Academic Sponsorships

Academy of Management, Entrepreneurship Division (Dissertation Award)

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). 

Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference (Best Paper Award)

The NFIB Award, given annually since 1997, is presented by the Research Foundation for the best paper on the general topic of entrepreneurship presented at the annual Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference. The winner(s) is selected by paper reviewers.

Previous winners include: 

  • 2022, SM Musa (Erasmus University of Rotterdam), Katrin M. Smolka (University of Warwick), and Pursey P. Heugens (Erasmus University of Rotterdam) for “Social Inclusion Through Necessity Entrepreneurship: An Ethnographic Account”
  • 2021, Yi Huang (Nanyang Technological University), Marilyn A. Uy (Nanyang Technological University), Change Liu (Nanyang Technological University), and Zhuyi (Angelina) Li (The National University of Singapore) for “Emotions Can Buy Your Money: Disentangling the Impact of Peak Emotions in the Totality of Crowdfunding Videos”
  • 2020, Stella K. Seyb (University of Oklahoma), Dean A. Shepherd (University of Notre Dame), and Trenton A. Williams (Indiana University) for “The Role of Aesthetics in the Co-construction of Potential Opportunities”
  • 2019, Anna Souakri (ESCP Business School), Régis Coeurderoy (ESCP Business School), and Andrew Zacharakis (Babson College) for “Does Entrepreneurial Experience Really Matter in Venture Capitalists’ Screening Decisions? Preference and Similarity Attraction in the VC-Lead Entrepreneur Dyad”
  • 2018, Charles Y. Murnieks (University of Missouri-Kansas City), Melissa S. Cardon (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), and J. Michael Haynie (Syracuse University) for “Feel the Burn: The Influence of Passion on Entrepreneurs’ Subjective Well-being and Exhaustion”
  • 2017, Blake D. Mathias and Shelby J. Solomon (Louisiana State University) and Kristen Madison (Mississippi State University) for “After the Harvest: Entrepreneurship and Inequality”
  • 2016, G. Christopher Crawford (Ohio University) for “The Emergence of Outliers in Entrepreneurship: A Self-Organized Criticality Framework”
  • 2015, Imran Syed and Brandon Mueller (Oklahoma State University) for “The Passion to Persevere: An exploration of the mechanisms by which passion fuels entrepreneurial grit”
  • 2012 Blake Mathias (University of Tennessee) and David Will (University of Tennessee) for “Role with It: The Impact of Roles and Heuristics on Entrepreneurs’ Evaluation of Opportunities”
  • 2011 J. Robert Mitchell (University of Western Ontario) and Dean A. Shepherd (University of Indiana) for “Afraid of Opportunity: The Effects of Fear of Failure on Entrepreneurial Action”
  • 2010 Keith M. Hmieleski (Texas Christian University), Michael S. Cole (Texas Christian University), and Robert A. Baron, from (Oklahoma State University) for “Shared Authentic Leadership to Firm Performance: A Study of New Venture Top Management Teams”
  • 2009 Keith M. Hmieleski (Texas Christian University);
  • 2008 Joseph E. Coombs (Texas A&M), Abbie J. Shipp (Texas A&M), and Lisa J. Christensen (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill);
  • 2007, J. Michael Haynie (Syracuse University) and Dean A. Shepherd (University of Indiana);
  • 2006, Jeffery S. McMullen (Baylor University) and Shakar A. Zahra (University of Minnesota);
  • 2005, Mikael Samuelsson (Jönköping International Business School) and Jonas Dahlqvist (Jönköping International Business School);
  • 2004, Thomas J. Dean (University of Colorado), Lawrence A. Plummer(University of Colorado), and Joy Godesiabois (University of Colorado); 
  • 2003, J. Robert Baum (University of Maryland).

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