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DCU National Centre for Family Business

Undergraduate Education - NED Module

Family businesses are the economic and social bedrock of societies across the globe. A fundamental determinant of the continuity and longevity of family businesses is the ability to create and foster an entrepreneurial mindset across generations. New Enterprise Development (NED) is a multi-award winning entrepreneurship module taken by both our next generation of family business leaders and those, not from business-owning families but who will engage with family firms as employees, investors, or advisors.

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NED Module - Dr Eric Clinton and invited business leaders (L) and NED Students (R)

Led by Dr Eric Clinton, our next generation of leaders develop an understanding of balancing opportunity and risk within an existing business, while also exploring opportunities for launching a new enterprise related to the family business. Our students gain best-practice insights on successfully nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset across generations.

NED was awarded the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) Global Award in Entrepreneurship Education Excellence at the 2023 ICSB World Congress. (Read more here).

The module also won the European Consortium of Innovative Universities Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (2016), the Teaching Heroes Award (2021), and was runner-up in the Pearson HE Innovation Awards (2021) for its most ‘innovative approach to developing employability skills’. One such innovative approach within the NED module includes our Dragons’ Den experience. Across three days our entrepreneurial teams pitch their innovative business concepts to leading national and international investors. The NED alumni contain family business leaders from Ireland, Europe, and across the globe.