Prof. John Freeman, the Lester Center’s Director
of Research and Helzel Professor of Entrepreneurship
and Innovation is pleased to announce that the Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City has agreed
to continue funding of the entrepreneurship program’s
research into the Causes and Consequences of Entrepreneurship
in the United States.
In the first, two-year, phase of the project, the center
granted research awards to 17 professors from the Haas
School, Boalt Hall School of Law, the departments of
Economics, Sociology and Political Science and the Schools
of Public Health and of Information Management and Systems.
These grants have supported inquiry into opportunities
for women, minority and immigrant entrepreneurs. They
have also examined how the effects of patent law, venture
capital investment strategies, social networks and organizational
growth have affected entrepreneurial activity. Synopses
of the projects undertaken can be found at Kauffman
Research Awards.
Following the successful model of the first two years,
the Lester Center and Prof. Freeman will continue to
seek out researchers from across campus whose fields
of interest can be slightly refocused to include studies
on entrepreneurship. The new grant will allow the center
to award over 15 grants during the next two years.
The Center thanks the Kauffmann Foundation for this
opportunity to expand basic research on entrepreneurship
and to help develop theories that can improve the economic
climate for start-up companies.
