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Week of April 26 - April 30, 2004Welcome to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship and e-News, an electronic newsletter sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City for followers of the entrepreneurial economy. Through e-News, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues. To subscribe, visit www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/join/ Did you know that links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde? Bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news. |
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Letter from Topeka, Volume 2 A few weeks ago, we wrote about several entrepreneurship-related bills under consideration by the Kansas State Legislature. We’re back with an update as Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed these important measures into law last Monday. Overall, Kansas is committing more than $500 million (over 10 years) to support a host of initiatives designed to stimulate entrepreneurship and technology development. The Kansas Economic Growth Act contains six key components:
For background on these initiatives, please visit the websites of Kansas House Republicans at http://www.kshousegop.org/economic_growth or the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation at http://www.ktec.com/news/legislator/legislativewatch.htm |
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Building Entrepreneurial Cultures in Europe Effective entrepreneurial development is about more than crafting effective public policies; it is about fostering cultural change so that aspiring entrepreneurs can identify opportunities and put together the pieces needed for a successful new venture. A new report from the European Commission, Helping to Create an Entrepreneurial Culture, looks at successful approaches for building an entrepreneurial culture. If there’s a bottom line to this lengthy report, it’s that “it all starts with the children.” The most effective strategies for building entrepreneurial cultures start early in primary and secondary education. If youth are exposed to entrepreneurial role models and are taught basic skills like creativity, risk-taking, and responsibility, they will be more likely to start new ventures or at least behave in a more entrepreneurial manner. The report offers 21 examples of good practices from across Europe, with detailed summaries of each example. |
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Top Colleges and Universities for Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship education shouldn’t stop at the primary and secondary level; it can also have a powerful impact at colleges and universities. Fortunately, the US boasts some of the world’s best college-level programs for entrepreneurship. For the 2nd year in a row, Entrepreneur Magazine takes a look at how these schools stack up. The general trend is that entrepreneurship training is moving out of business schools and into other academic disciplines and departments. These offerings are also increasingly popular, as enrollment in entrepreneurship programs is growing rapidly. The top five programs in this year’s rankings are: Babson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of California-Berkeley, and University of Maryland-College Park. |
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Options Battle Heating Up—Again! The decades-long fight over accounting treatment for stock options is heating up again. In March, the Financial Standards Accounting Board (FASB) issued its final ruling that all companies must expense stock options in their financial reporting. This decision has incensed many in the high technology and entrepreneurial communities. These debates are especially important for new start-ups. Because they lack cash reserves, many start-ups regularly use options as a low-cost way to reward and incentivize employees. With this tool less attractive, start-ups may face greater challenges in competing for talent with larger more established firms. Last week, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held hearings to examine the pros and cons of FASB’s decision. Several Congressional leaders are pushing plans to block FASB’s ruling, so stay tuned for more debate. |
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New Study on Patent System As our economy becomes more knowledge-intensive, the treatment of intellectual property becomes a more central component of critical business decisions. To put it another way, effective intellectual property policies are essential if high-growth entrepreneurial businesses are to thrive. Unfortunately, many of America’s current intellectual property rules and regulations were crafted for a 19th and 20th century economy, and are thus in desperate need of updating. A blueprint for such an update can be found in A Patent System for the 21st Century, a landmark report just released by the National Academies of Science. The report is the result of much work from a blue-ribbon commission chaired by Yale’s Richard Levin and Mark Myers of the Wharton School. Among its detailed recommendations are continued support for an open and flexible system, increased funding for the US Patent and Trademark Office, and creation of a new open procedure that would allow third parties to challenge patents before administrative law judges. |
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the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship: Mark Marich, Editor - mark@pfidc.org |
