Abstract
The search for enabling personal qualities brings the educational background of minority entrepreneurs into sharp focus in this chapter. This is a promising place to look because some of the fastest-growing ventures are led by entrepreneurs with a college or university education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Many minority entrepreneurs are highly qualified, with some level of formal training in these fields. This could mean that they are alert to attractive opportunities that others overlook in the current science- and technology-driven, global marketplace. This marketplace is constantly buffeted by disruptive developments in areas as diverse as software security, cloud computing, computer vision, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, autonomous driving, drones, 3D printing and robotics.
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Notes
- 1.
This account is not meant to serve as a biography. I have tried to recreate the events, places, settings, personal characteristics and conversations based on publicly available information, including: Sofy Carayannopoulos, “Research in Motion: A Small Firm Commercializing a New Technology,” Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, vol. 29, no. 2 (2005), pp. 219–232; Claire Gagné, “Douglas Fregin—The Other RIM Guy,” Canadian Business (December 5, 2005); Allan Levine, “Canada’s Values, Then and Now,” National Post (September 7, 2016); Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, Losing the Signal: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry (Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2015); “Mike Lazaridis: The Power of Ideas,” The Science Show, ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (June 9, 2012).
- 2.
“Lazaridis, Fregin and $100 Million,” Exchange, vol. 30, no. 5 (2013), p. 12.
- 3.
Matthias Almus and Eric A. Nerlinger, “Growth of New Technology-Based Firms: Which Factors Matter?” Small Business Economics, vol. 13, no. 2 (1999), pp. 141–154; Robert Demir, Karl Wennberg and Alexander McKelvie, “The Strategic Management of High-Growth Firms: A Review and Theoretical Conceptualization,” Long Range Planning, vol. 50, no. 4 (2017), pp. 431–456; Noam Wasserman, “How an Entrepreneur’s Passion Can Destroy a Startup,” Wall Street Journal (August 25, 2014).
- 4.
Jeremy Ashkenas, Haeyoun Park and Adam Pearce, “Even with Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago,” New York Times (August 24, 2017); Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003); White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, “FACT SHEET: Spurring African-American STEM Degree Completion,” U.S. Department of Education (March 16, 2016).
- 5.
Timothy Bates, “Minority Entrepreneurship,” Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, vol. 7, no. 3–4 (2011), pp. 151–311.
- 6.
Conference Board of Canada, Brain Gain 2015: The State of Canada’s Learning Recognition System (Ottawa: Conference Board of Canada, 2016); Nicholas Keung, “Immigrants Are Largely Behind Canada’s Status as One of the Best-Educated Countries,” The Star (February 1, 2018).
- 7.
Monder Ram and Trevor Jones, Ethnic Minorities in Business (Milton Keynes: The Small Enterprise Research Team, Open University, 2008).
- 8.
Robert A. Baron, “Opportunity Recognition as Pattern Recognition: How Entrepreneurs ‘Connect the Dots’ to Identify New Business Opportunities,” Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 20, no. 1 (2006), pp. 104–119; Tony Fu-Lai Yu, “Entrepreneurial Alertness and Discovery,” Review of Austrian Economics, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 47–63; Connie Marie Gaglio, “The Role of Mental Simulations and Counterfactual Thinking in the Opportunity Identification Process,” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 28, no. 6 (2004), pp. 533–552; Connie Marie Gaglio and Jerome A. Katz, “The Psychological Basis of Opportunity Identification: Entrepreneurial Alertness,” Small Business Economics, vol. 16, no. 2 (2001), pp. 95–111; Denis A. Grégoire, Pamela S. Barr and Dean A. Shepherd, “Cognitive Processes of Opportunity Recognition: The Role of Structural Alignment,” Organization Science, vol. 21, no. 2 (2010), pp. 413–431; Israel M. Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973); Israel M. Kirzner, “Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach,” Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 35, no. 1 (1997), pp. 60–85; Israel M. Kirzner, “Creativity and/or Alertness: A Reconsideration of the Schumpeterian Entrepreneur,” Review of Austrian Economics, vol. 11, no. 1–2 (1999), pp. 5–17; Israel M. Kirzner, “The Alert and Creative Entrepreneur: A Clarification,” Small Business Economics, vol. 32, no. 2 (2009), pp. 145–152; Jeffery S. McMullen and Dean A. Shepherd, “Entrepreneurial Action and the Role of Uncertainty in the Theory of the Entrepreneur,” Academy of Management Review, vol. 31, no. 1 (2006), pp. 132–152; Jintong Tang, K. Michele (Micki) Kacmar and Lowell Busenitz, “Entrepreneurial Alertness in the Pursuit of New Opportunities,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 27, no. 1 (2012), pp. 77–94; Dave Valliere, “Entrepreneurial Alertness and Paying Attention,” Journal of Enterprising Culture, vol. 21, no. 1 (2013), pp. 1–17.
- 9.
Tang et al. (2012).
- 10.
Joe Atikian, “Robots, AI, and Jobs: All Three Are Coming,” The Globe Mail (May 13, 2018); Davide Castelvecchi, “Quantum Computers Ready to Leap out of the Lab,” Nature, vol. 541 (2017), pp. 9–10; Teppo Felin and Karim Lakhani, “What Problems Will You Solve with Blockchain?” MIT Sloan Management Review (September 11, 2018); Jonathan A. Knee, “Why Some Platforms Are Better Than Others,” MIT Sloan Management Review (November 30, 2017); McKinsey Global Institute, “Technology, Jobs, and the Future of Work,” McKinsey & Company (February 2017).
- 11.
See the following related research: Alexander Ardichvili, Richard Cardozo and Sourav Ray, “A Theory of Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification and Development,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 18, no. 1 (2003), pp. 105–123; Baron (2006); Eren Ozgen and Robert A. Baron, “Social Sources of Information in Opportunity Recognition: Effects of Mentors, Industry Networks, and Professional Forums,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 22, no. 2 (2007), pp. 174–192; Scott Shane, “Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities,” Organization Science, vol. 11, no. 4 (2000), pp. 448–469.
- 12.
Almus and Nerlinger (1999); Bates (2011); Demir et al. (2017).
- 13.
Tang et al. (2012).
- 14.
Shane (2000); Tang et al. (2012).
- 15.
Tang et al. (2012).
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Guy Chazan, “Most Refugees to be Jobless for Years, German Minister Warns,” Financial Times (June 22, 2017); Meaker (2106); Nicholson (2017).
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Morgan, H.M. (2020). Valuable Knowledge from Formal Education. In: Underdog Entrepreneurs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20408-2_6
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