19 November, 2015

RESEARCH IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS CONFERENCE 2015 was hosted in Zagreb, Crotia.

Sarah Davis and Dr Breda Kenny, Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence presented the paper Development of the ICT Industry in Ireland 1960-2010: A Retrospective Roadmap.

This paper explores the origins of the ICT sector in the Republic of Ireland and its subsequent development from 1960 to 2010 inclusive. Prof Helle Neergaard, President of ECSB (European Council for Small Business Management & Entrepreneurship) commended the evolutionary research design process used in this research. A critical realist philosophical approach was chosen to deal with the time-frame and the subject area breadth. This approach allowed the viewing of the Irish ICT sector as an ‘open system’ thus allowing the complex and dynamic and interactive nature of the government policy and the ICT sector to be explored. Technology Road-Mapping (TRM) was the chosen framework to deal with the complexity of the inter-related time-series for government policy, and the industrial sector development.

This paper is based on Sarah Davis’ research masters work, which was sponsored by the Irish American Partnership Scholarship and supervised by Dr Breda Kenny and mentor Larry Poland.

Sarah was awarded the José Maria Veciana best paper award. This coveted award is for the best paper written and presented by a junior researcher at the RENT conference. The award has been named in honour of Professor José Maria Veciana, ECSB’s First Fellow and long time member who was a dedicated supporter of junior researchers throughout his professional life.

The paper also won an award to fast track the review process for publication in the Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM).

Sarah is now working on her PhD proposal and researching on EU projects in the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence.

Our congratulations and well done to Sarah Davis and Dr Breda Kenny on this achievement in recognition of their excellence in research.