Higher education institutions and entrepreneurship in underserved communities
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Higher education institutions and entrepreneurship in underserved communities Qingfang Wang 1
# Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
This study examines the experiences of business development centers in higher education institutions (HEIs) to promote entrepreneurship in underserved communities. It draws experiences and perspectives from multiple stakeholders to examine the contribution of HEIs toward equitable economic development and social renewal. Based on extensive qualitative data analyses, this study highlights the role of HEIs as anchor institutions and intermediary enablers of economic development in bridging traditionally split efforts between different university missions. The findings contribute to research and practice on entrepreneurship education and universities’ engagement in fostering inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems and equitable growth through entrepreneurship. Keywords Anchor institution . Inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem . Entrepreneurship education . Underserved community
Introduction With the increasing importance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the regional innovation and governance system, entrepreneurship and business development programs institutionalized within universities have thrived unprecedentedly in recent years (Dill 1995; Morris et al. 2013; Sá 2011; Sam and Van Der Sijde 2014). These university centers create innovative curricula and provide experiential learning to train current and next-generation entrepreneurs. They also incubate new firms and foster their growth through collaboration with governments, business communities, and different organizations (CFEE 2014). Despite the rapid growth of these programs and accumulation of literature in this area, few studies have focused on entrepreneurship education in underserved communities (O’Brien et al. 2019).
* Qingfang Wang [email protected]
1
School of Public Policy, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Higher Education
The underserved community in this study is defined by two dimensions. First, it refers to racial or ethnic minority and women owned businesses because disparities across ethnic and gender groups have severely impeded ethnic minorities’ and women’s social, economic, and political advancement through entrepreneurship (Bates et al. 2018; Fairlie and Robb 2008). Second, it encompasses entrepreneurs in geographic areas characterized by high rates of unemployment, poverty, and lack of resources for entrepreneurship. Because segregation by race and class remains prevalent in many U.S. cities, geographic and socioeconomic disadvantages often overlap with race and ethnicity in disadvantaged neighborhoods (Connor et al. 2019). Therefore, the businesses in underserved communities in this study comprise ethnic minority and women owned businesses, as well as businesses in disadvantaged neighborhoods who face great challenges in starting and scaling up their businesses. This study examines emerging, but vibrant efforts from a group of business development centers in HEIs th
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