Steve Ball

Assistant Professor

School: Newcastle Business School

Having previously worked in various IT support, development, and management positions within industry and the HE sector, I joined Northumbria University as a Senior Lecturer in 2003. I work in the Leadership & Human Resource Management team within the Faculty of Business & Law.

I combine my research with teaching of leadership and management skills as a catalyst for inspiring innovation and creative thinking within the workplace. I am interested in how using innovative tools and techniques can influence business start-up and growth strategies.

I am always exploring new advances and innovative methods of teaching, learning, and assessment. I am a keen advocate of embedding appropriate technology enhanced learning (TEL) initiatives, enhancing both teaching, and the student learning experience. My current teaching involves: Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Employability & Career Planning; Work-based Projects.

I have a wide network of small business owners, agencies, and entrepreneurs that I often invite as guest speakers.

Email Steve

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research interests include many aspects of enterprise-related activity, specialising in the effective teaching of entrepreneurship. My initial findings are available via my Research publications. This interest has now scaled into my Professional Doctorate project investigating the impact of enterprise education within the HE sector.

I especially enjoy working with SMEs, and have recently helped deliver the Small Business Charter’s “Small Business Leadership Programme”, aimed at helping SMEs to further develop their Productivity, Resilience, and Sustainability.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
A Case Study of Experiential Entrepreneurial Learning Through LEGO® Play, Ball, S., Quan, R., Clegg, S. 19 Sep 2025, Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Academic Conferences & Publishing International Ltd.
“Authentic Alignment” – a new framework of entrepreneurship education, Macht, S., Ball, S. 10 Oct 2016, In: Education + Training
Put different hat on utilising a Hybrid Approach in Teaching Entrepreneurship , Quan, R., Ball, S., Bradford, J., Turner, J. 1 Sep 2016, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence Awards: An anthology of case histories, Academic Conferences International Limited
Exploring the impact of entrepreneurial team teaching methods upon students’ entrepreneurial learning, Ball, S., Vij, V., Hall, L., Payne, P. 11 Mar 2011, Enterprise Educators UK: Best Practice Event
Exploring the impact of entrepreneurship education on university nonbusiness undergraduates, Vij, V., Ball, S. 1 Jan 2010, In: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Exploring how to "spice up" entrepreneurial learning, Vij, V., Ball, S. Jul 2008, IntEnt 2008

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Business and Law Conference 2023
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: ALTC (Association or Learning Technology) Conference 2018
Invited talk: Enterprise in the Computing Curriculum 2013

Qualifications