Leading Business Schools Found European Scaleup Institute

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Europe will reach new international heights through a novel platform that couples first-class research with practical experience. WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany), the Vlerick Business School (Belgium), the Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (in the Netherlands), ESSEC Business School (France), ESADE Business School (Spain), and the Nova School of Business and Economics (Portugal) have just launched the European Scaleup Institute (ESI). “With this institute, we want to enrich our academic and managerial knowledge on how companies can develop a successful growth path,” says Professor Dries Faems, Chair of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technological Transformation at WHU. These six business schools, all of which are renowned in Europe for their entrepreneurial activity, will be supported in this endeavor by Nordic Innovation, an organization run by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The ESI’s mission is to combine the researching prowess at these business schools to help young companies with high growth potential successfully scale their business models. This new institution is intended to make available to company founders research findings that are relevant both to their operations and the challenges they are currently facing. Additionally, this project will offer close interaction with experienced professionals equipped with best practice examples to help realize consistent growth and development. And with plans in the future to offer entrepreneurs programs tailored to their needs and where they can further hone their skills, ESI ultimately has the goal of becoming Europe’s most prominent hub for scaling a business.

All newly founded companies face the same challenge: masterfully managing the transitions between the start-up, development, and scaling phases. This is where many companies fail. To strengthen Europe’s viability as a business location and a space for innovation, ESI wants to give these companies support based on scientific, empirical research. ESI will officially launch on June 1, 2023 at the Scaleup conference held at the Nova School of Business and Economics. At this event, academics, practitioners, and policy makers get the opportunity to discuss the most recent insights on high growth firms. You can register for the conference here.