Robert J. Strom

Seeing Opportunities in Entrepreneurship Research: Recent Data Improvements and Continuing Limitations

This editorial from the Entrepreneurship Research Journal discusses opportunities and data improvements in entrepreneurship research from a theoretical and empirical perspective.

An Evaluation of a State Consumer and Economic Education Program: Implications for Effective Program Delivery.

In an evaluation of a consumer and economic education program in Indiana, the authors observe, “Most teachers do not want in-service programs on content; they want in-service programs that present teaching materials. The challenge, then, for in-service instructors is to teach theory and content in the context of presenting materials.” This is the more troublesome because the study shows that teachers report, almost uniformly across grade levels, that they place less emphasis on macroeconomics than on other topics asked about in the survey questionnaire.

Principles of Economics Without the Prince of Denmark

In most introductory textbooks on principles of economics, discussion of the theory or practice of entrepreneurship is almost entirely absent. This omission is striking, given the important role in economic growth that economists assign to the entrepreneur. While there are plausible explanations for this omission, new research suggests the beginnings of a body of formal microtheory on innovative entrepreneurship. In this article, the authors first review treatment of the entrepreneur in the latest editions of three commonly used introductory economics textbooks, each of which includes a substantive discussion of entrepreneurship. Second, the authors present brief overviews of new microtheories of entrepreneurship (Parker 2009; Spulber 2009; and Baumol 2010), each of which has potential to serve as inspiration and to provide a framework for inclusion of entrepreneurship in introductory microtheory.

Entrepreneurship, Growth, and Public Policy: Introduction: Why Entrepreneurship Matters

Introduction When the three editors of this volume studied and prepared for their doctoral degrees in three different American Ph.D. programs during the late 1970s, not one of them heard a word about entrepreneurship and small business. All three of them had a specialization in the field of industrial organization within economics, the field most closely related to issues concerning firm size and organization. In all three Ph.D. programs, as was no doubt true across the entire landscape of American graduate schools, the focus was exclusively on large corporations and their impact on the economy. The large corporation was widely accepted as the source of jobs – good-paying ones – and security. No wonder that when the Chairman of General Motors, Charlie “Engine” Wilson, exclaimed, “Whats good for General Motors is good for America,” the country believed. There certainly was no room for the study and analysis of something as peripheral and tangential as small business and entrepreneurship in the nations top graduate programs in economics. Nor was there any room or interest within the entire economics profession. The 1990 edition of Palgraves Encyclopedia of Economics , consisting of over a dozen volumes and spanning thousands of pages covering virtually every topic imaginable on economics, barely touched on the issues of small business and entrepreneurship, a gap unfilled until 2008 The most influential economics book in the modern history of the profession, Principles of Economics , by Paul Samuelson, barely contains reference to small business and entrepreneurship.

Factors Affecting the Content of High School Economics

Several years ago there was great interest in the high school economics course. Studies were being made of the effectiveness of high school economics, of the relationship between the students high school economics background and his or her performance in the college principles course, and of the economic knowledge of precollege teachers. Stroms article may bring about a revival of interest in secondary school economic instruction. He has considered variables not previously taken into account, he has addressed the problem of defining the high school course, and—perhaps most important—he has suggested that the two-step factor analysis/regression procedure may be superior to the standard regression analysis in economic education research.

Innovative Entrepreneurship and Policy: Toward Initiation and Preservation of Growth

A wide range of United States political policies influence the level of innovative entrepreneurial activity in the country, that is the number of new businesses started each year that bring truly new products and ideas to the market. These policies begin with an educational system that fosters a creative, inventive, and educated population with the skills to start new businesses. Immigration policies, too, contribute to an entrepreneurial population by welcoming additional talent. The government also plays an important role in creating incentives for the utilization and commercialization of new products, from rights of property and contract that protect new businesses and patent laws that protect new ideas without creating roadblocks to further innovation, to tax policies that focus on consumption rather than income. Finally, the government can mitigate disincentives for starting new businesses, such as an employer-based health system that discourages potential entrepreneurs from leaving their employment, overly onerous regulations that create burdens for young and small businesses, and a litigious environment that creates more risk for new businesses than is necessary to protect consumers.

Handbook of research on entrepreneurs' engagement in philanthropy

Currently, very little academic research exists on the intersection of entrepreneurship and philanthropy. This unique Handbook fills that gap, exploring how and why entrepreneurs who drive success in the for-profit world become engaged in philanthropy. Top scholars in the fields of family business, entrepreneurship and philanthropy explore the many facets of this fascinating subject. These expert contributors explore an exciting new field of research on entrepreneur philanthropists who have generated wealth through the creation and development of their own business enterprises. The book offers a broad overview of entrepreneurship and philanthropy, along with a focus on specific groups of entrepreneur philanthropists (including women, Black Americans, multi-generational family companies and technology entrepreneurs) and a selection of case studies from around the world. This pioneering Handbook will appeal to scholars in the fields of business, entrepreneurship, nonprofit and philanthropic studies, and public policy and administration, as well as practitioners and policymakers with an interest in the practical aspects of entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

The Entrepreneur's Evolution to Philanthropist: Insights from the Experience of Ewing Marion Kauffman

Entrepreneurs who evolve into philanthropists make contributions on broad fronts, for example, to the economic effects in their communities and nations and to the social issues of various kinds that they embrace as challenges. This article is an early excursion into understanding the process by which entrepreneurs make the transition from entrepreneurs in the economic realm to philanthropists involved in various social issues. The article draws its insights from the evolution of Ewing Marion Kauffman, founder of the successful pharmaceutical company Marion Laboratories and also the Kauffman Foundation, which has had a unique entrepreneurship focus addressing the needs of entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators throughout the United States and beyond. The Kauffman case study demonstrates that the entrepreneurs leave taking of his or her company and the entry into the nonprofit or philanthropic world are processes. The research identifies a number of issues associated with these overlapping and integrated processes.

Entrepreneurship and Openness

A growing body of evidence has documented the critical role that entrepreneurs play in fostering economic growth. But entrepreneurs can only be expected to take risks in ‘open settings’, where individuals and firms are free to contract with one another. In this important book, leading economists explain and document the role of open markets, within and across national boundaries, in facilitating entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth. The main message of this book is especially timely given growing concerns in developed countries in particular about off-shoring and openness to trade.