Entrepreneurship Education Chronology
The excerpts and chronologies below are adapted from: Katz, Jerome A. (1998). A brief history of tertiary entrepreneurship education in the United States. Brussels, Belgium: OECD. Excerpts reprinted by permission.
The chronologies also appear in: Katz, Jerome A. (2003). The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entrepreneurship education: 1876-1999, Journal of Business Venturing, 18(2), 283-300. The updated combined chronology mentioned in the JBV paper can be reached by clicking here.
Chronology of Contemporary American Tertiary Entrepreneurship Education
Introduction
The history of entrepreneurship education in America is blessedly brief, but frustratingly disjointed. The disjointedness comes from the isolation of different academics pursuing entrepreneurship in its various forms. The focus in the chronology to follow is rooted in the efforts of what might be considered "mainstream" entrepreneurship and related fields, with the mainstream defined by applications in American business schools. ... these schools account for the vast majority of students taking such courses.
The Appendix at the end of this webpage provides a chronology of the field of entrepreneurship, and does a good job of showing the bursts of activity at particular times, such as 1970-1975. But the aggregate chronology can be confusing. For purposes of understanding the growth of entrepreneurship education in America, it helps to present the chronology in three sections. As an academic discipline, Publications such as books and scholarly papers are the foundation on which a discipline rests. The second category is the Coursesthemselves. But these courses occur in a context defined intellectually by publications, but pragmatically by the supporting Infrastructures, such as endowed positions, organizations and research meetings, which become the third section of the chronology.
Topical Chronologies
Publications
1934 Schumpeter's The Theory of Economic Development published in English.
1949 Explorations in entrepreneurial history begins publication at Harvard. (First research journal focused on entrepreneurs. Ceased publication in 1969.)
1952 Pearce Kelley and Kenneth Lawyer's Case problems in small business management published by Prentice-Hall. (First small business trade book, contained short cases about small businesses).
1961 McClelland's The Achieving Society published.
1961 Halsey Broom's Small business management published by Southwestern. (This is the first small business textbook, and remains in publication, with Justin Longnecker as Broom's successor.)
1963 Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM) begins.
1965 Schrage's "The R&D entrepreneur: profile of success" comes out in Harvard Business Review. (First major work on high-technology entrepreneurship.)
1967 Norman Smith's The entrepreneur and his firm published. (First research contrasting high-growth entrepreneurs to slower-growth small business owners.)
1969 McClelland and Winter's Motivating economic achievement published.
1970 First major academic research conference, Symposium on technical entrepreneurship, chaired by John Komives and Arnold Cooper at Purdue. (Library of Congress call Number 72177979 //r883).
1971 Peter Kilby's Entrepreneurship and economic development published. (Seminal early compilation of entrepreneurial theory and research.)
1971 "Black is beautiful, is it bountiful?" by Jeffry Timmons comes out in Harvard Business Review. (First major published work on minority entrepreneurship.)
1973 Lawrence Klatt's Small business management: essentials of entrepreneurship published. (One of the first texts to cross over from small business to entrepreneurship.)
1972 New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur text with cases first published. (First entrepreneurship case text.)
1974 Gordon Baty's Entrepreneurship: playing to win (Reston Publishing) is first published. (The first trade volume to get significant use in entrepreneurship classes - also one of the first texts devoted exclusively to the contemporary approach to entrepreneurship.)
1975 Leon Danco's Beyond survival: a business owner's guide for success (Reston Publishing) and Benjamin Becker's and Fred Tillman's The family owned business (Commerce Clearing House) published.
1976 American Journal of Small Business (after 1988, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice) first published.
1977 Entrepreneur Magazine begins publication.
1979 Inc. Magazine begins publication.
1979 Harold Livesay's American Made published (launching point for the "entrepreneurial decade" of the 1980's)
1982 Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, edited by Kent, Sexton and Vesper.
1983 The Business of Art first published.
1984 Robert Hisrich and Candida Brush publish "The women entrepreneur: management skills and business problems" in JSBM. (First major work on women entrepreneurs.)
1985 Journal of Business Venturing begins publication.
1982 Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship first published. (This volume legitimized entrepreneurship among traditional Business School faculties and greatly increased the visibility of entrepreneurship among Business school alumni.)
1986 Advances in the study of entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth begins publication
1987 David Birch's Job creation in America first published. (Provided impetus for government interest in entrepreneurship as the engine of economic growth).
1988 Family Business Review begins publication.
1989 Special Issue of Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice on the infrastructure of the academic discipline of entrepreneurship.
1993 Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth begins publication
1994 First of 3 special September issues of Simulation & Gaming appears on entrepreneurship education. Others appear in September 1995 and September 1996.
1999 Summer Special Research Forum on International Entrepreneurship? to published in Academy of Management Journal. (First special issue of a mainstream management journal dedicated to a theme in mainstream entrepreneurship.)
Courses
1947 Management of New Enterprises, first MBA entrepreneurship course offered at Harvard by Myles Mace.
1953 Entrepreneurship and Innovation offered at New York University by Peter Drucker.
1954 Small Business Management, first MBA small business course offered at Stanford.
1955 New York (State) Bureau of Business and Distributive Education implements a nondegree course, Small business management; adult course outline in state colleges (Library of Congress Call Number 59021189).
196? University of Oklahoma and Purdue (Arnold Cooper) report teaching small business-cum-entrepreneurship courses during the early and mid 1960's
1967 First contemporary MBA entrepreneurship courses introduced at Stanford & New York Universities.
1968 Leon Danco holds first interdisciplinary seminar on family business.
1972 First MBA entrepreneurship concentration, University of Southern California
1976 First undergraduate concentration, University of Southern California
1975 Vesper reports 104 colleges/universities with entrepreneurship courses
1979 127 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1982 315 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1986 Vesper reports 253 colleges/universities with entrepreneurship courses.
