Kiwis natural entrepreneurs in an 'exciting' land

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Professor Nicole Coviello talks very, very fast.

The high-powered appointee to Auckland University's Business School is thrilled to be back in New Zealand, and her rapid-fire conversation underscores her enthusiasm.

"I wanted to live here. I am a New Zealander by choice," she says. "New Zealand is a very exciting place to be."

The Canadian native has returned with husband Dr Joern Roehl, a German geophysicist, to her adopted home.

Their belongings haven't yet arrived, but Coviello, the school's first professor of marketing and international entrepreneurship, is already lecturing postgraduate students.

But her teaching is different these days, says Coviello, who lectured at Auckland University through the early 90s before an eight-year stint at the University of Calgary.

New Zealanders' attitudes have changed dramatically since she has been gone.

Coviello, who has collected several research awards for her work, has a title which gives away much.

Why, after all, does it include marketing and entrepreneurship?

"Because they are the same thing," says Coviello, who believes the concept of entrepreneurship now has acceptance here.

"The marketing processes are inherently entrepreneurial and entrepreneurship is about creating new products ... they complement each other."

Globally, says Coviello, businesses are starting to understand the importance of marketing in entrepreneurial activity, with academic evidence now filtering into the commercial sector.

New Zealand, she says, is populated with naturally entrepreneurial people because of its size and geography.

"New Zealanders have to be innovative and creative to get their products out there. People have been able to do that and they are doing it well."

Coviello says she has closely watched - and been impressed by - the direction Auckland University is taking under vice-chancellor John Hood, an organiser of the Knowledge Wave conference and Former Fletcher executive.

On her return last month, Coviello found "everyone was talking about it, about taking risks, about entrepreneurship and ideas."

New Zealanders, she argues, can ride on their country's reputation to maximise the marketing dollar.

"New Zealand intrigues people around the world.

"It interests people internationally as a place to go, as a different and interesting place.

"It has captured attention as a winner, as an innovator. A company can piggyback on that brand."

New Zealand's entrepreneurship has come under the microscope before.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, published last year, ranked New Zealand second only to Mexico in the number of start-up ventures.

But the report also found that few of those start-ups went on to become significant businesses, and even fewer broke into exporting.

It is reports like those that trigger the research questions, says Coviello, who is a co-founder of research programme Contemporary Marketing Practices and a member of the international Marketing and Entrepreneurship Interface Research Symposium.

"They throw out the questions that need to be answered and can be researched to find answers. From that, public policy can be developed and you can learn from the successes and failures."