This award, given annually by the NFIB Research Foundation since 1995, honors outstanding doctoral research that deals with the founding, financing, marketing, growth, and development of independent small businesses, family businesses, and minority businesses. Eligibility for the award in a given year is open to individuals who completed all the requirements for a doctoral degree in the prior year. The competition and judging are conducted by senior members of the Academy’s Entrepreneurship Division.
Previous winners include:
2022, Kylie Jiwon Hwang (Stanford University) for “Entrepreneurship and Incarceration”
2021, Russell E. Browder (University of Oklahoma) for “Intermediation and Disintermediation of Resources for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Maker Movement”
2020, Theodor Lucian (Vladasel Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics) for “Embracing Heterogeneity: Essays in Entrepreneurship and Human Capital”
2019, Eliana Crosina (Babson College) for “Start Me Up: On Becoming an Entrepreneur in a Shared Workspace”
2018, Steven M. Gray (University of Texas/McCombs School of Business) for “Exploring Functional Homophily in New Venture Team Formation”
2017, Christoph Mandl (University of Hohenheim) for “Valuable Learning Experience or Stigmatizing Event? Three Studies Exploring Entrepreneurs’ Lives Subsequent to Business Failure”
2016, Gabriella Cacciotti (The University of Warwick) for “Fear of Failure in Entrepreneurship: A Review, Reconceptualization and Operationalization”
2014, Richard A. Hunt (University of Colorado) for “Essays concerning the entry and survival strategies of entrepreneurial firms: A transaction perspective”
2013, Elena Kulchina (Duke University) for “Three essays on foreign entrepreneurs”
2012 Nicola Breugst (TU München) for “Entrepreneurial behavior in social contexts: The role of families, teams and employees for entrepreneurial individuals”
2011 Alejandro S. Amezcua (Syracuse University) for “Boon or Boondoggle? Business Incubation as “Entrepreneurship Policy”
2010 Karl Wennberg (Stockholm School of Economics) for “Entrepreneurial Exit”
2009 Lucia Naldi (Jönköping International Business School);
2008, Alexander Mckelvie (Jönköping International Business School);
2007, J. Robert Mitchell (University of Indiana);
2006, Elissa B. Grossman (UCLA);
2005, Dimo P. Dinov (University of Connecticut);
2004, Minna Yoo (University of Michigan);
2003, Vesa Puhakka (University of Oulu).
