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How we support small and medium sized enterprises

Our philosophy at CIMR is to foster “engaged scholarship”. Therefore, the CIMR family includes members from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They are embedded in different dimensions of the policy arena, with which we engage through a variety of events and activities. Additionally, we are part of a broader community of policymakers and practitioners. We strive for continuous dialogue, which is why our research is relevant to SMEs and other stakeholders by virtue of our existence.

Our research agenda is to undertake international research focusing on multi-disciplinary academic, industrial and commercial themes relating to the management of innovation and support for entrepreneurship. Our aim is to inform thinking and practice. We specialize in such themes as early stage and growing companies (performance, finance and investment, marketing), inclusive entrepreneurship, intellectual property rights, innovation management including open innovation and science-business engagement, entrepreneurial co-creation, data management, and ethical and environmental issues.

SMALL BUSSINESS CHARTER ACCREDITATION 2021

This section of the website reflects our commitment to working with SMEs and entrepreneurs, which was so important in the award of the Small Business Charter accreditation in December 2021. This is an extract from the letter informing the School of the award:

“The value Birkbeck adds to their student business owners and the impact on their businesses is an order of magnitude higher than the assessors have seen elsewhere. Furthermore, the stature, relevance, and impact of Birkbeck’s research for policy markers is exemplary.”

The award is also, “a result of years of effort made to develop Entrepreneurship Education and Research at Birkbeck Business School”.

Please get in touch if you would like to create a SME collaboration with CIMR

Learn how we strive to support SMEs with content including:

Events that support smes

  • At CIMR, we host regular events that bring together academics, students, policymakers, practitioners, and professionals from both the public and private sectors to engage in stimulating discussions about innovation, entrepreneurship, and management. Entrepreneurs and employees of SMEs play a key role in our events.
  • We have organized 24 CIMR Debates in Public Policy since Spring 2020. At least 29 of the speakers at these events were from businesses, the majority of which were small and medium-sized. 19% of attendees were from SMEs, making them the second largest group after participants from universities. Through our events, we collaborate with them to co-create knowledge, tackle the challenges they encounter in the ecosystem, and address global and regional trends affecting SMEs and other businesses.
  • Through our events and our interactions with the CIMR community, we often facilitate the launch of new collaborations centred on research and practice which have relevant implications for and impacts on SMEs. Some of these are international, some are national. For example as part of CIMR’s collaboration with the Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington DC, a comparative study of developments in quantum technology in London and Washington. This has been undertaken by teams in Kogod and CIMR. 
  • We have developed a collaboration with Vaasa University in Finland which has a strong tradition of research and practice in innovation and entrepreneurship. Melina Padayachy, an alumna, the author of The Innovator’s Method: Bringing New Ideas To Markets, co-organized the CIMR event, A conversation with Touker Suleyman of Dragon’s Den in December 2021. The School will be looking to connect with SMEs through a series of activities including short courses, workshops and bespoke interventions and a portal for SMEs will be created through the Centre for professional development.

People Who support SMEs

  • Through CIMR, we built a strong network of individuals with a range of skills and expertise. Academic staff and visiting fellows at the centre publish cutting-edge research, work closely with stakeholders, and inform policy through their research activities. This section contains a list of CIMR people whose expertise is critical to SMEs and our research activities:

