2008 Graduate Scholars
Joanna Alexopoulos - Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Abstract: Ability and Entrepreneurship
The goal of this project is to analyze the impact of two individual initial conditions, wealth and ability, and the impact of two financial frictions, intermediation costs and contract enforcement, on an individual’s choice to become an entrepreneur or worker. Also investigated will be the impact of these factors on the size of the firm chosen by an entrepreneur. These choices have a great impact on the macro-economy because they lead to differences in output per capita and income inequality, thus affecting a country’s standard of living.
An amended version of the Antunes, Cavalcanti and Villamil general equilibrium model will be used, which provides a framework for investigating agents with different initial wealth, ability and a variety of economic “frictions.” The key innovation in this project relative to existing research is to consider a broader definition of ability. The U.S. economy will be used as a benchmark, and OECD data will be used for other countries.
M. Paola León Arizmendi - School of Social Work
Abstract: Asociación de Artesanas y Artesanos del Sur Andino: A Case Study of Social Entrepreneurship in a Peruvian Indigenous Community
Social entrepreneurs have been identified in the literature as the catalyst necessary in society to fill in the gaps and shortcomings of our governments in addressing social issues. Prahalad, for example, recognizes that there is a source of innovation and opportunity in the world’s poor. The Bartolomé de Las Casas Center in Cusco, Peru has been following his admonishment to recognize the poor as resilient and creative entrepreneurs for the last 23 years. Through their Casa Campesina program the Center has been empowering, advising and training the indigenous peoples of the rural Andean South, to help them to overcome obstacles to better themselves and their communities.
This project will develop a detailed case example to exemplify the social entrepreneurship arts-related program operated by this organization, the Asociación de Artesanas y Artesanos del Sur Andino (Andean South Artisan Association). This association was formed four years ago, and brings together 239 artisans from ten different communities in Cusco and Apurimac. The intent is to detail a developing country example of social entrepreneurship by this group of indigenous people, and also to document issues the group faced in various entrepreneurial steps such as idea generation, opportunity assessment, and financial development.
Allen Barton & Alysia Belobraydich - Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering, College of Engineering
Abstract: Instrument Creation and Validation for Identifying Serial Innovators in Corporations
In research on intrapreneurship, much of the focus has been on organizational structure, culture, and initiatives. Measurements of intrapreneurship and intrapreneurial orientation similarly focus at the company level. However, intrapreneurship occurs in organizations where intrapreneurs are present and allowed to thrive. A current research collaborative between university and industry is seeking to build on Pinchot’s work on intrapreneurs, through a focus on serial innovators. Serial innovators bring about many of the changes described in intrapreneurship and are often the individuals most involved in intrapreneurial activities in corporations.
This research aims to further develop the work in identifying who these serial innovators are, how they work, and how organizations can help them thrive. The project will use a qualitative analysis to identify the personality, perspective, preparation and motivation of intrapreneurial individuals, and the process and politics of how each goes about his or her work. This analysis will be used to construct a survey instrument to differentiate and identify individuals with intrapreneurial or ‘serial innovative’ dispositions. Pilot tests will be conducted online and on-site at a research lab at a major corporation, to examine validity.
Betsy Beymer - Department of Geography, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Abstract: Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries: Seaweed Farming in Tanzania
The marginalization of women in development issues is a great concern all over the world. Despite the fact that women are known to play a central role in securing livelihoods through their knowledge and use of natural resources, they are often excluded from accessing, controlling and using resources necessary for maintaining livelihoods and generating additional income through entrepreneurial activities. This study will focus on gender in the seaweed farming industry of Tanzania, to enhance our understanding of the role of women in this global entrepreneurial enterprise. The Eucheuma (red) seaweed industry in Tanzania is thriving, and has provided significant employment opportunities and cash earnings. In this country, the industry is comprised mainly of women – it is one of the few economic commodities in Africa under the control of women.
