ONE WEEK INTENSIVE PH.D SEMINAR IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Course Syllabus
Dr. Scott Shane
scottashane@yahoo.com

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is as a Ph.D. seminar in entrepreneurship. The focus is on theory building and empirical testing of the factors shaping the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities and the creation of new organizations. The objective of the course is to give students an introduction to the major theoretical threads and controversies in the field. It will also examine the methodologies that are important to research in this area. Students will learn about various perspectives, examine different methodologies, explore some original empirical research, make connections between theory and empirical research, and practice critiquing and identifying insight in research. These skills are important preconditions to developing one's own original ideas.

PREPARATION FOR THE SEMINAR
Because this course will take place as a one-week intensive effort, students will not be asked to write papers. Rather, the focus will be on the discussion of existing research. The course will be conducted as a seminar. Students are expected to come prepared to discuss and critique the readings.

Academia socializes students well in the art of criticism, but does not do a good job of socializing students in the art of discovering insight in others' work. For this reason, we will emphasize the identification of insight in the works that have been selected.

Below are questions that are designed to help you prepare for the seminar sessions:

    1. What kind of phenomena and/or problems are the authors concerned with describing and/or explaining?

    2. By what methods do they think such knowledge can be acquired? By what methods do they think such knowledge can be applied?

    3. What are their key concepts? How are these concepts connected?

    4. What kind of data do they collect?

    5. What are their major contributions?

    1. More descriptive information about a particular phenomenon?


    2. A new conceptual scheme (useful way of thinking) for (i) investigation and research; (ii) improved practice; or (iii) both?


    3. A new method or a refinement of an old one?


    4. New findings (empirical generalizations, correlations, statements that a significant relationship exists between X and Y, causal relations)?


    5. A new theoretical explanation for the findings?


    6. What assumptions are they making with respect to values, human nature, method?

    7. What are some of the major weaknesses of their work? How might these weaknesses be addressed?

Day 1 (I): OVERVIEW OF THE FIELD

    Venkataraman, S. 1997. The distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research: An editor's perspective. In J. Katz and R. Brockhaus (Eds.) Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence, and Growth. Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Khilstrom, R., & Laffont, J. 1979. A general equilibrium entrepreneurial theory of firm formation based on risk aversion. Journal of Political Economy, 87(4): 719-748.

    Casson, M. 1982. The Entrepreneur. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble Books, pp. 23-38; 364-383.

    Hamilton, B. 2000. Does entrepreneurship pay? An empirical analysis of the returns of self-employment. Journal of Political Economy, 108(3): 604-631.

Day 1 (II): THE EXISTENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES

    Sarasvathy, S. 2001. Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review, 26(2): 243-263.

    Kirzner, I. 1997. Entrepreneurial discovery and the competitive market process: An Austrian approach. Journal of Economic Literature, 35:60-85.

    Schumpeter, J. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press; pp. 65-74; 128-156.

    Klevorick, A., Levin, R., Nelson, R., and Winter, S. 1995. On the sources and significance of interindustry differences in technological opportunities. Research Policy, 24: 185-205.

Day 2 (I): ENTREPRENEURIAL DISCOVERY AND DECISION MAKING

    Shane, S. 2000. Prior knowledge, and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities, Organization Science, 11(4): 448-469, 2000.

    Sarasvathy, D. Simon, H., & Lave, L. 1998. Perceiving and managing business risks: Differences between entrepreneurs and bankers. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 33: 207-225.

    Demmert, H., and Klein, D. 2003. Experiment on entrepreneurial discovery: an attempt to demonstrate the conjecture of Hayek and Kirzner. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 50: 295-310.

    Busenitz, L., & Barney, J. 1997. Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making. Journal of Business Venturing, 12(1), 9-30.

Day 2 (II): STRUCTURAL EXPLANATIONS FOR ENTERPRISING BEHAVIOR

Read:

    Amit, R., Mueller, E. & Cockburn, I. 1995. Opportunity Costs and Entrepreneurial Activity. Journal of Business Venturing, 10(2), 95-106.

    Evans, D., & Leighton, L. 1989. Some empirical aspects of entrepreneurship. American Economic Review, 79(3): 519-535.

