Go Deep Entrepreneurship Teaching and Learning Scholars and Fellows Program More at: http://theinnographer.com/for-‐education/go-‐deep Opening snapshot: June 2015 Your full name: – John David Francis Your degrees and/or designations: Ph. D. University of Memphis MBA Samford University Your job title and affiliation: Associate Professor of Management Director Aztec Consulting Center Link(s) at which you want people to find you: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-francis/2a/767/368 Anything else at all you want people to know about you? – as in: “The things you’ve asked me to share above don’t define me!” I moved to San Diego from NYC to take advantage of the weather and outdoor lifestyle. I’m an avid college football fan and will watch any soccer that comes on TV. I bought an RV recently and my family went to 5 states earlier this summer including Yellowstone, Zion, and Grand Tetons National Parks. Title of your project? – as in: How should/can we refer to your work succinctly? An Examination of Organizational Sponsorship and Firm Performance: The Importance of Absorptive Capacity 100-‐150 word summary of your change project? – as in: What is the curricular, co-‐curricular, or community-‐based project will you be undertaking? Organization scholars increasingly highlight the need to understand the role and effects of public support policies aimed at fostering firm startup and growth (Amezcua, Grimes, Bradley, and Wiklund 2013). Most common among these types of policies is organizational sponsorship manifested through subsidies, business improvement grants, tax relief and business incubation schemes. This project will study organizational sponsorship via university consulting programs where the proliferation of these programs and the factors that improve their impact remains under investigated. The project will rely on the organizational learning literature. For example, Giuliani (2005) argues that the growth of small businesses receiving external support relies on their absorptive capacity, defined as the ability of a firm “to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990)”. Overall, the study will
© 2015 and all rights reserved, John Francis
seek to understand the impacts of current sponsorship efforts, as well as identifying absorptive capacity attributes that enable this process more effectively Brief background about your change project? – as in: In 100-‐200 words, what have you already done? Or what is it that’s brought you to this point in your work? And if it’s new, then what’s motivating you to start it? While being involved in advising a class in our MBA consulting program, I recently increased my involvement and became Director of the undergraduate program. The program has been in place for years, but we have taken little effort in understanding what our impact has been on the community. In addition, while we have worked hard to get the students ready for the experience, little attention has been paid to the client and their role in receiving solutions and implementing them. Not only have I seen this with our program, but we have a partnership with the regional SBDC and they are interested in understanding the impact of their programs as well. Your central question as it stands today? – as in: What do you want to know/learn as a result of doing the accompanying inquiry work? This program aims to help you have an impact. What question, if answered, would help you determine whether it has? Overall, I want to understand the impact of our program and programs like ours, as well as pushing theory regarding organizational learning in a consulting context. Some other outcomes will be a greater network of partnerships between programs similar to SDSU’s as well as a tighter link between governmental sponsorship organizations. In terms of the GoDeepScholar program, this is a new research area for me. Helping me fully develop my research agenda, as well as understand various elements of sponsorship that I have not thought about would be greatly beneficial. An answer to the question "So what?" -‐ as in: Why does this work matter? Why does it inspire you? And why should people care, either now or later if things go well? The importance of the small business economy to San Diego and other regions has raised the awareness of governments and other entities for creating effective business climates. This is challenging for the San Diego business community as resources supporting small businesses can be scarce and in some regions worsening (See the Kauffman foundation’s California state rankings). The SDSU Business Consulting Center has received a Small Business Enhancement program grant for the past three years, which provides consulting support for regional businesses, yet is important to determine how to optimally use organizational sponsorship resources. Understanding the impacts of current sponsorship efforts as well as identifying absorptive capacity attributes that enable this process more effectively will be an important contribution in terms of management research in organizational learning, as well as have implications for public policy.
© 2015 and all rights reserved, John Francis
Anything else you want us to know?
© 2015 and all rights reserved, John Francis