Prof Richard Blundel

Professional biography

I studied at the London School of Economics (BSc Econ), Bradford University (MBA) and The University of Birmingham (PhD). Before embarking on an academic career, I worked for the former Inner London Education Authority, the National Audit Office, a specialist marketing research consultancy and a US-based multinational company. I joined The Open University in 2009 and became an Emeritus Professor on my retirement in January 2025. During this period I was the co-founder and Director of the Centre for Social and Sustainable Enterprise (CSSE) and an Honorary Fellow of the ESRC Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), University of Surrey.

Professional memberships:

• Higher Education Academy, Senior Fellow (SFHEA)
• Institute for Small Business and Entreprepreneurship (ISBE), Member (Board Member 2010-13)

Research interests

I am an organisational researcher with a particular interest in the links between entrepreneurial activity, innovation and environmental sustainability. I have examined the nature and consequences of growth in different organisational contexts, including small artisanal food producers, manufacturing businesses and social enterprises. My work has appeared in journals such as Business & Society, Entrepreneurship &Regional Development, Business Strategy and the Environment, Enterprise & Society, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management and Global Environmental Change.

I have been involved in several research and engagement projects that address SMEs, decarbonisation and other important sustainability challenges:

• A UKERC-funded project, SME Governance of Net Zero (GoZero) (2022-24), with colleagues from the University of Oxford and Sheffield Hallam University, which provided a robust evidence base to support the multi-level governance of SME decarbonisation across the four UK nations.

• A report for the UK's Climate Change Committee (CCC) (2022) that examines how policy can better support the Net Zero transition for SMEs.

• Two evidence reviews for the UKRI-funded Enterprise Research Centre (2021), which examine SMEs and Net Zero and on Eco-innovation and Green Start-ups.

• The UK-based Zero Emissions Enterprise (ZEE) network that we created in September 2021 to provide a focus for researchers working in this area. The network has since attracted more than 60 members.  In October 2022, and we submitted our first formal response to the UK government's Net Zero Review consultation.

• The ESRC Impact Acceleration Account project, 'Growing Greener' (2017-20) with the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford and communications specialists Climate Outreach. We co-created a five hour online course, Promoting Sustainability in Business: A Values-Based Toolkit, which has since been trialled in the UK and Pakistan.

I have also collaborated with the furniture designer-maker, Philip Koomen, to examine how skills, knowledge and values are shared and reproduced in contemporary craft-based businesses.

Teaching interests

I was lead author for Block 1 of  B209 Entrepreneurship and Innovation (first presentation: October 2025). Previously, I was a member of the authoring team for the MBA elective, BB851 Entrepreneurship in Context and a critical reviewer for a Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) module. I also chaired the production teams for B205 Exploring Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the OU's first 60 point undergraduate module to address this subject area, and BB846 Entrepreneurship: experience and perspective, the OU's first MBA module in entrepreneurship.

I have supervised PhD students in the fields of sustainable innovation, entrepreneurship and social enterprise and examined PhD candidates at several UK and international universities.  I have also served as external examiner for MSc courses at Royal Holloway, University of London and Henley Business School, University of Reading.

I am also co-author of Exploring Entrepreneurship (3rd edition) (SAGE, 2021), which combines practical insights into the challenges of creating and developing commercial and social enterprises with a series of chapters on entrepreneurship research.

Impact and engagement

Open University media projects include roles as: academic adviser for the BBC / OU co-production ‘Make it at Market’ (Series 3, 2025); Business School lead for the COP26 Hub on OpenLearn (2021); academic adviser for the BBC / OU co-production 'Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses' (2014); and presenter for the OpenLearn podcast series, 'Unlikely Leaders' (2014).

Previous engagement projects include a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills-funded project, ABLE-Ghana (2010-2012), where we collaborated with five Ghanaian universities on employability and entrepreneurial learning issues; and editing a special edition of the Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain to mark 30 years of research (2014).