The Merrick School of Business has a rich history of scholarly research. Over the last few years, several faculty members have published important scholarship in the areas of entrepreneurship, venture creation and social entrepreneurship. Here’s a sample of some of the research by select faculty and what they have published in the last two years, plus what they are working on today.
David Lingelbach, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, focuses much of his research on entrepreneurial finance and the emergence of new organizational forms in developing and emerging economies. He has three book chapters to his credit, as well as many articles. Here is a sample of some of his recent work:
Book Chapters
Recent Refereed Journal Article
In addition to Lingelbach, two of our Fulbright Scholars teamed together to write journal articles pertaining to entrepreneurship in Africa. Ven Sriram, professor of marketing and chair of the department of marketing and entrepreneurship, and Tigi Mersha, professor of management and chair of the management and international business department, joined forces to publish the following articles:
- Ven Sriram, Tigineh Mersha, (2010) "Stimulating Entrepreneurship in Africa," World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 6, Issue: 4, pp.257 – 272.
- Ven Sriram, Tigineh Mersha, Hailu, Melkrist (2010) “Nurturing Opportunity Entrepreneurs in Africa: Some Lessons from Ethiopia,”Journal for Global Business Advancement, Vol. 3, Number 2, 12 May 2010, pp. 155-175 (21).
In June 2012, Sriram, Mersha and Lingelbach received a "Best Paper" award at the International Council for Small Business World Conference in Wellington, New Zealand. The paper, submitted in the category "Leading from the Edge," is called “Financial Innovation in Desperately Poor Economies: Some Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa."
In this paper, the three explored the process by which resource scarcity leads to financial innovation in desperately poor economies. It utilized six cases from four sub-Saharan African countries with significant populations of destitute peoples: Ghana, Ethiopia, Botswana, and South Africa.
These three professors also have several other papers in development.
Currently, Sriram and Mersha are working on articles to be called:
- "Success Factors for Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and Ghana"
- "Social Enterprises in Ethiopia and South Africa"
Lingelbach is working on:
- "The Effectiveness of Consensus in New Venture Formation"
- "The Front Porch and the Internationalization of New Ventures"
Michael Laric, professor of marketing, has ongoing research into performance evaluation in incubators. Laric has a great interest in the area of new products development. He frequently works with inventors, incubators, federal research laboratories like NASA, NIH, DOD, USDA, and numerous small- and medium-sized companies to help bring new technologies to market.
Fulbright Scholar and Professor of Strategy and International Business, Christine Nielsen is also adding research in the area of social enterprise. Currently on sabbatical, Nielsen is working with a colleague at the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, on research into social entrepreneurship through networks.
She also recently received, from the municipality of Vallalodid in the Philippines, an award recognizing her exemplary contribution conceptualizing the pathways for women toward global entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment. This came from the research Nielsen conducted in the Philippines on social enterprise development and her development of an understanding of the bottom of the pyramid marketplace.
In future editions of The Merrick Exchange, look for news about other interesting and groundbreaking research by our faculty.