December 2004

Six Receive Kauffman Research Awards

Six research proposals submitted to the Lester Center by UC Berkeley faculty have been accepted for funding through the Causes and Consequences of Entrepreneurship grant the Center received from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. After review by the Lester Center’s Director of Research, Prof. John Freeman, the following proposals were approved.

David Teece, Mitsubishi Bank Professor of International Business and Finance at the Haas School has teamed with Emeritus Prof, James G, March of Stanford University to study “The Functions of the Entrepreneur and the Functions of the Executive.” By comparing and contrasting these two functions, they hope to advance the understanding of how leadership, entrepreneurship and strategic management taken together create value and the dynamic processes by which firms obtain profit and market share.

Christopher Ansell, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley, has been awarded a grant to study “Entrepreneurship and Social Network Leverage.” Prof. Ansell will utilize social network analysis to determine how entrepreneurs identify their most beneficial social contacts and use those contacts to leverage the resources needed for their enterprise.

Prof. James Lincoln, Spieker Professor in Leadership at Haas, will lead a team investigating “Venture Capital Portfolio Diversification.” They will be questioning to what degree venture capital firms recognize and exploit opportunities for portfolio diversification via serendipitous leads from existing network contacts and/or strategic management of syndicate investor networks.

Prof. Browyn Hall of the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley, will work on “Entrepreneurial Firms and Patents: Entry Deterrence or Entry Assistance.” Using data available for the biotechnology sector, Dr. Hall and her team will examine opposition proceedings for European Patent Office patents and challenges to the validity of US patents and resulting patent strategies to determine whether the resulting environment makes it difficult for small and new firms to compete in an increasingly international arena.

Prof. Philip Tetlock, Mitchell Professor of Leadership at the Haas School, plans to use his award to look at the various styles of venture capitalists in the decision process. The research will determine whether individual differences in cognitive styles among experts in other lines of work can be replicated in a population of venture capitalists.

Prof. David Mowery, Hasler Professor of New Enterprise Development at Haas, will lead a team investigating high-technology firm formation by women and minority entrepreneurs. In particular, they will consider whether the “spawning” phenomenon of high tech firms in Silicon Valley has played a role in the formation of high-tech start-ups by women and indigenous minority entrepreneurs.

The Lester Center is pleased to have these outstanding academics affiliated with it during their projects and wishes to thank the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for its generous support in the development of a premier research program on entrepreneurship.

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