ACCESS was represented at the 30th edition of the International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (IEEE – ICE 2024), hosted by Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias (UNINOVA) in Funchal, Madeira Island – Portugal, from 24 to 28 June 2024, as part of the Madeira Digital Transformation Week.
ACCESS co-organised a Special Session on “Deep-Tech Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies” with the Data-driven and Impact-orient Entrepreneurship Research of the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, Leipzig University. Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger and Dr. Kevin Reuther, both ACCESS Board Members, co-chaired the session. Isaac Duodu and Dolly Mavuta, ACCESS PhD candidates, presented their research papers on “What constitutes an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Emerging versus Developed Economies – A set theoretical perspective from the firm level” and “Influence of informal institutions in promoting university spin-offs” respectively, offering a unique African perspective. Bismark Agyei Yeboah also presented a paper on “Innovation process of AgriTech Start-ups in Africa: Perspectives from startups in Ghana”. Abstracts of the papers can be accessed here.
Under the theme “Digital Transformation on Engineering, Technology and Innovation”, the conference discussed systems engineering as a socio-technical task focusing on designing products and services and the entrepreneurial innovation process for its adoption in society and the economy. The ACCESS participants actively shared their research, obtained valuable feedback, generated insightful discussions and networked with leading scholars and practitioners in their respective research streams.
This active participation underscores SEPT and ACCESS’s commitment to contributing to the growing field of employability, entrepreneurship, and innovation management research with African perspectives. More about the research activities of the ACCESS project: ACCESS – Employability Research