This research seeks to illustrate the contributions of a geographical perspective to the study of female entrepreneurship in developing countries. The specific questions that will guide this research include: (1) How do women farm seaweed, and what kinds of knowledges do they incorporate into these practices? (2) What kinds of opportunities do women have for upgrading their production activities? (3) What kinds of social arrangements do buyer companies have with women producing seaweed? This research will use a feminist perspective to help reveal gendered representations of authority and inclusion, affording the tools to better understand the ways that women’s knowledges and power relations are produced and suppressed at various scales of analysis from the local, regional, national, and international within the seaweed industry of Tanzania. Qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews and participant observations will be used. Among the subjects interviewed will be seaweed farmers and representatives from seaweed farmers’ organizations, associated regulatory agencies, extension services such as micro-credit agencies and NGOs that are involved in seaweed farming, and seaweed buyers in Tanzania.
Holli Burgon - Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education
Abstract: Breakout Entrepreneurial Careers: Innovation, Creativity and Choice among Top Female Technologists
This study will examine women entrepreneurs who have achieved success by innovating breakthrough technologies, persisting in the dominantly male field of research and development. One key focus is to generate understandings of how gender plays a role in technical entrepreneurship and ultimately social entrepreneurship, given that the innovations these entrepreneurs have created have social as well as technical impact. This research seeks to fill a gap in our current understanding regarding the experiences that impact the way women’s entrepreneurial work is conducted and appreciated in a dominantly masculine field.
The goals for this study include generating an empirical understanding of:
- Why some women entrepreneurial technologists pursue self-employment while others enter organizational employment
- Why some women entrepreneurial technologists choose to innovate breakthrough technologies, to engage in entrepreneurial activities that instigate technology change, while others leave the technologist track in favor of management positions
- How women entrepreneurial technologists view their innovation contributions as different from those of men
- What helps or hinders women from achieving entrepreneurial success through technology innovation
- What drives women technologists to use their creativity in entrepreneurial ways?
Theodore Davis III - Department of Advertising, College of Media
Abstract: The Effects of Countercultural Framing on Consumer Perception
This study fits within the examination of consumer oriented communication, and the ability it has to convey messages about various products. More specifically, it explores the concept of framing and how it can be used to shape consumers’ perceptions of a product. Though most often associated with study of political communication, framing analysis can readily be applied to the study of brands and branding. The overall purpose of this research will be to develop an enhanced understanding of how framing cues can be effectively applied to the development of a successful brand identity – in particular, how the perception of a company’s brand identity can be altered by using specific verbal cues to frame a company’s brand image as being “cool.” The application will be beneficial to small and emerging business owners attempting to establish their brand within a particular market.
Brands provide businesses with the opportunity to preserve a space for themselves in crowded markets, and to ally their company’s image with a particular set of values. Brands are valuable to entrepreneurs in part because developing a brand places greater emphasis on creativity than on capital. Establishing their brand image as “cool” may help small and emerging businesses to overcome disadvantages of newness and starting up. The more successful a new brand is in framing itself in comparison to more well known brands, the more attention and consideration it is likely to receive from consumers.
Elahe Javadi - Department of Business Administration, College of Business
Abstract: Design of Effective Collaborative Knowledge Creation Communities: The Role of Information Technology in Organizational Innovation
The primary objective of this study is to investigate how organizations can enhance their entrepreneurial capabilities with the use of information technology to support collaborative knowledge creation in workgroups. To facilitate innovation in groups, information systems require unique design features to motivate idea sharing among members, bridge social network distances, make heterogeneous information available, induce competition, and log members’ activities.
Two streams of research have been developed with little connection: creativity support tools in the information systems literature, and creativity in work groups in organizational behavior research. We plan to bridge the gap by investigating design factors of information systems that enable organizational innovation with construction of collaborative knowledge creation communities within organizations. The project is designed to build on a series of lab experiments and case studies, and will address the following questions: (1) To what extent can the design of effective collaborative knowledge creation practices within organizations influence members’ innovative performance? (2) What are the requirements of information systems to support effective collaborative knowledge creation in organizations?
