Duke Faculty Are Changing How Entrepreneurship Is Taught & Practiced
Duke's world-class faculty are shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs, making breakthroughs in understanding entrepreneurship as a discipline, and leading the charge in evolving how entrepreneurs—and all of us—learn, work, and thrive. Duke I&E leverages this work and research to inform programming, equip practitioners, and elevate Duke as a world-leading institution for innovation and entrepreneurship. We are also working to partner in emerging spaces to actively support faculty and students seeking to move their research forward.
Research for Entrepreneurs
Duke I&E’s Research for Entrepreneurs series engages faculty and researchers from across Duke to share how their world-leading research can be applied to the lives, careers, and futures of our community members.
Lessons From Entrepreneurial Outliers
Entrepreneurs often seek to emulate incredibly impactful businesses—Apple, Tesla, or Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, to name a few. But these businesses are highly unusual in not only their successes, but also their strategies. Duke Sociology Professor Martin Ruef’s research compares extremely successful business outliers with more representative samples to draw lessons for average entrepreneurs.
Motivating Leaders With Legacy
How can we incentivize leaders to improve not just organizational outcomes in the present, but also long-term societal outcomes? Professor of Management and Organizations Kimberly Wade-Benzoni shares how considering one’s legacy and long-term goals can help someone make decisions that benefit future generations—as well as how legacy considerations can help foster an entrepreneurial mindset.
When & How to Pursue Stretch Goals
Which companies should devote time and resources to pursuing stretch (“moonshot”) goals, and which would be better served by more conservative approaches? Sim Sitkin, Professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and the Sanford School of Public Policy, shares research that can help entrepreneurs and innovators determine when to play it safe and when to take a chance—and how to find the courage to do either.
How Often Should You Check Your Progress?
Monitoring progress is vital for an organization’s success—but how frequently should we check on progress towards desired outcomes? Jordan Etkin, Associate Professor of Marketing at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, shares how her research can help you be intentional when it comes to tracking goals for your company and customers.
Broadening Access to World-Class Business Faculty
In Business Organization & Fundamentals—a required course for all non-MBA students in the Duke I&E Graduate/Professional Certificate—students gain skills to work effectively in organizations, as well as to become impactful members of innovation teams. In 2024, students learned from guest lectures by 11 esteemed Fuqua faculty: Manuel Adelino, Ashish Arora, Jonathon Cummings, Grainne Fitzsimmons, Jon Fjeld, Sharique Hasan, Rick Larrick, Debu Purohit, David Robinson, Jack Soll, and Kimberly Wade-Benzoni.
Building Tech Translation Skills
In a bootcamp co-hosted by Duke I&E, the Christensen Family Center for Innovation (CFCI), and Duke’s Office for Translation & Commercialization (OTC), 30 graduate and professional students from across Duke gathered to learn through experience how to begin the technology commercialization process for innovations developed in Duke labs; we plan to expand tech transfer educational offerings for graduate and professional students across Duke to build students’ skillsets so they are equipped to move technology from lab to market.
Building Duke Thought Leaders' Platforms
Duke I&E Senior Lecturing Fellow Aaron Dinin—instructor for the course Building Global Audiences, also known as “The TikTok course,” and advisor for the Duke Creator Lab—led a year-long cohort-based program for Duke faculty and staff, educating and coaching them on how to reach audiences and build professional brands on social media.
Advancing Advocates' Awareness of Duke Research
Two esteemed Duke faculty members shared their research with the Duke I&E Board of Advisors during their fall and spring meetings on campus, giving some of Duke I&E’s biggest advocates and advisors the chance to learn firsthand from Duke scholars. Christine Moorman, T. Austin Finch, Sr., Professor of Marketing, at The Fuqua School of Business, spoke about “Innovation imprinting: Why some firms beat the post-IPO innovation slump,” and Alison Adcock, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Interim Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences shared research on “Treasure Maps and Memories: Tuning Brain Chemistry for Curiosity.”