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Wilfrid Laurier University School of Business & Economics
April 7, 2013
 
 
Canadian Excellence
Laurier Home School of Business & Economics Laurier Centre for Research in Entrepreneurship (formerly known as NeXt)
 

"Laurier Centre for Research in Entrepreneurship” LCRE is a research centre whose mandate is to serve as a focal point for technology and nascent entrepreneurship1 research, study, and proposal development throughout Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) and in Ontario.


Mandate of Laurier Centre for Research in Entrepreneurship (LCRE) 
The Centre fosters research in the many dimensions of entrepreneurship. The mission is to develop and sponsor research linkages and activities with scholars throughout Laurier and beyond, and share and discuss the implications of this research with industry and governmental actors and representatives as well as with local community members. Thus, the Centre establishes research linkages and seminars encouraging involvement with all Laurier faculties including Business, Science, Arts, Social Work, Education and Music. Activities conducted under this mandate include sponsoring research, assisting with the development of research, assisting with the development of research proposals, conducting seminars, organizing and conducting conferences, and linking members of the business community and governmental actors with academic scholars and scholarship. The Centre utilizes a broad and heterogeneous group of academics and regional experts, business people, entrepreneurs, and researchers.

What is the need for this Centre?
At present, LCRE is the recognized location on campus to foster and co-ordinate research interests in the area of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship as a research domain invites scholars from all disciplines (including inter-disciplinary programs such as global studies), and provides a convenient umbrella for them to meet in mutually interesting and beneficial topics of concern, including factors related to economic, social (as in social entrepreneurship), environmental, and community based endeavors. Events are organized to bring together researchers in entrepreneurship to create a discussion on key issues that affect the development of entrepreneurial cultures, innovation and creativity, creative spaces and places, commercialization of products and the increasing importance of business networks.

1nascent organizations are “pre-organizations” typically dominated by one entrepreneur

Dr. Barbara Carmichael
Director 
Dr. Barbara Carmichael, Director of the LRCE Centre, is a Professor in human geography who teaches tourism courses in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. Her courses are Geography of Tourism, Geography of Recreation, Geography of Tourism Marketing and Seminar in Tourism Research. Dr. Carmichael has an MBA from the University of Durham, U.K. and a PhD in Geography from the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Her doctoral research focused on destination image and tourist choice behavior. She is no stranger to the School of Business and Economics since, over the last sixteen years, she has taught many SBE students in her popular tourism courses.
Her research interests include tourism experiences; tourist-resident interactions; tourist decision making and tourism entrepreneurship. Her recent work in tourism involves tracking tourism experiences using mobile technologies in joint research with Dr. Sean Doherty. In entrepreneurship her work focuses on transnational tourism entrepreneurship, commercial home entrepreneurship and lifestyle entrepreneurship. Dr. Carmichael has enjoyed working in the development of the NeXt centre, as the Associate Director from 2005-2009 and as Director of NeXt from 2009-2011, LCRE from 2011 to present. She is working together with the Associate Director, Dr. Sofy Carayannopoulos, in the development of new research initiatives and special events.
Further information may be found at: http://www.wlu.ca/homepage.php?grp_id=1123&ct_id=977&f_id=35