Decades later, their startup has outlived Herbert Hoover and his friends. Along the way, it has served as an incubator for innumerable new ventures that resemble their parent in their uniquely Western blend of audacity, vision, and optimism. To build on its long history of entrepreneurship, this year the Business School established the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Codirected by Charles A. Holloway , the Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers Professor of Management, and H. Irving Grousbeck , the Class of 1980 Consulting Professor of Management, the center will provide a foundation of research for the current program in entrepreneurship, formalize interaction and outreach to the business community, establish an entrepreneurship resource center, and promote further course development in the subject. We're saying that this is a career track that lends itself to rational analysis.
Several analyses are already under way.
Baron and Hannan are examining how and why firms get locked into particular ways of organizing and managing their workforce. William Barnett also is studying growth companies, Andrea Shepard and Joel Podolny are working on networking and locational advantage, and Joanne Martin is studying women in entrepreneurship. Their research is expected to enrich present courses and quite possibly lead to others. Currently the GSB offers 12 courses in entrepreneurship as well as modules in several other courses. Additionally, Holloway and Grousbeck are developing a new base course in entrepreneurship which will be available to MBA students next fall, and GSB faculty David Brady and Daniel Kessler and visitor Greg Dees of Harvard Business School have developed a seminar on social entrepreneurship.