As a research unit within the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management specialises in the research, education and consultancy in the field of entrepreneurship and small business management.
Vision
The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management shall be a renowned research, educational and consultancy institution for entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe and shall contribute to the entrepreneurship and creativity of individuals, organisations as society as a whole.
Mission
The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management creates and transmits the knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation to students, entrepreneurs, various kinds of organisations, the public as well as economic policy makers. We thus contribute to the creation of an entrepreneurial, humane and knowledge-based society. Our core values are honest work, excellence and partnership.
The members of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management carry out research in the fields of entrepreneurship, business economics, innovations, female entrepreneurship, high-tech entrepreneurship, creditworthiness, trustworthiness and rating of an organisation, systems theory, social responsibility, establishment and growth of companies, corporate and international entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship has been the core of our research ever since 1998, when the Institute entered the European network of institutes ENSR (European Network for SME Research), which has been connecting independent institutes in the area of entrepreneurship research from the EU member states since 1990.
Since 1998, our Institute has carried out regular annual research on the state of entrepreneurship in Slovenia in comparison with Europe. The findings of our research are published in the series of scientific monographs ‘Slovenian Entrepreneurship Observatory’. Since 2002, the Institute has been implementing the Slovenian part of the world-wide research Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. We are the responsible institute for the research programme ‘Podjetništvo za inovativno družbo’ (‘Entrepreneurship for Innovative Society’), we carry out basic and target research projects and co-operate in a number of international projects.