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November 2008

Amanda Elam Visits WFU

The Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts at Wake Forest University celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17-23, 2008, an initiative to promote innovation and the possibilities of entrepreneurship among young people across the globe. On Thursday, November 20, the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism, the Department of Sociology, and Women’s and Gender Studies, along with the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts presented Guest Speaker Amanda Elam, who gave the address, “Business Start-Ups by Women: Cross-National Patterns and Institutional Influences.”

Amanda Elam became interested in entrepreneurship and management during her first post-college employment experience working in human resources and marketing & sales for an international logistics software start-up in North Carolina. During her five-year tenure, the company grew from 38 to over 200 employees and its revenue increased from nothing to millions of dollars. During this experience, Elam saw first-hand the inner workings of a start-up and developed a research interest in the influences culture has on entrepreneurship.

Amanda Elam holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She brings rigorous training in social theory, research methods, and advanced statistical modeling to the study of culture, gender, and entrepreneurship. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College and was also a postdoctoral fellow at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Her dissertation, “Gender and Entrepreneurship Across 28 Countries: A Multilevel Analysis Using GEM Data,” has been nominated for the NFIB Best Dissertation Award. Her writing and research has been recognized by the United Nations and the World Bank and will be included in the United Nations Working Papers Series.

During her visit to campus, Dr. Elam presented her research, which involves the importance of culture in shaping entrepreneurial behavior across gender in various national contexts. She was also able to interact one-on-one with Wake Forest students, especially young women entrepreneurs, to impart her experience in the field.

Take an Entrepreneur to Lunch

Sponsored by the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence

"Take an Entrepreneur to Lunch" is a signature initiative of Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17-23, 2008. The initiative has four steps: Identify an entrepreneur who has qualities you greatly admire, schedule a 30-minute meeting, interview this entrepreneur, and submit an entrepreneurial hero nomination.

Once all nominations have been collected, 25 individuals will be named semi-finalists and selected to create a short story (written or video) about their nominee. Semi-finalists will receive a $150 stipend toward attending the national CEO conference in November or education expenses. Three winners will have their stories published and receive an expenses-paid invitation to attend the 2009 Acton Entrepreneurial Journey Summit in Austin, Texas, including meetings with angel funders and venture capitalists. Lastly, each finalist will be asked to decide, along with the entrepreneur they nominated, what charity will receive a $5,000 donation given in both the student’s and entrepreneur’s name.

All nominations must be received by midnight on November 23, 2008.

Click here for more details on Take an Entrepreneur to Lunch.

Dr. Gatewood Helps Organize National Symposium

Dr. Elizabeth Gatewood, Director of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts at Wake Forest University helped organize the DIANA International Research Symposium 2008 held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The symposium was co-hosted by the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (CER) at Dundalk Institute of Technology and NICENT (Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship Research) at the University of Ulster. The conference was a gathering of leading academics from around the globe that presented current thinking in the field of women and entrepreneurship and was sponsored by Wake Forest University Office of the Provost’s programs for Academic Initiatives and International Affairs, ISBE (Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship), Babson College, Invest Northern Ireland, and INTRE.

The Diana Project was established in 1999 to raise awareness and expectations of women business owners regarding the growth of their firms, and in 2003, the DIANA International Project was established in partnership with ESBRI (Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research Institute, Sweden) with the purpose of advancing knowledge about the status of women’s entrepreneurship around the world.

Dr. Gatewood, along with Professors Candy Brush and Patti Greene of Babson College, three of the founders of the DIANA Research Project, opened the symposium with an overview of the project, outlining the progress and key themes emerging within the field of women’s entrepreneurship research, to date.

One hundred and four delegates from over 21 countries attended the symposium, including a mixture of policy makers and practitioners as well as academics and researchers. Leading scholars on women’s entrepreneurship from the US, Canada, Europe and Asia presented work that represented unique perspectives on the environment for women-led businesses in different economic, social and political contexts. Throughout the symposium, forty-three papers by 94 authors were presented on topics ranging from growth strategies and family influences to international female entrepreneurship.

The best papers from the symposium will be showcased in Women’s Entrepreneurship and Growth Influences: An International Perspective to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing. The symposium will also be linked to a special issue of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal on the theme of female entrepreneurship and economic development.

The symposium was a clear success, as evidenced by the extremely positive feedback from delegates following the conference, and paves the road toward more excellent research and action at the DIANA International Research Symposium scheduled for 2010 in Canada.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

Join the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17-23, 2008.

Countries all around the world are joining together to carry the banner of Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative aimed at young people everywhere. During the week of November 17 - 23, 2008, partner organizations will conduct a range of activities - from simple speeches to comprehensive competitions - designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Here is the schedule of events for Global Entrepreneurship Week on the Wake Forest University Campus:

Monday, November 17, 2008

Student Entrepreneurship Fair, 4-6pm, Manchester Plaza (Magnolia Quad)

E-Society hosts this student fair that showcases all student entrepreneurs at Wake Forest University.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

"Creative ad-Ventures," Faculty Research Presentations, 4:30-6pm, DeTamble Auditorium, Tribble Hall

"Creative ad-Ventures" is a showcase of faculty/student venture projects that give students dynamic opportunities for direct experience in the growing world of arts, social and science entrepreneurship models.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Student-Faculty Luncheon (Invitation Only), 11am-1pm
Two Lunch Shifts at 11am and 12pm, Autumn Room and Little Magnolia Room

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Guest Speaker: Amanda Elam
“Business Start-Ups by Women: Cross National Patterns and Institutional Influences”
4pm, Benson Center, Room 409

Amanda Elam holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. She brings rigorous training in social theory, research methods, and advanced statistical modeling to the study of entrepreneurship.

WFMY Interviews Fifth Year Fellows

WFMY News 2 recently featured a story on Jessie Vogel and Bill Brown, Fifth Year Fellows and creators of Stuffed Robot, LLC.

To watch the video, click on the link below. Visit www.digtriad.com to read the full story online.