Creating Communities of Practice

This book introduces concepts of business incubation and suggests a learning process. This process begins with prior knowledge at the opportunity identification phase, progresses through the acquisition of new skills and knowledge necessary to develop an opportunity and concludes with a transformation phase where new knowledge is acted upon.  The book draws on extensive qualitative data and documentary evidence from a range of stakeholders associated with a University Business Incubator known as Innospace. The process of opportunity development within the business incubator is explored by combining experiential and social learning theories as heuristic tools.  Presented implications for policy-makers and incubator managers are that attention and scarce resources should be focused on providing relevant information and encouraging an atmosphere of learning and mutual support. Recruitment practices should be revised to include a more holistic appreciation of potential incubatees contribution to the Business Incubation learning community as well as an assessment of their business plans.  For policy makers the book suggests that successful business incubators do not necessarily require a large financial investment in state-of-the-art premises and technology. Appropriate management training together with carefully selected incubatees can create an effective learning community where opportunities are developed and transformed into enterprises and individuals into entrepreneurs.

Oswald Jones is an Emeritus Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Liverpool Management School (United Kingdom). He was previously employed at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School where he established the Centre for Enterprise and the associated incubator, Innospace. Most of his recent research has focused on learning in small firms and has appeared in a wide-range of journals including Business History Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, International Small Business Journal, Long Range Planning, Management Learning, R&D Management and Technovation. 

Dr. PingPing Meckel is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Central Lancashire (United Kingdom). PingPing is passionate about using learning theories to nurture and support an effective learning community, which can take place in a classroom, a business incubator or learning and teaching practice in an informal setting. PingPing’s background is in Business and Management, and more specifically entrepreneurship. PingPing was a member of the Steering Group for Manchester Metropolitan University’s Business Incubator, Innospace. She witnessed the birth and growth of Innospace, the management team, and most importantly the incubatees. She has been an active member of professional organisations such as the British Academy of Management. To help to promote Entrepreneurship as an important discipline, she gained European Entrepreneurship Educators Fellowship. She was also secretary for the Entrepreneurship Track for six years, assisting the Chair to grow this increasingly popular research subject and community. 

David Taylor is a Principal Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Education Lead within the Department of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs. He led several initiatives which brought business school students into the University’s business incubator, Innospace, for internships, consultancy projects, start-up workshops, self-employed placements, Masters level study and networking. David has always been at the cutting edge of education from helping deliver the groundbreaking Gordon Brown initiative, the New Entrepreneurship Scholarship scheme, through to the design and launch of the most successful Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship programme in the country, and most recently leading the development of an MSc Entrepreneurship and a Global Online Business Administration Management top-up degree, both focused on international markets. David has published in the areas of green entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial networks, gender and entrepreneurship, and enterprise education.