New study to reveal career outcomes for University of Auckland’s entrepreneurial alumni 

18 April 2023

Are innovators born or made? This is the underlying query of a forthcoming study, contrasting participants in programmes delivered by the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) with non-participants.  

The study is being led by Rae Rho, a PhD student in Economics, and Senior Lecturer Simona Fabrizi. Rho’s research is part of her doctoral thesis on how workers’ skills can benefit their employer’s innovation capacity. She will analyse CIE programme data to explore whether participation in entrepreneurial mindset-building programmes is linked to self-selection into careers that make use of those qualities. 

CIE offers free programmes, workshops and equipment training to all students and staff of the University of Auckland on an extra-curricular or co-curricular basis, as well as supporting curricular delivery of select programmes. Among CIE’s offerings is Velocity, a highly respected entrepreneurship development programme most known for its business planning competitions, and which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Since its inception, the competition has undergone a name change from “Spark” to its current moniker and has seen over 12,000 participants become alumni.  

CIE alumni have given rise to more than 276 ventures, collectively raising over $1.4 billion in capital. However, not all participants in CIE programmes end up starting their own ventures. To compare the career outcomes of programme participants with a matched sample of non-participating students who graduated in the same year, the researchers will match CIE’s participant data with Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), a longitudinal database about people and households that links information from government agencies and Statistics NZ surveys. 

CIE Director Darsel Keane says, “We are immensely proud of our CIE alumni’s record in igniting ventures, but most participants enter careers in an existing business, non-profit organisations, or government. Velocity and CIE’s other programmes develop new skills, build self-confidence, and establish networks. This research will help measure the impact of extracurricular entrepreneurial experiences on careers in addition to venture formation.” 

Researchers from the University of Auckland Business School’s Department of Economics are carefully preparing the data for sharing with Statistics NZ to ensure its security and the anonymity of individuals. They aim to begin their analysis next month and report their findings later this year. 

The participant data has already revealed some interesting facts, with 14,674 unique participants in CIE’s extracurricular programmes from 2003 to November 2022. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of participants in recent years, with a 350% increase since 2017. The average participant spent over 200 hours, with the highest spending 1,521 hours – almost the number of working hours in a year. 

Velocity’s Ideas Challenge, which encourages participants to develop innovative solutions to real-world problems, saw 72,080 hours clocked by its 2,810 entrants, while 460 participants in Summer Lab spent 89,760 hours in the programme. Summer Lab is a four-week experience that develops skills vital in a changing world, framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

According to CIE Academic Director Rod McNaughton, the increase in participation and dedication to extracurricular activities mirrors a global trend, showing that students understand how entrepreneurial competencies will help them succeed and make a positive difference in the world. “We know our students go on to do great things, but it is difficult to quantify this for those who don’t start a venture. I can’t wait to see what the research finds; it will be a world-first in tracking the career outcomes of thousands of participants in extracurricular entrepreneurial activities.” 

For more information about the research contact cie@auckland.ac.nz.