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Projects

Entrepreneurial Process - Intention to set up your own company

Intentions to found a company and related activities are in the foreground  of  the entrepreneurial process. Both projects, GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Students‘ Spirit Survey) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM),  are the pillars on which the corresponding competences are placed or shaped.

Registering potential founders is an essential element with regard to the intentions to set up a company, for example, those of students. The  GUESSS project analyses students` intentions to set up a business in an international context.  As project partner for Western Switzerland, the Institute plays an important role: the findings of the study have a direct influence on the teaching, research and coaching of founding projects.  The concept developed for the  Plateau de Pérolles, « Entrepreneurship Brain-up », integrates this basic idea.

As concerns the actual founding activities, future entrepreneurs/ founders («Nascent Entrepreneurs») can be defined as those who are in the process of setting up an enterprise.   On the other hand, «Young Entrepreneurs» are those who have just founded their company or who have been active on the market for only a few years.  This part of the research is covered primarily by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) .  The Institute has been responsible for GEM for Switzerland since 2009.   

Growth & SME Internationalization  - Growing successfully in an international context

Over the past few years the Institute has dealt closely with the topic of internationalising behaviour of SMEs. In this context the process of going global was described, and the reasons and hurdles of internationalising investigated. In order to identify the factors which favour  rapid internationalising, one must not lose sight of the success factors.  This is the only way information can be gathered which is significant for SME management, investors, researchers and public promotion institutions. The actual criteria of successful internationalising are as central as risk management in international business activities.

The objective of the Institute in the field of research is to examine closely the internationalising behaviour of Swiss SMEs already active abroad to gain knowledge of the internationalising process and factors leading to its success.   Global and international  competitiveness of international SMEs  and the following  objectives will be discussed:

• Empirically based internationalizing typology of SMEs
• Planning and implementing internationalising
• Investigating success factors of internationalizing behaviour
• Discussing connections between innovation and internationalising
• Recommendations for SME policy-makers, internationalising assistants and consultants

Family Business & Succession - Systematic management of the conflicting interests of family and business.

Practical experience and research both point clearly to the particular issues connected with family businesses.  The Institute and its partners consider the problems  by, for example,  carefully examining themes such as individual strategies, family and personality, and succession, and offering concrete solutions.   

Family businesses need customised strategies, because certain specific aspects are at the heart of a family business: what strategies does the owner need? How does one deal with too little capital or not enough human resources? What weak points are characteristic of family businesses? How does the owner/entrepreneur organise his/her professional departure, and who succeeds him?  To define one`s own particular strategy in „good times" means a systematic management strategy for the owner and his or her family.  This is a step in the right direction.

Corporate Entrepreneurship - Innovation in Public Organisations and MNC

How can existing enterprises or public institutions teach their employees entrepreneurial thinking and action so convincingly that they adopt this mentality and live it in everyday business life?  In a competitively oriented economy, this entrepreneurship is indispensable for the survival of the organisation.  For things to be put into motion in large organisations, leadership and the appropriate organisational innovation are essential.