Sharing Lessons and Resources to Advance the Ecosystem

Intersections

By the very nature of our work, much of the Foundation’s activity occurs at the frontiers, and the intersections, of various areas of intellectual pursuit. From private enterprise to academia, from government to grassroots community organizations, we engage with thought leaders from many walks of life in advancing the cause of entrepreneurship.

That’s why we’ve named our research publication series Intersections. This periodic report is designed to provide useful and easily digestible updates to our many stakeholders and collaborators about what we’ve learned. 

Our first Intersections publication, released in 2017, examines learnings from the Northeast Ohio Collegiate Entrepreneurship Program (NEOCEP) initiative, as we marked the ten-year anniversary of its launch. 

Our second Intersections publication, released in 2019, is an in-depth exploration of youth entrepreneurship education in Northeast Ohio that presents four case studies which each outline a different model of excellence within the Foundation’s portfolio.

Intersections - Collegiate

Intersections - Youth


Pitch Training Materials

Through the Foundation's Entrepreneurship Education Experiment, Morgan Foundation's first Fellow Dr. Scott Shane, along with his team, have assembled training materials, culled from research into actual investor pitches that prepare aspiring entrepreneurs to more successfully present their venture ideas. These materials include:

  • Summary of research results from pitch competition field experiments
  • Video clips of actual pitches to panels of investors
  • Summary of scholarly research into such subjects as the effect of style and content training on pitch performance

Access Pitch Training Materials


National Inventors Hall of Fame Evaluation Project

In 2017, Burton D. Morgan Foundation embarked on a collaborative evaluation project with long-time youth grantee, National Inventors Hall of Fame. National Inventors Hall of Fame partnered with Dr. John Falk, an internationally recognized expert on free-choice learning and a leader in STEM education, to study the effectiveness of its flagship summer program, Camp Invention. 

Dr. Falk’s study found that participating in just one week of Camp Invention program resulted in statistically significant improvements in creativity, STEM interest, and the ability to use and apply problem-solving techniques.

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Research and Publications

"The Morgan-Kauffman Northeast Ohio Collegiate Entrepreneurship Program:  The Liberal Arts Perspective”, 2012
Essay written by Foundation President and CEO, Deborah Hoover, and Program Officer Alison Burner

"Building and Maintaining a Regional Inter-University Ecosystem for Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship Education Consortium", 2015
White paper written by Jacqueline J. Schmidt, John Carroll University and Kay F. Molkentin, Hiram College

“Kauffman Campuses Initiative:  A Study that Explores the Phenomenon of Cross-Campus Entrepreneurship,” Michael Schneider, 2015
Michael Schneider, President of McPherson College, based his dissertation for the University of Pennsylvania on the NEOCEP project that Burton D. Morgan Foundation conducted in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

"Fostering Entrepreneurship Ecosystems for Regional Scaleup" Daniel Isenberg's Akron Roundtable Speech, April 20, 2017
Daniel Isenberg, founding executive director of Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, addressed an audience of over 300 at the Akron Roundtable, a community forum that brings speakers to Akron who inform, educate, and stimulate listeners on topics of importance to the region, the country, and the world.


MOOC E-Book

Beyond Silicon Valley: 20 Entrepreneurial Successes (And How One MOOC Spawned Them)
Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies (BSV), has spread its messages around the globe engaging thousands of entrepreneurs in a worldwide network of startup visionaries. Conceived in 2013 by Professor Michael Goldberg, BSV developed as a way to share the lessons learned from the burgeoning Northeast Ohio entrepreneurial ecosystem, capitalizing on the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as the vehicle to accomplish this audacious goal. 

Goldberg’s new book, Beyond Silicon Valley, was released in 2018 and chronicles his personal interactions with entrepreneurs on a global scale coupled with first-hand accounts of the innumerable ways BSV participants have deployed its lessons.  The book simultaneously captures Goldberg’s own entrepreneurial journey as he experiments with the potential of the MOOC to achieve its fundamental goal of education for all.  For entrepreneurs seeking to understand the meaning of their own travails, the stories will build resolve and galvanize action.  The tales reflected in this book create a rich tapestry of the innovative ways entrepreneurs utilize the disruptive qualities of the MOOC to take charge of their own futures. 


Community Colleges as Incubators of Innovation - Unleashing Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Communities and Students

This book, published in early 2019 by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) with Stylus Publishing, addresses the urgent need for community colleges to prioritize entrepreneurship education, both to remain relevant in a changing economy, and to graduate students with the flexible and interdisciplinary mindsets needed for the future of society. It argues that entrepreneurial education should be offered broadly to a wide range of students and across all disciplines; defines the key constructs for achieving this objective; and describes how to create entrepreneurial learning environments. 

Foundation President and CEO Deborah Hoover provided a chapter called "The Ecosystem that Thrives" on the connection between entrepreneurship and philanthropy, illustrated with examples from the Northeast Ohio entrepreneurial ecosystem. 


Foundation Staff Publications

Foundation staff have written a number of guest blogs and articles related to entrepreneurship for Smart Business Magazine, Crain's Cleveland Business, and other publications. 

Perspectives: Blogs and Articles from  Foundation Staff