Centre for Future Enterprise (CFE) leads global research to progress economic and social well-being now and into the future.

With a broad definition of enterprise, from start-ups to ASX listed companies, governments to non-profits, our research brings together world-leading academics with CEOs, founders, policy makers and industry leaders, to help current and future leaders navigate a fast-emerging new world and to differentiate requirements from distracting noise.

Explore the Centre for Future Enterprise

Research themes

CFE's research is clustered in four themes, each exploring key attributes and the inter-relationships between them. Directed by a Theme Leader, three of the themes are institutionalised as their own research centres.

Entrepreneurial Enterprise

Led by Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship; investigating start-ups, founders and entrepreneurship to identify new capabilities, capitalise on an opportunity-rich environment, and revise mindsets.

Digital Enterprise

Led by Centre for the Digital Economy, digitisation in the form of sophisticated automation (e.g. AI, robotic workflows) and the design of entire new services, products and business models has become a key source of competitive advantage. Therefore, future enterprises will require the highest levels of digital maturity and literacy.

Social-purpose Enterprise

Led by Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies: Sustainability and non-monetary objectives are increasingly determining the strategic direction of enterprises, but the related body of knowledge is far less developed than the dominating for-profit approaches. Nonprofit organisations, philanthropic foundations and social enterprises will equally have to boost their capabilities to deliver to their promise in a connected, global world.

Robust Enterprise

Fast-paced economic, political, regulatory, social, ecological and demographic developments are creating a plethora of threats which require new levels of robustness to prevent disruptive threats. This will include the emergence of entire new sub-management disciplines such as innovation management or trust management.

Our projects

Centre for Future Enterprise has a contemporary cross-disciplinary and thematic approach with research projects spanning two or more CFE themes.

Currently priority research topics include, but are not limited to:

  • trusted Innovation in the Retail Sector
  • entrepreneurial cultures in social-purpose organisations
  • entrepreneurial organisations: How to foster intrapreneurship and partnership models with start-ups
  • digital innovation and transformation: How can incumbents take advantage of affordances from digital innovation and navigate their digital transformation trajectories
  • organisational resilience in the face of disruptive forces: How can organisations build robustness capacity
  • nonprofit/social enterprise/philanthropy: Creating and navigating futures in digital economy
  • digital accountability in social-purpose enterprises
  • the management of trust: How can digital technologies and social-purpose design principles improve trust positions.

Our research

Centre for Future Enterprise
Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research
Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies
Centre for the Digital Economy

Our people

Professor Michael Rosemann

Centre Director Michael Rosemann is a Professor in Innovation Systems. His main areas of research are the management of business processes, innovation and trust. Prof Rosemann has published more than 300 refereed papers and his books are available in five languages. He used to be Head of QUT’s Information Systems School (2012-16) and its Executive Director, Corporate Engagement (2017-18). He is also the Honorary Consul for the Federal Republic of Germany.

View Professor Michael Rosemann's profile

Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz

Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz is an academic and industry leader with extensive experience in conducting academically sound research, co-innovating with industry and university partners, and delivering innovative products to the market. Currently, as founding director of Centre for the Digital Economy, he leads QUT’s research agenda to inform and influence a robust digital economy in Australia.
Theme Lead: Digital Enterprise

View Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz's profile

Professor Kevin C. Desouza

Professor Kevin C. Desouza is a Professor of Business, Technology and Strategy in the School of Management at the QUT Faculty of Business and Law. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the China Institute for Urban Governance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Theme Lead: Robust Enterprise

View Professor Kevin C. Desouza's profile

Associate Professor Wendy Scaife

Associate Professor Wendy Scaife is the Centre Director of ACPNS. Wendy has worked in, studied and taught philanthropy, fundraising and nonprofit marketing for 30 years and researches and presents internationally on these topics. Her 18 years of work at ACPNS spans the cause/giver spectrum, including national project leadership of Giving Australia, and a comparison of fundraising in 26 countries.
Theme Lead: Social Enterprise

View Assoc Prof Wendy Scaife's profile

Research news

16 April

$2.5M Medical Research Future Fund grant to study recurrent wheeze in preschoolers

12 April

QUT fashion lecturer given fellowship to join global costume research centre

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Contact the Centre for Future Enterprise

Centre Manager, Gemma Alker

0408 766 531