    Carroll, G., & Mosakowski, E. 1987. The career dynamics of self-employment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32: 570-589.

    Lindh, T., and Ohlsson, H. 1996. Self-employment and windfall gains: Evidence from the Swedish lottery. Economic Journal, 106(439): 1515-1526.

Day 3 (I): PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR ENTERPRISING BEHAVIOR

    Fairlie, R. 2002. Drug dealing and legitimate self-employment, Journal of Labor Economics, 20(3): 538-566.

    Nicolaou, N., Shane, S., Cherkas, L., Hunkin, J., and Spector, T. Is the tendency to engage in self employment genetic? Working Paper, Imperial College.

    Stewart, W., and Roth, P. 2001. Risk propensity differences between entrepreneurs and managers: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86:145-153.

    White, R., Thornhill, S., Hampson, E. Forthcoming. Entrepreneurship and evolutionary biology: The relationship between testosterone and new venture creation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Day 3 (II): THE LOCUS OF EXPLOITATION

    Schumpeter, J. 1942. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, pp. 81-86.

    Shane, S. 2002. Selling university technology: Patterns from MIT Management Science, 48(1), 122-137.

    Gans, J., Hsu, D., and Stern, S. 2002. When does start-up innovation spur the gale of creative destruction? Rand Journal of Economics, 33(4): 571-586.

    Christiansen, C., and Bower, J. Customer power, strategic investment, and the failure of leading firms. Strategic Management Journal, 17: 197-218.

Day 4 (I) ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON FIRM FORMATION

    Aldrich, H. 1990. Using an ecological perspective to study organizational founding rates. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 14(3): 7-24.

    Baumol, W. (1990). Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5): 893-921.

    Caves, R. 1998. Industrial organization and new findings on the turnover and mobility of firms. Journal of Economic Literature, 36: 1947-1982.

    Aldrich, H., and Fiol, M. 1994, Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation. Academy of Management Review 19(4): 645-670.

Day 4 (II) FIRM FORMATION AND ORGANIZING PROCESSES

    Katz, J., and Gartner, W. 1988. Properties of emerging organizations. Academy of Management Review, 13(3): 429-441.

    Reynolds, P. 2007. New Firm Creation in the U.S. A PSED I Overview. Hanover, NH, Now Publishers, Sections A and D.

    Ruef, M., Aldrich, H., and Carter, N. 2003. The structure of founding teams: Homophily, strong ties and isolation among US entrepreneurs. American Sociological Review, 68(2): 195-222.

    Delmar, F., and Shane, S. 2003. Does business planning facilitate the development of new ventures? Strategic Management Journal, 24: 1165-1185.

Day 5 (I): RESOURCE ASSEMBLY

    Hsu, D. 2004. What do entrepreneurs pay for venture capital affiliation? Journal of Finance, 59(4): 1805-1844.

    Gompers, P. 1995. Optimal investment, monitoring, and the staging of venture capital. Journal of Finance, 50(5): 1461-1489.

    Shane, S., and Cable, D. 2002. Network ties, reputation, and the financing of new ventures. Management Science, 48 (3): 364-381.

    Landier, A., and Thesmar, D. 2003. Financial contracting with optimistic entrepreneurs: theory and evidence. Working Paper, University of Chicago.

    Reynolds, P. 2007. Entrepreneurship in the United States. Boston: Kluwer, 125-150.

Day 5 (II): METHODOLOGY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESEARCH

    Lafontaine, F., and Shaw, K. 1999. The dynamics of franchise contracting: Evidence from panel data. Journal of Political Economy. 107(5): 1041-1080.

    Carroll, G., and Hannan, M. 2000. The Demography of Corporations and Industries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 83-99.

    Malerba, F., Nelson, R., Orsenigo, L., Winter, S. 1999. ’History-friendly’ models of industry evolution: The computer industry. Industrial and Corporate Change, 8: 3-40.

    Hamilton, B., and Nickerson, J. 2003. Correcting for endogeneity in strategic management research. Strategic Organization, 1(1): 51-78.

    Amit, R., Glosten, L., and Muller, E. 1990. Entrepreneurial ability, venture investments, and risk sharing. Management Science, 36(10): 1232-1245.

COURSE READINGS

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