Institutions from London, Melbourne, Cape Town and elsewhere are on the prowl for entrepreneurial experts to add value to their business and management schools. Pat Leon assesses the prospects.
Entrepreneurship is a growth subject in management schools, and universities are scouring the globe for academic staff and research and business links.
London Business School is advertising in The Times Higher this week for a senior research fellow to help lead its Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project. Gem has been tracking entrepreneurial activity in more than 30 countries for the past five years with US partners Babson College and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The successful applicant will advise 30 national teams of more than 120 scholars and researchers as well as publicise key findings. The one-year post is open to PhD-holders in several disciplines, but candidates must also have at least five years' experience in empirical research related to entrepreneurship or regional development.
Emphasising the field's global nature, the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, which is part of Swinburne University in Melbourne, is seeking a professor of organisation and leadership and a research director.
The school is the national centre of excellence in teaching and researching entrepreneurship, a field it has pioneered for some 20 years.
Adolph Hanich, the AGSE director, says: "Many of our school's academics are from overseas, as are many of our students. In turn, many of our 'domestic'
academics have worked overseas and gained considerable experience in how things work in other countries. This is just part of the process of internationalisation in the education game. In business, it is essential for students to develop a strong international outlook from the beginning.
The world is shrinking, and most of our graduates will work in businesses serving markets in many countries."
Oxford Brookes Business School is also seeking professors or readers specialising in entrepreneurship/enterprise, as well as in human resources, international business and marketing. The number of students and staff at the school has doubled in the past four years. As a result, says Simon Williams, the school's dean, its research needs to expand. Two themes - enterprise and hospitality - cut across the curriculum. The school, which boasts an enterprise centre, believes that it is the first in the UK to have struck a training deal with a local business park.
Appointees would be expected to work with university departments to develop joint programmes in enterprise. "We want to support any student in the university who wants to improve their employability through enterprise," Williams says.
Travel and tourism is a growth industry in South Africa, and Cape Technikon in Cape Town is seeking a senior academic to lead its tourism department in the management faculty. Experts in eco and heritage tourism are preferred.
A competitive remuneration package and relocation assistance are offered.