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Profile

Professor James Cunningham

Prof of Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Background

James A. Cunningham is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom and is an affiliated member of the Centre for Innovation Research at Lund University, Sweden. Professor Cunningham’s research intersects the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategic management. His research focuses on strategy issues with respect to scientists as principal investigators, university technology transfer commercialization, academic, public sector and technology entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial universities, entrepreneurial ecosystems and business failure. 



He has published over 75 plus papers and has published in leading international journals such as Research Policy, Small Business Economics, R&D Management, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Long Range Planning, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Technology Transfer, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Rural Studies among others. Awards for his research include seven best paper conference awards and two case study international competition awards.

Research


My research interests intersect the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategic management. My current research focus is on three main themes:


Academic Entrepreneurship and University Technology Transfer

Some issues of current issues of focus include the role of scientists in the principal investigator an how do they shaping science, markets and society? What is the impact orientation of scientists in the principal investigator role? How scientists in the principal investigator role create and capture value for diverse stakeholders? How scientists engage with entrepreneurial ecosystems and other stakeholders in commercialising their research?

Entrepreneurial Universities

As universities are extending their mission focus to technology and knowledge transfer some issues of current focus include business models, missions and drivers of entrepreneurial universities. The organisational structures, strategies and entrepreneurial architecture that entrepreneurial universities adapt to realise their mission focus in different contextual settings. How do entrepreneurial universities engage formally and informally with civic and societal issues? What is the role and capabilities of technology transfer offices in supporting entrepreneurial university mission expansion? 


Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policies

Different actors contribute to the development of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems and as such how do these ecosystems evolve overtime? What tensions emerge among ecosystems actors over the stage of entrepreneurship? What is the economic, technological and social impact of entrepreneurial ecosystems? What governance systems are used to support ecosystem evolution? What is the impact of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology policies? What is role of public sector R&D in realising innovation and technology policies?


Teaching

James teaches on NBS8621 and also supervises MSc dissertations. 


Publications