Dr Allan O'Connor

Biography/ Background

Allan O’Connor commenced with the Entrepreneurship Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC) at the University of Adelaide in March 2008. He was formerly with the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology, lecturing in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation in a number of topic areas associated with new venture strategy, evaluation and start-up. Allan’s extensive industry experience has been with the small and medium enterprise sector developing and introducing new products, entering new markets, and expanding sales and business opportunities in both established and new business environments. This experience has exposed him to the challenges of growth, innovation and entrepreneurship with engineered and manufactured goods.

The Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation & Innovation Centre's (ECIC) mission is to foster innovation through entrepreneurship, commercialisation, and project management, research, teaching, and community and industry engagement activities.

Visit the ECIC website:  www.ecic.adelaide.edu.au or view/join our blog http://blogs.adelaide.edu.au/ecic/ (Allan is a regular contributor).

Qualifications

Mechanical Engineering Certificate, Graduate Diploma in Airconditioning, Graduate Diploma in Management, Master of Enterprise Innovation, PhD (Entrepreneurship)

Research Interests

Allan's research interests include entrepreneurship education, policy and the intersections between entrepreneurship, innovation and socioeconomic development. More specifically, Allan's research utilises an intellectual capital analysis approach to examine regional development, organisational development and human capital development. Projects have involved working with the Centre for Regional Development at Swinburne University of Technology, Questacon (the National Institute for Science and Technology, Canberra), the Hargraves Institute, (a member's services organisation focussing on corporate innovation) and the Westpac Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Australia project in 2004 and 2005 serving as project manager, researcher and co-author.

Publications

The following is a short list of recent published refereed articles. For a full list of publications see the Files section below.

Foley, D. & O'Connor, A. (forthcoming), ‘Social Capital and the Networking Practices of Indigenous Entrepreneurs', Journal of Small Business Management, (accepted May 2011).

Hindle, K., Yencken, J. & O'Connor, A. 2011 ‘An entrepreneurship policy framework for high-growth firms: navigating between policies for picking winners and market failure', International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, Special Edition: Technological Entrepreneurship: Opportunity for High Growth Firms, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 324- 343.

O’Connor, A. & Yamin, S. 2011 ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Managing the Paradox of Purpose in Business Model Innovation’, Int. J. Learning and Intellectual Capital, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 239-255.

O'Connor, A., Roos, G. & Vickers-Willis, T. 2007 ‘Evaluating the innovation capacity of a public sector organization: an Australian case study', European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 10, No 4, pp. 532-538.

O'Connor, A., Cherry, N. & Buckley P. 2007 ‘Defining entrepreneurship as a ‘domain of practice': Implications for theory and research for policy and education', International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 654-678.

O'Connor, A. & Ramos, J. 2006 ‘Empowering Entrepreneurship Through Foresight And Innovation: Developing A Theoretical Framework For Empowerment In Enterprise Programs', Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 207-231.

Unpublished doctoral thesis

O'Connor, A. 2009 Enterprise, Education and Economic Development: An exploration of entrepreneurship's economic function in the Australian government's education policy, dissertation submission for the completion of the Doctor of Philosophy degree at The Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, June 2007.

Professional Interests

Allan combines his qualifications and extensive industry experience to provide consulting services to institutions and organisations seeking to develop entrepreneurship and innovation capacities. Here's what one what recent client has said about his facilitation for a strategic management group on innovation:

"Thank you very much for facilitating Wednesday's workshop. The content was very good and the delivery and facilitation most professional. It achieved the objective we wanted and there was good follow on discussion by the team over dinner."

Cam Pearce | Director Business Development | Coopers Brewery Ltd

Files

• AOC Publications Record as at 07/10/2011 - AOC_Completed_Publications_Record.pdf [247.1K] (application/pdf)

Entry last updated: Saturday, 3 Dec 2011