An example of a current project involves the Hult Prize, a competition where hundreds of student teams design new ventures to address social and environmental problems. We are interested in questions including: Do successful teams in the Hult Prize competition have different personal or team characteristics? Which process of venture ideation is most efficient? And what has been the impact of the Hult Prize? Three researchers from Hult— one from Ashridge, one from Boston, and one from San Francisco— have started to tackle these research questions through surveys and interviews with current and previous Hult Prize participants. Their conclusions will immediately affect how we teach social entrepreneurship, how we advise participants to form teams, and how we advise students and mentors to interact.
Over the next few years, we expect that alumni will be able to read about research findings from their former professors in key publications. Our research findings will address questions that our alumni will find interesting, such as how they can evaluate different business strategies for their potential to disrupt the market, and what trends will transform their current industries. Finally, we anticipate that within the next 12 months we will be able to offer significant research partnership opportunities with the companies that employ our alumni.
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