Laura Bradley-McCauley

Biography

Laura is a Professor of Inclusive Entrepreneurship at Ulster University and Programme Director for the UK based Help to Grow programme supporting SMEs to scale and grow. She is also Course Director on a programme targeted at social enterprises at the Ulster University Derry Londonderry Campus.

Her research interests include SMEs and inclusive entrepreneurship, with a specific lens on social enterprises and women and ethnic minorities.  In particular, she is exploring women social entrepreneurs and the barriers and challenges to their growth and development across four countries globally. She supervises several PhD students in the area of social enterprise and entrepreneurship and collaborates with researchers internationally on issues relating to the sector.  She is also actively involved in projects and research exploring ‘acquisition entrepreneurship’ as a mechanism to grow and scale social enterprises and leverage more financially sustainable business models and strategies.  She has led on, and leads, several projects including EU and Shared Island funded and regularly undertakes consultancy with SMEs supported by InnovateUK, InvestNI, Enterprise Ireland and Intertrade Ireland.  She is a board member of a number of social enterprises and professional organisations in Northern Ireland and across the UK.   She is also an external examiner at several UK and Irish Universities.

Laura has presented at several conferences including the Academy of Marketing and European Academy of Management.  She has published widely including the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research.  She is engaged in research networks across the UK impacting, and influencing, education for SMEs and developing interventions and practices to support policy and research in inclusive entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange.  She has strong links with industry and policy makers where her research is informing policy development. She sits on a government working group supporting the development of the social enterprise sector in Northern Ireland. Laura is also an assessor for the Small Business Charter in the UK, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) and a Certified Management and Business Educator (CMBE) with the Chartered Association of Business Schools.

She is keen to develop European and international research projects and collaborations on social enterprises and social entrepreneurship. Please feel free to reach out via email.