Postgraduate Students to Present at Prestigious European Conference

15 September 2020

Three Postgraduate students from the School of Business & Humanities at DkIT, Kelly (Chun Wang), Zihui Zhou (Heidi) and Wayne Hand, have been invited to present their research work at this year's European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The Conference hosts participants from more than 40 countries and attracts an interesting combination of academic scholars, practitioners and individuals who are engaged in various aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship teaching and research. This year event, the 15th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be hosted by Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT), Italy and the Conference Chair will be Prof. Alessandro De Nisco. This is the first time postgraduate students from the School have been invited to the conference to present their work.

The students are:

Zihui Zhou is in the final stages of completing her MBS and will present a poster presentation based on her paper, A road to empowerment: social media usage by women entrepreneurs in China, co-authored with her supervisor Dr Kate Johnston. Her research looks at how female entrepreneurs have successfully adopted social media to grow their business in China and HK. The research provides an important study and compares mainland China with entrepreneurs in Hong Kong.

Wayne Hand - a former MBS student who has just been accepted under the Postgraduate Research Scholarship programme to study with DKIT for a Masters by Research will present his paper " Intrapreneurial Activity within the Hospitably Sector: Evidence from Ireland" co-authored with his Supervisor, Dr Kate Johnston. As noted by his supervisor, Dr. Johnston, the current pandemic is having a catastrophic impact on the industry. The current research from PWC, IntertradeIreland and the Department of Employment all point to the food and tourism industry who will suffer the highest job losses because of C Covid-19 pandemic. Wayne's research will look at the role of innovation and intrapreneruship in ensuring the long term success of the Irish hospitality and tourism sectors and has come at a crucial time for the sector.

The third paper, "Understanding the World of Crowdfunding in Driving Entrepreneurial Growth: A Case Study Analysis" will be presented by Kelly (Chun Wang) a current Masters student, who is currently doing a Masters by Research within the Department of Management and Financial Services. The research paper, which will be published in the conference proceedings is based on a case study analysis which Kelly undertook. The paper was co-authored with her Supervisor Dr. Kate Johnston and Maeve Caraher, a lecturer within the School of Business Studies. Both Kelly and Wayne's papers will be presented at PhD and Masters Colloquium for aspiring researchers.

Funding for the conference for the students was provided by Prof Colette Henry EMERGE Research Group, and HOD Mr Shane Hill.

We wish the three students great success with their presentations at this prestigious conference.