Academy of Management

I recently attended the AoM Conference in Anaheim (August 8-13). There are always many interesting sessions and papers – some things are fascinating because of their potential or actual contribution to what we already know, while others are fascinating because they are unique, subtle or simply a bit wacky.

In any case, I was completely blown away by the interest in neuroeconomics and entrepreneurship. This area of research may give researchers the ability to look into the mind of the entrepreneur. It is transdisciplinary (part of Zoltan Acs’ Creative Class Experience, see here) and can be used to study behavior and decision-making across multiple levels.

Angela Stanton, Mellani Day, Norris Krueger, Isabell Welpe, Zoltan Acs, David Audretsch and myself participated in several sessions on the subject. My favorite was an interactive session with about 30 attendees. Everybody was split into groups to identify promising areas for neuroscience research in their own specializations or fields. A lively discussion followed about research trajectories, ethics and control of human behavior and emotions, and even specific research questions. I think everybody was thrilled with the outcome of this session.

 

Is Campus Entrepreneurship the New Frontier?

Earlier this year, Zoltan and I were discussing a possible paper for me to write as part of a ‘directed reading.’ Over time Zoltan recommended that I look into Frederick Jackson Turner’s The Significance of the Frontier in American History. Turner argues it is the frontier experience, rather than European influence, that led to the development of America’s unique political, social and economic systems.

I am in the midst of finishing the draft of a paper in which I use Turner’s frontier attributes/frameworks to analyze the university/college campus environment from an entrepreneurial perspective. Found the money quote below while reading through the 1921 book edition of his thesis.

The pioneer was taught in the school of experience that the crops of one area would not do for a new frontier; that the scythe of the clearing must be replaced by the reaper of the prairies. He was forced to make old tools serve new uses; to shape former habits, institutions and ideas to changed conditions; and to find new means when the old proved inapplicable. He was building a new society as well as breaking new soil; he had the ideal of nonconformity and of change. He rebelled against the conventional.

Besides the ideals of conquest and of discovery, the pioneer had the ideal of personal development, free from social and governmental constraint.

More to come on this subject as I flesh out the paper over the next week or so.