Creating food for NZ thought

How does New Zealand go about creating an entrepreneurial nation? Local and international scholars have gathered in Hamilton this week to pose the question at a research conference on enterprise and innovation hosted by the Waikato Management School.

The two-day conference, which ends today, invites 34 speakers to analyse the policies, strategies and other factors that foster enterprise and innovation in a nation.
Presentations will also look at women in enterprise, family businesses, the innovative role business can play in human rights, and the impact of copyright laws on enterprise and innovation.

Sergio Arzeni, director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's new centre for entrepreneurship and small business, outlined yesterday best practices from initiatives around the globe that promote entrepreneurship, small and medium-sized enterprise growth, and local economic development.

Today, one of the world's leading strategy scholars, Professor Jay Barney of the Ohio State University, will speak about entrepreneurs as discoverers and creators, and the policies needed to support those roles.

Barney has published more than 50 articles in such journals as Academy of Management Review and Journal of Management.

Kevin Thompstone, chief executive of Ireland's Shannon Development, will draw on his first-hand experience of turning a poor, rural region of south-western Ireland into a knowledge-based globally competitive regional economy when he speaks on how to make high-level policy a practical reality for entrepreneurs.

Two discussion panels, one on the role of enterprise and innovation in regional economic development and the second on creating an entrepreneurial nation, will see the keynote speakers joined by senior officials from the Ministry of Economic Development and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

Conference organiser Professor Delwyn Clark said such high calibre international speakers created a great forum for debating how to position New Zealand businesses and products at the cutting edge.