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Donald Siegel
Arizona State U., United States
Maribel Guerrero
Global Center for Technology Transfer, Arizona State U., United States
Maryann Feldman
Arizona State U., United States
Demetria Gallagher
VentureWell
In 2011, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) established the Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, which has become the world’s largest entrepreneurial training program for would-be academic entrepreneurs. I-Corps prepares university and federal lab scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge research into commercial success. As I-Corps has expanded, it has made its presence felt in academic entrepreneurship. There are now ten NSF I-Corps Regional “Hubs,” involving over 80 research universities. According to the NSF I-Corps Biennial Report (2021), I-Corps has educated more than 6,500 grant participants from the NSF, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Department of Energy (DOE), and trained more than 2,300 entrepreneurial teams. These teams are typically small (i.e., three individuals) and include individuals with both scientific and business-related expertise. I-Corps teams have raised more than $1.2 Billion in subsequent funding for start-up activity. Evaluating the effectiveness of the I-Corps program is critical to its future success since NSF and other federal agencies are looking to expand the program. Duval-couetil, Epstein, and Huang-saad (2022) note that I-Corps has been evaluated in a number of ways, and they suggest a need for alternative evaluation and assessment data that could be used to better understand the effects of regional programs, as well as how those programs might be improved. However, the overarching theme of this symposium is linking entrepreneurship and innovation literature to assess the effectiveness of an entrepreneurship training program (the NSF I-Corps program) on generating potential entrepreneurs (academic entrepreneurs) and show how this program is producing sustainable impacts on society (innovations). Four presentations are included in the symposium, representing different approaches to understanding the critical role of Hubs of I-Corps trainees across the U.S. by reinforcing the fundamental components of the entrepreneurial and innovation process. The presentations in this session illustrate a variety of “micro” and “macro” perspectives on academic entrepreneurship (Waldman, Vaulont, Balven, Siegel, & Rupp, 2022; Siegel & Wright, 2015), including theories of organizational justice; identity; role conflict; ambivalence; championing/leadership; feedback; knowledge spillovers; diversity, equity, and inclusion; business model experimentation; pivoting; strategy formulation and implementation; networks; and team dynamics. Likewise, novel methods to provide evidence and implications. Our session is also inspired by the AOM 2024 theme “Innovating for the future: policy, purpose and organizations” since it deals with a federal program that is targeted to train the next generation of successful academic entrepreneurs. Presentations In the first paper, Nordstom, Siegel, and Opoku highlight the need for better theories and evaluation methodologies for the NSF I-Corps program. In this regard, the authors assert that to better evaluate the effectiveness of I-Corps, it is important to examine the magnitude of knowledge spillovers and improve our understanding of the mechanisms of spillover generation and their impact on entrepreneurial outcomes. To accomplish this, the authors note that their project consists of two phases. In the first phase, they conduct a quantitative analysis of the knowledge spillover effects of I-Corps training on lab members and peers of PIs. In the second phase, they conduct a qualitative analysis of the effects of I-Corps training on the relationships that scientists have with university technology transfer offices, incubators, research parks, funding agencies, donors, investors, and industry, as well as how it affects educational programs (e.g., how they teach and mentor graduate students). This project proposes new theories and methods to understand impacts and provides evidence of outcomes for evaluating the future of the NSF I-Corp program and academic entrepreneurship. This conversation will be extended by exploring the individual level in the next presentation. Tran, Newman, Wiklund, and Bellavitis analyze the impact of diversity on startup success within the NSF I-Corps program. They use social identity theory as their theoretical framework to study how biases are formed form, how they evolve, and how they influence the manner in which startups are evaluated, supported, and funded. Their empirical analysis is based on an online survey of NSF I-Corps participants. Their dependent variable is startup success, with the following key independent variables: neurodiversity, specifically attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism intensities. Of course, they also include key demographic variables, such as race and gender. Although they are still collecting data, they will present their preliminary findings in Chicago. In the following presentation, Li adds to the conversation regarding the importance of context in the experimentation process, by focusing on the unique science and engineering contexts of the I-Corps program. In particular, since experimentation is an approach that is rooted in the scientific method and familiar to scientific researchers, the author proposes to study how I-Corps teams engage in business model experimentation. To do this, the author plans to collect a large and longitudinal sample from the NSF I-Corps program. First, the I-Corps program is an ideal context for analyzing business model experimentation. Second, through the I-Corps program we will collect not only longitudinal data (pre- and post-entry into I-Corps) but also data for comparison groups (i.e., those that apply but are not selected into I-Corps). This project proposes new theories and methods to understand the business model experimentation and provides evidence of processes, contexts, and outcomes for evaluating the future of the NSF I-Corp program and academic entrepreneurship. Finally, Neupert, Nicholas, and Whitney have two objectives in their study. The first goal is to connect the NSF I-Corps program to the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem of the university. A second goal is to assess the effectiveness of the program, using a national database of I-Corps programs at multiple universities. Their evaluation of the I=-Corps program is based on computing change scores for variables related to the Business Model Canvas (BMC) in terms of differences between program participants' understanding of BMC concepts before they participate in the program and their understanding of BMC concepts after they participate in the program. BMC is a nine-cell framework for understanding the important aspects of a business operation, including key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure, value proposition, channels, customer relations, customer segments, and revenue streams.
Author: Onnolee Anne Nordstrom – North Dakota State U.
Author: Donald Siegel – Arizona State U.
Author: Salome Opoku – Arizona State U.
Author: Mi Hoang Tran – Syracuse U. Whitman School of Management
Author: Arielle M. Newman – Syracuse U. Whitman School of Management
Author: Johan Wiklund – Syracuse U.
Author: Cristiano Bellavitis – Syracuse U. Whitman School of Management
Author: Yong Li – U. of Nevada, Las Vegas
Author: Kent Neupert – Boise State U.
Author: Karen Nicholas – Boise State U.
Author: Michael Whitney – Boise State U.