  • Academic staff and their expertise
  • Our visiting fellows with SME-related expertise
  • PhD Students 
    • Maximillian Giehrl: Innovation support for SMEs, digital transformation
    • Filipe Martins Gomes: Digital transformation, Startup Innovation, Innovation Management
    • Doyin Olorunfemi: Sales management, Network marketing, Entrepreneurship
    • Emma Palmer Foster : Financial strategy, financial communications, strategic consultancy
    • David Stroll: Productivity, information systems
    • Uzzal Hossain: Circulation innovation
    • Muhammad Usman Naeem: Digitalization of micro finance industry
  • Birkbeck Alumni
    • Ayo Disu: BAME entrepreneurship, Digital business
    • Coral Dyer: Human resources, Behaviour consultancy
    • Daniel Weerawardena: Networks of innovation, Social capital, Creative industry
    • Dina Mansour: Entrepreneurship in emerging economies
    • Dr Fadil Satihi: Innovation management, Entrepreneurship
    • Evelina Stoyanova: Innovation management, Accelerators, Entrepreneurship
    • Fabiola Detari: Personal training, Health, Mental health
    • Fernanda Garcia Onions: Intellectual Property, Business law, Technology transfer
    • Gabrieta Gateva: Event management, Organization
    • George Hunter: Business development, Growth strategies, Government business support
    • Gillian Gray: Marketing, Financial services
    • Glyn Hawkins: Fundraising, Business development, Commercial design consultancy
    • Guangchi Duong: Finance, Knowledge management
    • Jamie Hannon: Venue management, Vocational training, Arts and Culture
    • Javiera Reyes Baquedano: Digital transformation, Project management, Innovation management
    • Jeremy Galpin: Stakeholder management
    • Karen Jensen: Creative industry, Business and culture, Sponsorship
    • Laura Sacchi: Design thinking, Digital transformation
    • Lauren Heffer: Business change and transformation
    • Laurence Borel: Consumer engagement, Consumer psychology
    • Leila Maria Kehl: Project management, Network building
    • Luis Puchades Vigar: Technology, Innovation management, Entrepreneurship
    • Matthew Johnson: Investment for early-stage businesses, VCs, Angel investors
    • Melina Padayachy: Business development, Innovation
    • Olayinka Bandele: Trade, Private sector development
    • Pasquale Senese: Innovation management, Oil and Gas industry
    • Ayse Seyyide: Refugee entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship
    • Peter Jelfs: Financial performance, Tax consultancy
    • Robert Mitkow: Digital disruption, Innovation systems, Business model innovation
    • Salvador Mazzochi: Mergers and Acquisition
    • Samet Akyuz: Foreign Direct Investment, Manufacturing sector
    • Sophie Dale: Fundraising, Digital marketing, Media
    • Waraporn Yangsap: Intellectual Property, Open innovation, Knowledge exchange
    • Zar Salih:Bio-business, Business development, Innovation grants

Project partners and collaborators

  • Through our research and impact activities we work with a variety of organisations and individuals who serve the needs of SMEs by providing training, networking, and funding opportunities for entrepreneurs and their employees. We also engage with practitioner and policy-making bodies which have a focus on entrepreneurs and small businesses as well as individuals and academic staff with specialist interest in entrepreneurship and small businesses.
  • In collaboration with these organisations and individuals CIMR hosts panel discussions, workshops and networking events that are of interest to SMEs. For example the Regional Studies Association project (2020-2021) on geographies of support for disabled and ethically diverse entrepreneurs has two dedicated websites. One of these lists the 38 participants in the research and their activities. All of our partners are invited to all of CIMR’s events and many have participated as speakers, chairs and co-organisers. They use their networks to invite their members and contacts to take part in or attend our events. Examples of the many people who have taken part in and co-organised events include Jacqueline Winstanley, Monder Ram OBE, Philip Connelly, Jane Hatton, Sam Everard, Diana Chrouch, Beldina Owalla, Kimberley Mamhende and Jabo Buttera.
  • Partners also invite CIMR colleagues to take part in their events and activities so consolidating ties. Examples include Jacqueline Winstanley Founder and CEO of The Inclusive Entrepreneur and Secretariat and Inquiry Advisory Board Chair to the APPG for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, who invited Ning Baines and Helen Lawton Smith to the APPG for Inclusive Entrepreneurship “Road to Wonder “Inquiry Advisory Board.
  • The National Enterprise Network’s (NEN) focus is on representing, uniting and supporting all organisations which are passionate about inspiring and encouraging enterprise. NEN invited Helen Lawton Smith to do a provocation on diversity and entrepreneurship at the NEN annual conference in November 2021. Philip Connelly invited Helen Lawton Smith to be a keynote speaker on the project at the launch of the Disability Resilience Network, November 2021.
  • The National Enterprise Network’s (NEN) focus is on representing, uniting and supporting all organisations which are passionate about inspiring and encouraging enterprise. NEN invited Helen Lawton Smith to do a provocation on diversity and entrepreneurship at the NEN annual conference in November 2021. Philip Connelly invited Helen Lawton Smith to be a keynote speaker on the project at the launch of the Disability Resilience Network, November 2021.
  • We also work with organisations such as: Innovate UK, Cabinet Office Disability Unit, British Business Bank, UKRI and the OECD.
  • Individual Collaborators: The following is a list of CIMR’s individual collaborators whose expertise is critical to SMEs and our research activities.
    • Abigail Martin, Speech writer
    • Charlynne Pullen, Vocational education, Further education, Skills policy, Corporate training, Leadership Development, Entrepreneurship
    • Claire Agutter, Service design and management, IT education, eLearning
    • Kerrie Dorman, Mentoring skills, Employee engagement, Leadership development
    • Martin Austin, Disabled Entrepreneurs, Inclusive entrepreneurship, Social entrepreneurship
    • Mirella Koleva, Quantum physics, Software development, Molecular biology
    • Paul Chan, Leadership, economics
    • Sara-Louise, Ackrill Neurodiversity, Social entrepreneurship, Personal development, Public speaking
    • Henry Lim, Operations, Marketing and Sales
    • Shana Tufail, Neurodiversity, inclusivity, Sustainability strategy, Communications and Marketing
    • Thierry Gonard, Business development, Innovation management
    • Ve Dewey, Design, Cultural and Digital Transformation, Marketing
    • Vickie Collinge, Marketing, Public Relations, Talent management
    • Giuseppina Magnani, Accounting
    • Don Spalinger, Innovation management, Entrepreneurship

