Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (IEI)

Capital and people have moved to urban areas in countries with emerging economies in dramatic numbers. Bottom-up successes are challenging top-down approaches to running companies. Information technology has created a truly interconnected global economy. It has also slashed costs for starting new ventures.

These aren’t signs of the times. They represent a new and permanent reality that demands innovative management skills. They indicate that entrepreneurial instincts are essential for recognizing and creating economic opportunity — for leaders of corporations just as much as for leaders of start-ups.

Core Goals and Activities
Central European University’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is devoted to the study and practice of contemporary business under this new paradigm. We are particularly focused on economic activities that occur across nations, involve emerging markets, and are conscious of their impact on society and the environment.

We aim to be a regional hub for exchanging ideas about innovation and entrepreneurship. We also want to spur economic development in Hungary and the Central and Eastern European region.

Flagship Initiatives

• CEU InnovationsLab Where start-ups come to grow.
  
  
• Roundtable Lecture Series Top thinkers and practitioners lead this regular forum about issues facing entrepreneurs and management leaders.

In the Pipeline
Curriculum development, executive education, research, collaborative projects with partner organizations, conferences, seminars, workshops, business plan competitions.

The Right Place at the Right Time
The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation began in November 2011 with an initial $7.55-million grant from philanthropist George Soros. Soros cofounded Central European Business School in 1988. CEU Business School’s early years were a time of historic transition in Hungary’s political and economic history. The move from state-controlled to free markets echoes the changes happening today in countries such as China and India, and those that continue to happen in Central and Eastern Europe. It is fitting that our start as an Institute began during another unprecedented shift in the world’s economic timeline.