University of Cincinnati
Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research
Charles H. Matthews, Ph.D., Executive Director
Founded in 1997, the E-Center’s vision and mission is to provide a state-of-the-art entrepreneurship curriculum and research base not only for potential student entrepreneurs and scholars, but also for people in the many organizations that interact with small, entrepreneurial and family owned businesses on a daily basis. The E-Center seeks collaborative efforts between students and faculty from across the University to remove barriers and create gateways to entrepreneurism. Under the leadership of the Center’s Founder/Director, Dr. Charles H. Matthews, the University of Cincinnati was ranked as one of the top 50 programs for Entrepreneurship in the U.S. in 2001 (Success Magazine); one of the top 100 programs in the U.S. (Entrepreneur Magazine) in 2003, 2004, and 2005; and a top 25 (#21) undergraduate entrepreneurship program (The Princeton Review/Entrepreneur Magazine) in 2008.
Organization
Charles H. Matthews, (entrepreneurship, e-commerce, international), Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Executive Director. Faculty include: Sidney L. Barton (family business); Tom Dalziel (entrep. and corporate entrep.), Rajan Kamath (competitive advantage), Ilse Hawkins and Peter Burell, (legal aspects of entrepreneurship), Ralph Brueggemann (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), Ron Meyers (New Venture Finance), and Trevor Stansbury (Corporate Entrepreneurship). The Entrepreneurship Center works in concert with a 14-member advisory board, including venture capitalists, technology executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, accountants, and attorneys.
Courses Offered to Undergraduate Students (Entrepreneurship Major)
Students must complete seven (7) courses in the Entrepreneurship/Family Business major. 408 New Venture Finance; 435 Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship; 570 Entrepreneurship; 598 Capstone in Family Business/ Entrepreneurship; and three electives, choosing from 401 Intro to Innovation; 410 Mgmt. of Closely Held Firms; 460 Fin. Mgmt. in Privately Held Firms; 501 Corporate Entrepreneurship; 576 Not-for-Profit Accounting; and 500 Intro to Direct Marketing.
Courses Offered to Graduate Students
At the MBA level, students have the opportunity to take a number of courses in the one-year full-time or three-year part-time programs. Graduate courses listed in the catalog, include: 705 Entrepreneurship: New Venture Creation; 715 Entrepreneurship and E-Commerce; 725 Global Entrepreneurship; and 735 Family Business. In addition, students have the opportunity to conduct faculty-guided, student-based field case studies in 712 Strategic Management, 782 Special Topics, and 795 Marketing. In addition, several doctoral students have completed dissertations focused on small and medium sized enterprises.
The UC MBA New Venture Business Plan Competition provides an internal forum while the UC Spirit of Enterprise Graduate Business Plan Competition (intercollegiate) provides an external forum for students to “road test” their venture concepts. The Bearcat Bridge Fund provides seed capital for new student ventures and the Bearcat Launch Pad is a strategic alliance with local companies and organizations to provide low-cost office space for student and faculty ventures.
Student Startups and Successes
Deck Techs, David Behrman (MBA 1993). Full service deck treatment and product line. Instant Refund Tax Service, Fesum Ogbazion (BBA 1996). Started full service tax preparation service while still a student in 1993, grew to 26 stores in the midwest and sold business to Jackson-Hewitt for $3.0 million three years later. Robert Ratterman and Christopher Downie, both BBA 1995, founders of Up4Sale.com (sold to Ebay in 2001). UC teams successfully compete in numerous business plan competitions including U. of Oregon New Venture Championship, U. of Manitoba's Stuart Clark Venture Challenge, and others. Also in 2002 and 2006, UC teams made the finals of the MBA Jungle Business Plan Challenge in New York and San Francisco. A collaborative effort between CoB and Engineering students was launched in 2000, and the Progressive Cooling Solutions team competed in the 2006 MOOT Corp Competition taking Best Technology Award in its division. Over a dozen additional new student ventures have started in the past five years due in part to funding from the Bearcat Bridge Fund including: Darrin (MBA ’04) and Peggy Murriner, BabysitEase.com; Jennifer Pham (MBA ’01) and Doug Hott (MBA ’04), apartmentfrog.com; Ahmed Shuja (Ph.D. Engineering ’06), Progressive Cooling Solutions; Donn Strohofer (MBA ,04) Sencina LLC; and Diabetitec LLC, Philip Gettinger and Amro Kamel, (both BME, ’09), vMouse, Niraj Kapadia (DAAP ’11).
Research
Center research focuses on enhancing our understanding of entrepreneurial career choice, inclinations to launch new ventures, and practical suggestions to enhance firm survivability once launched. In addition, past research focuses on increasing international opportunities in emerging markets and U.C. is one of the founding members of the Entrepreneurship Research Consortium (ERC) Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) dedicated to a longitudinal examination of new venture creation from nascency. Recent research includes:
Hechavarria, D.M., Renko, M., and Matthews, C.H., (2011). “The Nascent Entrepreneurship Hub: Goals, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Start-up Outcomes.” Small Business Economics.
Matthews, C., Schenkel, M., Ford, M., and Human, S. (2009). “Comparing Nascent Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs and Expectations of Firm Growth.” Journal of Small Business Strategy, 20:1, 53-80.
Schenkel, Mark T., Matthews, Charles H., & Ford, Matthew W. (2009). “Making rational use of ‘irrationality’? Exploring the role of need for cognitive closure in nascent entrepreneurial activity.” Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.
Smith, B.R., Matthews, C. H., & Schenkel, M. T. (2009). “Differences in Entrepreneurial Opportunities: The Role of Tacitness and Codification in Opportunity Identification.” Journal of Small Business Management, 47:1, 38-57.
Heriot, K., Cook, R., Matthews, C., & Simpson, L., 2007. “Creating Active and High-Impact Learning.” Industry & Higher Education, December, 427-434.
Dalziel, T., Arthurs, J., & White, R., 2006. “The Influence of TMT Human and Social Capital on Corporate Entrepreneurship: Why TMT Social Capital is Not Always Beneficial.” Research Colloquium 2006: Strategic Entrepreneurship: The Role of Networking. Vrije, Amsterdam.
Stephens, P., Evans, J., & Matthews, C., 2005. “The Importance and Implementation of Baldridge Practices for Small Business.” Quality Management Journal, 12:3, pp. 21-38.
Outreach Activities
The Center’s activities include: (1) an award winning faculty-guided, student-based field case study program which provides consulting services for local businesses (Small Business Institute® Program), (2) the Young Entrepreneurs Seminar (YES), a day-long event for high school seniors to meet and exchange ideas with local entrepreneurs, (3) the UC MBA New Venture Competition (internal) and the UC Spirit of Enterprise MBA Business Plan Competition (invitational), (4) CEO Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, and (5) the Cecil Boatright Business Plan Case Competition for best Field Case of the Year. The University is also affiliated with two local incubators, The Hamilton County Business Development Center and BioStart Technology Incubator. Dr. Matthews is the co-founder of Cincinnati Creates Companies, an NSF funded technology entrepreneurship program. Over 40 nascent technology ventures and 100 entrepreneurs have completed the program from 2004-2007.
Future Directions
The University of Cincinnati Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research is actively engaged in continuing a collaborative effort with other colleges of the University, such as Engineering, Medicine, Law, and Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning in order to advance the role of technology and entrepreneurship across the campus.
More Information
Dr. Charles H. Matthews, Executive Director, UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research, Carl H. Lindner Hall, College of Business, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0165. Phone: 513-556-7133; fax: 513-556-5499; email: ecenter@uc.edu; web site: www.ecenter.uc.edu.