Research Activities for SMEs

  • Below are SME-related research projects by CIMR members:
  • Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
    • Work by Muthu De Silva, Federica Rossi includes outlining how SMEs could generate most value from their interactions with universities. There work has influenced the government investment of £15m in piloting University Enterprise Zones, which amongst their other purposes provided office and laboratory space to small businesses, which was a recommendation from the project.
    • Research report and associated papers discussed how to generate long-term value from university-SEM co-creation (e.g. the use of boundary spanning practices to enable SMEs to generate long-term exploratory and exploitative innovation and the effect of SME commitment and leadership towards SMES exploring new opportunities as the result of their interaction with universities). The findings influenced the introduction of University Alliance’s, ‘the voice of professional and technical universities’ which involved in establishing new Knowledge and Enterprise Network involving its 12 member institutions across the country (including Coventry, which was involved in the West Midlands KEEN).
  • University-industry knowledge co-creation
    • World leading research that focuses on the practices and institutions that support impactful engagement between universities and business
    • Publications in leading academic journals by CIMR members
    • Engagement with policymakers through ongoing consulting activities
    • Impact case study submitted to REF focused on Andersen, De Silva and Rossi’s research (2012-2018) which had impact on the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme (how funding was assigned), IPO (revision of Lambert toolkit) and InnovateUK (performance evaluation of Catapult Centres)
    • Targeted events: executive training with Chinese municipal delegations, meeting of the HEBCI user group organized by CIMR and NCUB (2016)
    • CIMR workshops engaging wider audience, e.g. mini series with Essex Business School on science-university engagement in Covid-19, workshops on science business co-creation and innovation intermediaries
  • Shaping institutions supporting entrepreneurship and innovation
    • World-leading research analysing institutions that best support entrepreneurship and innovation (e.g. intellectual property rights, standards and accreditation, skills and training), with significant policy implications
    • Published in leading academic journals
    • Engagement with policymakers through consulting activities
    • Helen Lawton Smith’s work with the OECD on upgrading the innovation infrastructure in numerous advanced and emerging economies has influenced, among others, SME policy in Canada and Poland
    • Frenz and Lambert’s work has impacted UK policy on standards and measurement, and national and international accreditation bodies
    • De Silva’s ongoing relationship with IPO has included a trade delegation visit to India in late 2019
    • DeSilva’s ongoing work with the OECD on co-creation during Covid-19 included 29 case studies from over 17 OECD countries and a partner of such co-creation projects was SMEs. The recommendations of this project outline how SMEs could interact with other players of an ecosystem to generate social and business value.
    • Targeted events: session organized by CIMR and BEIS on developing policies for leadership in SMEs (2020)
    • CIMR workshops engaging wider audiences e.g. workshop on public investment for reconstructing Europe, green finance and innovation, Entrepreneurship in developing regions: context and implications for policy, rising to the UK’s skills challenge
    • Strong legacy of EU Trigger project aimed at increasing the number of women in those university sectors where they are underrepresented: developed a mentoring scheme specifically for women in STEM, ran a series of workshops for and organized by PhD students, who were also chairs and discussants, as well as networking events such as a facilitated engagement between Birkbeck staff and business leaders on “Embedding Equality”. PhD students workshops are continuing with support from BGRS, while continuation of networking events has been possible thanks to funding from Taylor and Francis.
    • Current work on how to promote opportunities for under-represented communities, including opportunities for disabled and BAME innovators (funded by ESRC/InnovateUK and the Regional Studies Association)
    • CIMR workshops engaging wider audiences e.g. on diversity and entrepreneurship, Unlocking the potential of disabled entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship policies through a gender lens, Unlocking the potential of Black and Ethnic Minority entrepreneurs
  • Emerging theme: entrepreneurship in emerging technologies
    • Collaboration with Kogod Business School, Washington
    • Large scale application to UKRI/ESRC for project on business accelerators in UK, US and India
    • Emerging work on quantum technology entrepreneurship
    • Emerging work on Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things
    • Potential collaboration with Cabinet Office