EAGER: Multi-level Research into I-Corps' Impact on Entrepreneurial Development: An Exploratory Study

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER project engages in research that has the potential to be transformative in the field of innovation. The project involves a study that evaluates the individual and combined effects of Innovation Corps (I-Corps) activities to explore the multi-level impact on entrepreneurial development of participants. Research on entrepreneurship and in the related fields of economics, psychology, and sociology has found that new business creation is affected by a wide range of factors at multiple levels of analysis (individual, team, organization, community, industry, and economy). I-Corps, with its entrepreneurship training offered at different levels, formats and from different locations across the country, provides a unique setting to collect data conducive to interdisciplinary, multi-level investigation of new business creation with a focus on technology startup firms originating from innovations developed on university campuses. The research and the data that it collects on program activities and impact will help advance future research and the development of more comprehensive theories about technology commercialization and new business creation. The outcomes will inform the next generation of entrepreneurship training and startup strategies, and, it will also help advance fundamental knowledge about the key determinants of entrepreneurial success and the development of appropriate metrics for its evaluation. It will enable future innovation research and the development of more comprehensive theories about technology commercialization and new business creation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.