980s, the avalanche of innovative performance witnessed in the global economy has seen the rise of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is recognized as being a vital factor that promotes social change through innovation, leading to opportunities for job and wealth creation, thereby improving the economy. The study of entrepreneurship is, therefore, an important consideration for the long-term social and economic development of a nation. The contemporary competitive globalized work environment requires a range of entrepreneurial skills, not only to start new ventures but also for these ventures to thrive and be sustainable. Being an entrepreneur is an occupation based on specific properties of entrepreneurship. An exploratory study was conducted with university students in Australia to ascertain students' views on entrepreneurship and study programs. The responses were compared with an audit of course offerings from Australian universities' websites to determine whether current programs meet students' expectations in relation to the skills and abilities required to be a successful entrepreneur. The findings suggest that Australian entrepreneurship study programs should be reconceptualized to provide specific experiential learning that enables graduates to hit the ground running in start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biotechnology industry in Australia is continuing to grow rapidly, providing many opportunities for those with the relevant skills and qualifications to enter the field. Biotechnologists play a vital role in the financial development of biotech firms due to their innovative capacity, which is why they need to receive interactive and entrepreneurial education to ensure their productivity. This study aimed to determine the impact of these educational methods on the innovative capacity of biotechnologists in Australia. Two hundred seventy-six biotechnologists from different research sectors and biotech companies in Australia were surveyed for this study. Data was collected and analyzed using various statistical tools. The results from the path analysis suggested the presence of a significant and positive impact of interactive learning and entrepreneurial education on the innovation capacity of biotechnologists. The findings from the study are useful from policy, managerial, and theoretical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing use of triple helix arrangements to stimulate national systems of innovation (NSIs) for broader economic benefits has largely focussed on quantifiable and compliance‐based metrics to evaluate the 'success' of industry‐university strategic collaborative research ventures. This metrics‐focus largely ignores secondary, and even tertiary, outcomes of the collaborative ventures that are difficult to capture by research and innovation administrators with traditional metrics. A research project conducted on the Cooperative Research Centres—Projects (CRC‐P) Program in Australia found that, in a number of cases, secondary and tertiary outcomes were highly valued by participants, and provided important but hitherto officially unacknowledged socio‐economic benefits to the Australian NSI. This discussion proposes a typology of collaborative research outcomes beyond traditional compliance‐based metrics, and challenges policy makers and research and innovation administrators to consider the development of an 'Innovation Ecosystem Body of Knowledge' to inform future collaborative research projects and enhance the ability of actors to access this ecosystem in an efficient and productive manner in order to ensure that potential economic gains from collaborative research are maximised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigated factors that either hinder or foster social ties among Brazilian entrepreneurs in Western Australia, as well as trust among these co‐ethnic businesses and the community. This is an exploratory qualitative study, based on semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with 23 Brazilian entrepreneurs. Findings suggest that there are strong social ties and trust among Brazilian entrepreneurs, but these are sustained because the relationship of reciprocity between the parties is useful for the businesses. Conversely, this study also highlights the existence of 'bounded mistrust' in the relationship between the Brazilian entrepreneurs and the Brazilian community. We build on ideas from economic sociology (Portes & Sensenbrenner, 1993; Portes & Zhou, 1992), while also taking into consideration anthropological aspects of the Brazilian culture, to offer not only insights about entrepreneurship within this ethnic community but also a contribution to the conceptualisation of 'bounded trust'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on findings from interviews with a small group of Chinese female immigrants to Australia who have started up their own business since their arrival. Unlike most publications concerning immigration that focus upon financial factors, we have instead concentrated on their personal journeys, why they started their businesses and the benefits they sought. We interviewed thirteen participants in Adelaide who had recently arrived from China with the aim of immigrating permanently to Australia. Immigration records indicate that by 2020 this figure had risen to over 160,000 per annum. However, it dropped again quickly in 2020 following the beginning of COVID-19. Nonetheless, according to recent Australian government records, over 866,200 current Australian residents have Chinese ancestry and 74% are first-generation migrants. The primary motivators for respondents were independence and control as well as income and skill development. Respondents were also satisfied by the personal development they gained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]