Mr Peter Balan 

If you wish to contact me regarding entrepreneurship courses, then FIRST please check the details (including content, assessment, detailed timetables and answers to frequently asked questions), that are on the CDE website.

Recognition for contributions to UniSA teaching and community engagement include:

I recently finalised a major project (with Adjunct Professor Noel Lindsay) to assess the innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation of Australian hotels and the relationships between each of these two firm-level constructs and hotel performance. The first stage of the project included in depth interviews with 51 hotel owner/managers in all Australian states, and this laid the basis for a national survey of 449 hotels. This research was funded by the CRC for Sustainable Tourism ($53k) with the support of the Australian Hotels Association nationally and in all states. I have delivered workshops on "building an innovative business" to hotels using the results of this research.

Over many years I have innovated continuously with the aim of finding more effective ways to engage students in their learning, and this has resulted in several teaching awards. I am one of the first people internationally to implement Team-Based Learning in entrepreneurship courses. I find that this is a very powerful strategy for course delivery that delivers real results for students, and makes teaching more enjoyable. I have become involved in the Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC), which is the support network for practitioners in this field, and am a member of the TBLC Membership and Reearch Committees.

I organise the School of Management "ENTERPRISE FORUM" that provides a venue for students and alumni to learn from the experiences of practising entrepreneurs. This series of lunchtime seminars is based on the successful of "Taste of Entrepreneurship" workshops in July 2008 and March 2009.

I have set up a comprehensive website to help UniSA students and Alumni apply for the Pank Prize. This Prize has been established to help to set an innovative new venture, with the support of $15,000 cash from the Pank family. I also provide mentoring support over the year to set up the business, and this is part of the $15,000 in-kind support from the School of Management and ITEK.

I have a long-standing interest in linking education with industry. The Marketing Project Program that I started in 1987 still continues as an industry-based program that has given more that 500 students a great start in their professional careers. I have linked the entrepreneurship courses to university research, so that students learn how to evaluate the feasibility of real world innovations, focusing on those developed by UniSA researchers. For example, students taking the course "Entrepreneurial Marketing for New Ventures" in 2007 gathered market information to evaluate the feasibility of an electric hybrid conversion project developed by the Institute for Sustainable Systems and Technologies at UniSA's Mawson Lakes campus. In 2008 the class investigated the demand for renewable energy technologies. This research-based learning approach delivered many benefits to students and also built links between the School of Management and partner groups. Reports on these projects can be downloaded from the Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurs web site.

In early 2002 I initiated the Business Innovation Centre project to support the transfer of technology from research organisations into existing businesses. It was implemented by the City of Salisbury, with UniSA, the Water Industry Alliance, Defence Teaming Centre and the Electronics Industry Association as project partners, and was funded ($431k) by the the DoTARS Sustainable Regions Programme in 2004/2005. This project provided a model for the State Government's Centre for Innovation. The major project output was the Innovation Foundation Program; a professional development program for SME owner/managers that is designed to help them improve the innovation capability of their businesses. The program was based on my research.

I have conducted many short courses/workshops for businesses wishing to build their ability to support innovation, and in particular continuous innovation, as well as to help them operate in a more entrepreneurial manner. These courses are based on materials and approaches developed in the Business Innovation Centre project. They have been delivered to businesses in the manufacturing, finance, retail, hospitality and social enterprise sectors. One example is the Food Innovation Project that is funded by Food SA ($24k) under the SA Food Plan and is delivered to food manufacturing businesses.

From 2003 to 2005 I was Director of UniSA's Smartlink activity. I worked with a team to manage national tours of international experts in the field of manufacturing management, and to promote the university's manufacturing management programs.

From 1998 to 2002 I was the UniSA Project Manager for the Harmony Project. This was a major European Union project that developed a sophisticated and effective operations and management system for business incubators and technology accelerators. This system is built on a knowledge management database that supports global networking and collaboration. As part of this project, I managed a European contract to develop on-line training and accreditation support for the Harmony System.

I was the Foundation Director of UniSA's Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurs from its launch in November 2000 to end December 2001. My role was to identify research, teaching and training opportunities in the field of entrepreneurship and enterprise creation and development to help make UniSA a more enterprising organisation. My work also involved developing and delivering courses on entrepreneurship and business creation using the FastTrac system for undergraduate and PhD levels, as well as for small businesses in Regional SA.

I was Foundation Head of the School of Marketing when it was created as a spin-out from the Elton Mayo School of Management in 1995. I developed strong links with industry and government to give the School a high profile locally and nationally, and to position the School strongly in the university. I actively supported the creation and development of two successful and focused research groups: the Marketing Science Centre (established in 1988), and now the Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science,) and the Wine Marketing Research Group (established in 1998). I was elected Chair of the UniSA Heads of School Group in 1999, and led negotiations with the University on a new Head of School contract.

I started the School's domestic Marketing Project Program (1987) and the International Marketing Program (1989). I managed both programs and and taught in them until 2000. I also initiated the annual Marketing Graduate Directory in 1987, firstly as a book and then as a CD-ROM. These project programs and directories contributed significantly to building the profile of the School and its graduates in the business and government community.

In 1985, I joined the Elton Mayo School of Management in the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT) as a lecturer in marketing. This followed a career in international marketing and general management in Switzerland, Germany, UK, France and Australia. I worked in a range of industries including transport (railways), manufacturing (chemicals, graphic art materials, furniture, sheepskins, sailboards), services (industry association, consulting) in the private sector, as well as in the government sector. Most of my jobs involved exporting.

I have been involved with a number of new entrepreneurial ventures. I was the entrepreneur who drove the establishment of the Montessori School Adelaide as a new venture start-up in 1984. I administered the school and chaired its Board for three years after its launch. I set up a venture to publish books, and another venture to deliver professional development courses for industry.

For information about the Centre for Development of Entrepreneurs, and for detailed information about undergraduate and postgraduate courses in entrepreneurship

• Since 2000, I have developed and presented courses for undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students in the field of entrepreneurship and enterprise creation and development.
• In 2006, my colleagues in the CDE and I developed UniSA's range of new courses in the field of entrepreneurship for undergraduates and for postgraduate students.
• In 2007 I piloted an approach to link teaching with research in the course "Entrepreneurial Marketing for New Ventures", and this was used as an example of "building the teaching-research nexus" in the Division. This approach was further developed in 2008 to more closely link the entrepreneurship courses to research. This approach brought real benefits to students by exposing them to research processes and content that underpin the course. You can access the research reports from the CDE website.
• I have developed a range of modular courses for industry that are designed to help small businesses build their ability to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. Many of these courses are based on the application of diagnostic tools that I have developed from the literature. I have conducted these courses in the manufacturing, finance, retail, hospitality and social enterprise sectors. Please contact me direct for further information about these innovative professional development programs.

Australian Institute of Export (Fellow)

Australian Market and Social Research Society

B.Sc. (in physics and applied maths)

B.E. (Hons) (in electrical engineering)

M.B.M. (Master of Business Management)

I am currently carrying out doctoral research with the topic "Developing an Innovation Capability Assessment Instrument for the Services Sector: A Case Study of the South Australian Hotel Industry".

• The innovation capability and entrepreneurial orientation of firms
• Technology Incubation and Commercialisation
• Marketing and Business Planning, with a particular focus on new technology businesses

I am able to provide media comment in the following areas of expertise:

Discipline: Business

• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation
• Technology commercialisation
• Business Planning
• Marketing Planning