Aleksandrs Kalnins - College of Medicine/College of Business
Abstract: The Diffusion of Entrepreneurial Initiatives: The Implications of Cost Effectiveness for Innovation Adoption in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology
The goal of this project is to further the understanding of how cost-effectiveness and outcomes research of diagnostic and interventional radiology impact entrepreneurial efforts of individuals in the field of radiology. Innovation in diagnostic and interventional radiology faces a significant constraint in technology diffusion based on reimbursement criteria which depend on cost-effectiveness and outcomes research. The goal of this study is to understand how cost-effectiveness and outcomes research is performed, as well as its ultimate implication for the diffusion of medical technology.
In the health care industry, the non-profit nature of most institutions presents unique challenges to technology adoption, especially given that new technologies tend to be most expensive at their time of introduction. This project will involve several components: learning about the methods by which advances in radiological technology are evaluated in terms of their marginal benefit and cost in the care of patients; and researching the relationship between cost-effectiveness and outcomes research and the diffusion of technology. Marrying economic issues related to pricing of new technologies with reduction of costs due to product and process improvements will not only have implications for furthering the research frontier in entrepreneurship, but will also result in practical benefits through the identification of strategies that enable faster diffusion of medical innovations.
Joseph Miller - Department of Geography, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Abstract: Community Entrepreneurialism and Conservation: Ecotourism in Northern Tanzania
This research will examine the role of community entrepreneurialism in environmental conservation in developing countries. Conservation with development has become a priority for development and conservation organizations alike. Many conservation programs attempt to reconcile development and environmental goals through the implementation of market-based incentives intended to attract communities as stakeholders in the protection and sustainable utilization of natural resources. A consistent pitfall of these programs is the lack of community empowerment in the decision-making process. The role of community entrepreneurialism provides an exciting but little-explored strategy within the research on community-based conservation.
The Maasai community of Emboreet, near the Tarangire National Park in northern Tanzania, has long partnered with Dorobo Safaris to provide ecotourism experiences. The elders of Emboreet actively participate through the negotiation of revenue sharing agreements, with revenue paid into Emboreet community coffers.
The central questions of this study are: If communities become actively engaged within market-based environmental conservation enterprises, will empowerment in decision-making increase, and local behaviors amenable to conservation and development goals ensue? Primary research will be carried out in two communities in Tanzania, with Emboreet representing the entrepreneurial approach, in order to conduct a comparative study on the effects of community entrepreneurialism on conservation behaviors.
Saijun Zhang - School of Social Work
Abstract: The Application of Entrepreneurial Financing Strategies in Social Service Nonprofit Organizations
Over the past two decades, the rapid increase of nonprofit organizations has intensified competition for funding sources, which consequently has promoted innovation in financing practices. This study will focus on entrepreneurial financing strategies within social service nonprofit organizations, including strategies of earned income generation and newly emerging fundraising approaches.
Among the research questions to be explored: (a) What types of entrepreneurial financing strategies have been adopted in social service nonprofit organizations? (b) What factors are likely to affect entrepreneurial financing? (c) What are the impacts, positive and negative, of entrepreneurial financing on social service organizations? (d) Has new technology affected social service nonprofits’ fundraising or earned income generation?
No existing research has systematically investigated entrepreneurial financing practices in social service nonprofit organizations. Income generation and fundraising are fundamental for the survival of nonprofit organizations and have become increasingly challenging; a focus on financing strategies therefore provides a critical perspective for understanding the development of nonprofit organizations. Because nonprofit financing strategies have to adapt to the changing environment in a timely manner to allow organizational survival and development, these strategies often reflect the most innovative aspects of nonprofit organizations. Entrepreneurial financing strategies may also bring nonprofit organizations more than money, generating considerable impacts on an organization’s mission, goals and operations.