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The spinout journey: Barriers and enablers to gender inclusive innovation. Summary report

Abstract

This research is part of a wider project, funded by the EPSRC’s Inclusion Matters initiative, looking at the participation of women scientists, engineers and mathematicians in university spinout companies. As highlighted in our previous report, only 13% of spinout companies across the whole of the UK have a woman founder (Griffiths and Humbert, 2019). This cannot be solely attributed to the underrepresentation of women in professorial roles in STEM disciplines. As this study shows, researchers may spinout at different stages of their careers and the majority of spinout founders in our sample could be classed as early- or mid-career academics. This research charts founders’ spinout journeys from the early days of establishing the company through to developing the spinout and reflecting upon challenges and successes. It compares the experiences of women and men academic founders to better understand where women may be encountering gender bias and have to overcome additional challenges. This approach has enriched empirical knowledge around women’s experiences of academic entrepreneurship but also highlighted areas for development that would enhance and improve the spinout experience for all founders. This report cannot provide a blueprint model for institutions on spinouts but offers recommendations that institutions should consider if they aspire to create an inclusive environment to support academic entrepreneurial activities and to develop a more gender inclusive innovation ecosystem.

Subjects

Gender; academic entrepreneurs; inclusivity,

DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/ych4-c829

Attachments

Authors

Griffiths, Heather
Grisoni, Louise
Manfredi, Simonetta
Still, Alexis
Tzanakou, Charikleia

Oxford Brookes departments

Oxford Brookes Business School

Dates

Year: 2020

Funding

EPSRC (ISNI: 0000 0004 0394 8681) : Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in university spinout companies: A case for action (EP/S010734/1)

GeoLocations

UK


© Oxford Brookes University Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License


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