About us

Mission

The Entrepreneurship Research Institute (ERI) conducts and supports research that advances the theory and practice of entrepreneurship associated with employment growth, wealth creation, and improved living standards. Broadly defined, entrepreneurship is concerned with the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of business opportunities by individuals, new ventures, and/or established enterprises. Innovation is central to the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities and can take a variety of different forms, including: design of products/services/experiences, new technologies or processes, business models, social or institutional change.

ERI supports entrepreneurship research in a broad array of contexts including, but not limited to, domestic and international ventures, developed and emerging economies, family businesses, and not-for-profit enterprises. It focuses on research activities that enrich the scholarship of entrepreneurship and offer practical implications for entrepreneurs and policy makers.

Through the research activities of its members, ERI provides opportunities for training of highly qualified personnel through means such as undergraduate and graduate research assistantships, post-doctoral fellowships, visiting professorships, etc.

Areas of Interest  

Over the past five years, ERI has concentrated on developing a thematic focus on issues related to early stage entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial support organizations (i.e. business incubators and accelerators) and resource providers (e.g., angel investors and venture capital firms) that facilitate their development, and the entrepreneurial ecosystems (i.e. local, regional and national) in which they are embedded. This research aims to advance managerial practice and theoretical knowledge about the determinants of individual, organizational, and ecosystem performance.