Promoting Technology-Based Enterprise in Higher Education

The research discussed in this paper explores the impact of a higher education initiative targeted at developing entrepreneurial capability and encouraging student technology venturing activity in Northern Ireland. The initiative in question is the £25,000 enterprise competition run by the Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship (NICENT). The authors report the outcomes of exploratory survey-based research to establish the competition's impact on participants and its contribution to the development of positive attitudes towards technology transfer and enterprise by aspiring, would-be new venturers.