Institute for an Entrepreneurial Society Update 2023-24

This has been an exciting year at the Institute for an Entrepreneurial Society (IES). IES’s mission is to produce high-quality evidence-based research on the political economy of entrepreneurship, educate future thought leaders in the field, and engage the academic community in explorations of the entrepreneurial society. 

In October 2023, thanks to a generous grant from the E.M. Kauffman Foundation, IES held a workshop on “Stakeholders, property rights, and entrepreneurship.” The workshop drew 35 junior scholars from around the world to Whitman. Ph.D. candidate Qifan Chen of the University of Nevada commented, “The experience was truly transformative, and I feel immensely privileged to have been a part of such an enriching event.” Similarly, Ileana Maldonado-Bautista, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Iowa State University said, “I left feeling inspired by the great projects presented.” Workshop participants had the opportunity to present their research and receive feedback from a distinguished group of senior figures in entrepreneurship. This included Peter Klein, the Caruth Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship at Baylor University; Per Bylund, the Pope Chair in Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University; and Mark Packard, research director of Florida Atlantic University’s Madden Center for Value Creation. Property rights have become important not only in research on entrepreneurship and corporate governance, but also in public policy. The workshop participants discussed timely and important topics such as the impact of regulation on AI and on the commercial drone industry; we are excited to contribute to these important conversations.   

In the meantime, thanks to a generous grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Roger Koppl, IES associate director, and Kira Pronin, IES postdoctoral researcher, are conducting a study of scientific advisory bodies such as the White House Covid-19 Advisory Board. The project aims to develop a set of organizational and governance principles for scientific advisory bodies, thereby fostering and preserving the well-being of citizens by improving the advice of these bodies. The research team is building a comparative institutional database covering the U.S., the U.K., Uganda, Poland, Sweden and Italy. Their research has been presented widely, including at Stanford University. Much of Koppl’s work on the project was done in the Spring 2024 semester while he was a faculty fellow with the Segal Center for Academic Pluralism in New York City. 

David Lucas, Edward Pettinella Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and IES research fellow, completed a study on the effects of policy uncertainty on entrepreneurial activity. Published in the Journal of Business Venturing, the article compares trends in entrepreneurship in American states in the aftermath of close gubernatorial elections. Lucas found that the policy uncertainty resulting from changes in partisan control of governors’ offices slows and delays entrepreneurial activity. His evidence suggested that some entrepreneurs choose to “wait and see” how the new regime’s policies will impact the competitive landscape while others abandon their efforts altogether. The work thus illustrates the broader theme that political stability enables entrepreneurship to flourish. 

Finally, and among many other events and activities, former IES Ph.D. student and current fellow Devin Stein ’23 Ph.D. received the 2024 award for the best dissertation from the Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) Division of the Academy of Management.  

IES fellows look forward to another exciting and productive year. 

Maria Minitti