CUT Academics learn the art of nudging as an entrepreneurial and research mechanism

Management Sciences CUT News Research and Innovation
CUT Academics learn the art of nudging as an entrepreneurial and research mechanism

Prof. Joan Lockyer, Director of Education, International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE) at Coventry University delivering a presentation on the notion of nudging as a way of promoting entrepreneurship at the faculty’s annual research seminar.

The Faculty of Management Sciences at CUT held their annual research seminar on 16 September 2019, to provide a platform for employees and postgraduate students to share their research to the academic and CUT community.

When welcoming the guests Prof. Albert Strydom, Dean of Management Sciences said that research is important, and the faculty is making good strides in achieving their goal. “Looking at the faculty’s output for the past six years, we have recorded a growth of 90% in terms of publications in accredited journals, and that is quite an achievement. From 2012 to 2018, our outputs in terms of completed postgraduate supervision increased at a growth rate of 143%. I am happy to say that we are making progress and for that, I want to thank everybody who contributed to these outputs.”

Prof. Strydom also pointed out the low participation rate of staff when it comes to research. “Only 13% supervisors delivered completed masters and PhD students and in addition, only 12% of staff members contributed to research outputs in accredited journals in 2018, which means 88% were not active last year in terms of publications. I sincerely hope that events like these will encourage those who are not currently involved in research to participate and contribute significantly in the future.”

Guest speaker, Prof. Joan Lockyer, Director of Education, International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE) at Coventry University, presented on the notion of nudging as a way of promoting entrepreneurship.

Prof. Lockyer believes that if students were to be encouraged to take entrepreneurship courses or think about entrepreneurship, they can be nudged into that direction and that, will offer a suggestion of the starting point. “This is the art of persuasion. The art of the nudge is a mechanism intended to subtly push individuals to alter their choices and behaviour for the better. It is a way of encouraging people to think in a way that you would want them to think by encouraging them gently to move in the direction that you want them to travel in.”

“When we are trying to encourage people to think about being entrepreneurs and being more entrepreneurial in their behaviours, we often talk about characteristics and traits. People have certain personality traits that help them to be more entrepreneurial than others. Sometimes we have to use different words to encourage people to acknowledge their capabilities around entrepreneurship when they don’t recognise it in themselves. Nudging is one of the ways in which we can encourage people to think of themselves more in an entrepreneurial space than they may have otherwise done,” she said.  

Uploaded: 17 September 2019
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