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Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Digital Crowdfunding for Social Entrepreneurship: Best Practices for Building Sustainable Communities
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council Digital Good Network
Duration: February 2025 - July 2025

Digital technology has broadened the horizon for social enterprises (e.g. WakaWaka) to use digital crowdfunding platforms (e.g. Kickstarter and Crowdfunder) to pool resources to build resilient and sustainable communities. However, digital crowdfunding success rates remain low, and support is needed for adopting digital technology and making a success of digital crowdfunding. Disparity exists in access to digital crowdfunding between the technology-rich Global North, the world’s developed countries, and the digitally-divided Global South, the world’s developing countries. Their different institutional environment must be considered to bridge the North-South divide and address digital inequality. We aim to address this issue through investigating the critical success factors of digital crowdfunding, drawing on interdisciplinary insights from entrepreneurship, computer science and finance. By investigating a combination of factors related to social entrepreneurs as crowdfunders, their project quality, their project websites, and their institutional environment in the Global North and the Global South, we will develop best practices for digital crowdfunding platforms.

AI-driven technologies in women’s healthcare
Funder: Brunel University of London
Duration: -
Resilient education management for online learning in Kenya
Funder: Centre for entrepreneurship and Sustainability
Duration: -
Environmental tax reform towards Net Zero Carbon
Funder: Chartered Institute of Taxation
Duration: -
Remote patient monitoring of wounds following breast cancer surgery
Funder: Brunel Partners Academic Centre for Health Sciences
Duration: May 2024 - July 2024

Plexaa has developed its first product, Bloom43 – a wearable device that delivers supraphysiological preconditioning to the skin to prevent wound healing complications for women undergoing breast cancer surgery. This pilot project focuses on a market research to expand the product's reach and capability.

Technological Intervention in Home -Centric Health Care of Elderly Patients: An Empirical Evidence
Funder: Brunel Partners Academic Centre for Health Sciences
Duration: January 2024 - May 2024

As the global population ages, the demand for effective healthcare solutions for elderly individuals is increasing. This research investigates the benefits and satisfaction derived from health monitoring technologies in enhancing the well-being of elderly patients. Leveraging advancements in Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI), smart technologies enable continuous monitoring of vital signs and facilitate timely medical interventions. They empower seniors to autonomously manage their health while providing real-time data to caregivers and healthcare providers. The study employs a cross-sectional survey design conducted in London, utilising a structured questionnaire to assess perceptions of remote health monitoring services among 95 participants. Data analysis reveals strong support for the benefits of regular monitoring in managing health and reducing anxiety. High satisfaction levels with service delivery underscore the transformative potential of these technologies in elderly care, despite challenges related to data security and cost preferences for wearable devices.

Human Rights & Climate Change: transnational education, research and innovation between Brunel, UERJ and UFRJ.
Funder: British Council
Duration: November 2023 - December 2024

HE Connects: UK – Americas Partnerships for TNE and Internationalisation

The UK Philanthropic Business Landscape: Current Status and Future Directions on Digital Technology Adoption
Funder: Brunel University of London and industry match funding
Duration: September 2023 - February 2024

This project aims to explore the current trends in the UK entrepreneurial philanthropy sector, and the factors (especially on trust, distrust and (re-)building trust) that influence the effective adoption of digital technology among small and medium-sized organisations in the philanthropy sector (especially charities).

Entrepreneurial Learning from Serial Crowdfunding Campaigns for Public Benefit
Funder: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants
Duration: April 2023 - September 2024

Crowdfunding provides an alternative financing solution for social entrepreneurship for public benefit, and a platform for social entrepreneurs to garner community support. However, crowdfunding campaigns often fail to meet their targets. This prompts us to ask a pertinent question: how do serial social entrepreneurs learn from their prior crowdfunding experience? This project proposes a two-stage mixed methods study to address this question. First, we collect secondary, quantitative data on crowdfunding campaigns for public benefit on Kickstarter to examine to what extent serial social entrepreneurs learn from their prior crowdfunding experience to improve subsequent fundraising performance. Second, we collect primary, qualitative interview data from 20 participants who have taken part in Stage One, to study what and how serial social entrepreneurs learn from their prior crowdfunding campaigns. Our project findings will uncover the underlying process of entrepreneurial learning in crowdfunding campaigns and provide practical solutions for social entrepreneurs and crowdfunding policymakers. Principal investigator: Dr Xiangming Tao; Co-investigator: Professor Catherine Wang

Building resilient healthcare systems in extreme heat events: Leveraging South-South learning between India and Bangladesh
Funder: National Institute of Health and Care Research
Duration: October 2022 - February 2023
Improving resilience in developing countries: Digital health provision through telemedicine ecosystem against the pandemic, epidemics and natural disasters in sub-Saharan Africa
Funder: International Telecommunication Union
Duration: May 2022 - October 2023

The overall objective of the study is to create an understanding of the dynamics of the telemedicine ecosystem and proffer recommendations to facilitate the sustainable adoption of telemedicine in SSA.

