An Award-Winning Professor Studies Entrepreneurship’s Human Side
For professors, the work of research is unceasing. Even in the summer, as campus life slows down, their search for new knowledge doesn’t.
On a recent summer Friday, Eliana Crosina ’05, MBA’11, is in the middle of a typical day. At the moment, she is working on several research projects in various stages of development. There is much to do, ranging from data collection to writing to rewriting. “That’s the reality of doing research,” says the assistant professor of entrepreneurship. “It’s rewarding.”
Crosina’s work focuses on the personal side of entrepreneurship, on the lives, motivations, and relationships behind creating new ventures. “My research involves bringing to life what entrepreneurs experience as they go through the process of thinking, launching, and building businesses,” she says, “and sheds light on the human side of that process.”
Looking at entrepreneurship’s human side led her to examine the impact that Babson’s signature Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME) course has on students. In landmark research for the College, Crosina and her co-authors found that the challenges of FME, along with the support, mentorship, and reflection that the course offers, build resiliency and an entrepreneurial mindset in students.
In other entrepreneurial studies, Crosina has looked at the communities surrounding entrepreneurs, at how prior work experiences shape their ventures, and at the chaotic early days that often characterize a startup’s journey. “It’s messy. It’s complicated. There are a lot of moving parts,” Crosina says of early-stage ventures. “For that reason, it’s especially interesting.”
“I think of entrepreneurs as people that are animated by desire and passion, even if the odds are against them. I find that really, really fascinating.”
Eliana Crosina ’05, MBA’11, assistant professor of entrepreneurship
For her robust research, the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management, a professional association for management and organization scholars, presented her with the prestigious Emerging Scholar Award at its annual meeting earlier this month. Given to scholars who earned their PhD less than six years ago, the honor recognizes innovative and impactful contributions to entrepreneurship scholarship.
In a conversation on that summer Friday, Crosina talks about research, entrepreneurship, and what the Emerging Scholar Award means to her.
Why do you study entrepreneurs?
“When I think about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as a discipline, I think about individuals and small groups who are moved by a desire to accomplish something that is bigger than them. At the outset, they are faced with almost an impossible task. Most ventures fail within the first few years of operations.
“I think of entrepreneurs as people that are animated by desire and passion, even if the odds are against them. I find that really, really fascinating.”
What are your thoughts about winning the Emerging Scholar Award?
“I’m delighted to be receiving this award, and there’s a responsibility that comes with it. There’s so much more work to be done. I take it with a lot of excitement and a deep commitment toward continuing to further our understanding of entrepreneurship as a process that is not only cognitive and emotional, but also rooted in action.”
You say there’s still much work to do. Such as?
“We’re just scratching the tip of the iceberg with respect to understanding, for example, the relationship that ties founders to their ventures. I recently wrote about this topic in a paper that explains how the bond that ties founders to their businesses relates to how their ventures develop and grow. But there’s a lot more to be done there.
“I believe there’s a lot more to be done empirically to understand what entrepreneurs do and why. What are the mundane choices that they make that, over time, shape the direction of a business? There’s also more work to be done focusing on how entrepreneurs think about and seek resources.
“When I look at my research projects in the works, what really excites me is the possibility and the responsibility of continuing to learn from entrepreneurs and telling their stories with rigor and voice. I would also like to feed this information back to them—entrepreneurs and leaders— in the hope of sparking their refection through new ways of thinking and seeing.”
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