Kauffman Foundation Grants Nearly $600,000 to MU to Fund Entrepreneurial Research

Understanding the conditions that foster success in entrepreneurial ventures will be the focus of new research at the University of Missouri-Columbia, thanks to a $593,792 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City.  The Foundation awarded the three-year grant in support of MU's "Advancing Academic Research on Entrepreneurship" project proposed by the Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Research Group (IERG). This grant and the formation of the IERG complement UM President Elson Floyd's addition of economic development as a fourth component of the University's mission.

"The Kauffman Foundation views entrepreneurship as an interdisciplinary area of research, teaching and outreach for universities," said Carl J. Schramm, Kauffman Foundation president and CEO. "The 'Advancing Academic Research on Entrepreneurship' project at MU captures the interdisciplinary nature of the field. This research program offers great potential to advance entrepreneurial research and practice in Missouri and throughout the nation."

Nineteen faculty members from five academic divisions formed the IERG last summer to identify important questions about entrepreneurship that could best be answered through a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to research. These divisions include the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, the College of Arts and Science, the College of Business, the College of Education and the College of Engineering.

"I believe this project will produce important findings that will be published in top academic journals and, perhaps equally important, will stimulate significant ongoing entrepreneurship research at MU," said Bruce Walker, project leader, and professor of marketing and dean of the College of Business.

The project's three distinct research areas include:

• the dynamics of life sciences startup companies and their tendency toward regional clustering;
  
• the creation of new organizations and clusters and those social, institutional and cultural factors that nurture their growth in high- and low-income communities; and
  
• the conditions that yield successful entrepreneurship education programs involving students and faculty from many disciplines.

Leading the research teams are:

• Nick Kalaitzandonakes, professor of agricultural economics;
  
• Cerry Klein, professor and chair of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering; Peter Klein and Michael Cook, assistant professor and professor respectively of agricultural economics; and 
  
• Joe Johnston, professor of education and counseling psychology.

"The work of the IERG has been extremely collegial and energizing," Walker said. "It's remarkable and very exciting to have faculty members from fields as disparate as industrial engineering, education, management, and agricultural economics consider how theories and methods from their respective disciplines can be applied to various research questions related to entrepreneurship."