Digitalisation and Interdisciplinary Research in Social Science
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council
Duration: May 2022 - July 2022

Techne Training & Development Days 2021-22; PI: Dr Monomita Nandy (BBS)

COVID-19: Explaining the variance in people�s trust and policy compliance
Funder: Economic & Social Research Council
Duration: February 2022 - January 2025
Computational analytics for Cyber-bullying Behaviour in Online Communities
Funder: Economic & Social Research Council
Duration: February 2022 - July 2023
Computational Study on Organised Cyberbullying in Online Communities
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
Duration: February 2022 - July 2023
International Knowledge Transfer and Co-creation through International Entrepreneurship
Funder: University Of Leeds, Leeds Challenge Fund
Duration: February 2022 - August 2022

Principle investigator: Professor Yingqi Wei, Co-Investigator: Professor Catherine Wang; Co-Investigator: Dr Gideon Azumah; Co-Investigator: Professor Jue Wang

Digital poverty in Margate: a study of two hyperlocal communities
Funder: British Academy
Duration: January 2022 - December 2022

This report presents the findings of an in-depth, qualitative study of digital poverty from the perspectives of two hyperlocal communities in the UK seaside town of Margate. Specifically, the study examined members of the Roma and Creative Diaspora.

Gamification of Phenomographic Entrepreneurship Training
Funder: Spread Your Wings
Duration: January 2022 - July 2022

To develop and test the criteria for a serious game that will help young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds and low education attainment to overcome their fears about starting their own business.

Developing capacity and research network to promote inclusive digital finance for Egyptian single mothers.
Funder: British Council
Duration: January 2022 - December 2022

The study aims to develop an understanding of the needs of and solution to digital finance for Egyptian single mothers. Through a collaborative partnership among UK and Egyptian scholars and practitioners the study aims to analyse the problems and challenges of Egyptian single mothers and how inclusive digital finance can address them. The study will engage with a range of different stakeholders including single mothers, bank managers, policy makers and NGO workers to obtain different perspectives that can feed into the development of appropriate business and policy implications for inclusive digital finance in Egypt.

INVALID
Funder: Quick Costing Funder Placeholder
Duration: January 2021 - December 2021
Partnership for a Sustainable Food Future – Centre for Doctoral Training
Funder: UKRI – BBSRC
Duration: August 2020 - August 2022
Knowledge exchange on healthcare big data analytics
Funder: Medical Research Council
Duration: April 2020 - March 2022
Can entrepreneurship be taught? A learning-by-doing approach in entrepreneurship education
Funder: Brunel Business School, Brunel University London
Duration: January 2020 - July 2020
Unpacking models of value creation in UK social enterprises
Funder: Research Development Fund, Brunel University London
Duration: January 2020 - January 2022
Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Productivity Employability and Business Models in Health Care Services
Funder: UK-India Education and Research Initiative
Duration: October 2019 - February 2021
Supply Chain Collaboration among Agribusiness SMEs and Post-Brexit UK-Australia Trade
Funder: BAM-ANZAM Collaborative Research Award Scheme 2019
Duration: September 2019 - December 2020
BAM/ANZAM Collaborative Research Award Grant Scheme 2019/20
Funder: British Academy of Management
Duration: September 2019 - December 2020
Marginalised theatre practices in Brazil and United Kingdom
Funder: Fapesp-Brunel Funded Partnership
Duration: September 2019 - March 2020

Joint project on marginalised theatre practices

Vetiver entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development in eco-sensitive coastal zones
Funder: Centre for Entrepreneurship and Sustainability
Duration: -
Vetiver entrepreneurship and Eco-restoration model for sustainable development
Funder: Brunel_Research Accelerator in Developing Countries Grant
Duration: -
StoryFutures: Gateway Cluster Partnership for Audiovisual Digital Creativity
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Duration: October 2018 - March 2023
Towards a green and sustainable ecosystem for the EU Port of the Future
Funder: European Commission
Duration: July 2018 - December 2021
Impacting Business by Design
Funder: Research England
Duration: April 2018 - March 2021
Sustainability and Internationalisation
Funder: Brunel Business School
Duration: March 2018 - July 2018
British Academy Conference Grant 2019
Funder: British Academy
Duration: -

one day conference on digitalisation and sustainable growth of business

Mindfulness and Future entrepreneurs
Funder: Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Research Centre , Brunel University
Duration: February 2018 - July 2018
Developing curriculum for training special needs trainers
Funder: UK-India Education and Research Initiative
Duration: January 2018 - January 2021
Say on Pay
Funder: British Academy
Duration: -

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