1986 590 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1987 First undergraduate entrepreneurship course in a Marketing Department (University of Illinois- Chicago)
1988 First entrepreneurship course in an Engineering School, University of New Mexico
1989 1060 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1990 Vesper reports 370 colleges/universities with entrepreneurship courses.
1996 First Family Business major offered, Texas Tech University
1998 SBA preliminary results show 1400 undergraduate schools with courses in entrepreneurship or small business.
Other Infrastructure Elements
1956 International Council for Small Business formed (called the National Council for Small Business management Development until 1977).
1959 SBA Research Initiative Launched (First major government effort to use academics for substantive research on entrepreneurship. Included projects by Pickle, Mayer and Goldstein, Hoad and Rosko)
1963 First endowed position, Georgia State University.
1970 First entrepreneurship center, the Caruth Institute of Owner-Managed Business, is established at Southern Methodist University.
1972 Small Business Institute program launched by US Small Business Administration at Texas Tech University. (SBI sponsored student performed field consulting projects to small businesses)
1974 Entrepreneurship Interest Group (after 1987, Division) of the Academy of Management formed under the direction of Karl Vesper.
1975 5 endowed positions (Katz, 1991a)
1980 11 endowed positions (Katz, 1991a)
1980 First "state of the art" conference held at Baylor University.
1981 First Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference
1982 Association of Private Enterprise Education formed
1984 First Price-Babson College Fellows Program offered. (Pioneering training program for tenure-track and adjunct faculty in entrepreneurship.)
1984 First single campus business plan competitions at Babson College and University of Texas-Austin (known as MOOT CORP).
1986 First national business plan competition held, under the direction of Tim Mescon, University of Miami.
1987 First National Business Plan Competition, San Diego State University.
1993 102 endowed positions (Katz, 1991a).
1994 208 endowed positions.
1998 VuSME, the Virtual University for Small and Medium Enterprises goes on the World Wide Web. (First entrepreneurship distance education program deployed by a university, in this case a consortium of four schools.)
The list above is compiled from several major resources including Cooper (1998), Christy and Jones 91982), Katz (1991a, 1991b, 1991c), Robinson and Haynes (1991), Sandberg and Gatewood (1991), Solomon and Fernald 1991), Solomon, Weaver and Fernald (1994), Vesper (1993) and original research by the author.
Bibliography
Baty, G. (1974). Entrepreneurship: playing to win. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing.
Becker, B. and Tillman, F., (1975). The family owned business. New York: Commerce Clearing House.
Birch, D. (1987). Job creation in America. New York: Free Press.
Block, Z. and Stumpf, S.A. (1992). Entrepreneurship education research: experience and challenge. In D.L. Sexton and J.D. Kasarda (editors), The state of the art of entrepreneurship. Boston: PWS-Kent.
Broom, H. (1961). Small business management. Cincinnati: Southwestern.
Brown, I.E., Christy, R.L. and Banowitz, A.F. (1987). Perceptions of success in business start-up and the impact of entrepreneurial education. In N.C. Churchill, et. al., Frontiers of entrepreneurship research - 1987. Babson Park: Babson College.
Caplin, L., (1983). The Business of Art. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Christy, R. and Jones B.M. (1982). The complete information bank for entrepreneurs and small business managers. Wichita, KS: The Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management.
Clark, B.W., Davis, C. H., and Harnish, V.C. (1984) Do courses in entrepreneurship aid in new venture creation? Journal of Small Business Management, 22(2), 26-31.
College Entrance Examination Board, (1997). Index of Majors and Graduate Degrees - 1998. New York: College Entrance Examination Board.
Cooper, A. (1998). Entrepreneurship: the past, the present, the future. Keynote address to the 1998 Annual Meeting of the US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Clearwater, FL.
Cooper, A.C. and Komives, J.L, eds. (1972). Technical entrepreneurship: A symposium. Milwaukee: Center for Venture Management, 1972. (Library of Congress call Number 72177979 //r883).
Danco, L. (1975). Beyond survival: a business owner's guide for success. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing.
Dennis, W.J. (1997). The public reviews small business. Washington, DC: NFIB Education Foundation.
Gundry, L. and Buchko. A. (1996). Field casework: methods for consulting to small and startup businesses. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hisrich, R. and Candida Brush, C. (1984). "The women entrepreneur: management skills and business problems". Journal of Small Business Management.
Katz, J.A. (1991a). The institution and infrastructure of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice. 15 (3), 85-102.
Katz, J.A. (1991b). Educating entrepreneurial professionals: identification of the critical market. Journal of Private Enterprise, 7 (1), 105-120.
Katz, J.A. (1991c). Endowed positions: entrepreneurship and related fields. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice. 15 (3), 53-67.
Katz, J., and Brockhaus, R. eds., (1993). Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth. Greenwich CT: JAI Press.
Kelley, P. and Kenneth Lawyer, K. (1952). Case problems in small business management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kent, C.A., Sexton, D.L. and Vesper, K.H., (1982). Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kilby, P. (1971). Entrepreneurship and economic development. . New York: Free Press
Klatt, L. (1973). Small business management: essentials of entrepreneurship. Monterrey, CA: Wadsworth..
Liebcap, G. (1986). Advances in the study of entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth. Greenwich CT: JAI Press.
Liles, H. (1972). New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur. Homewood, IL: Irwin.
Livesay, H. (1979). American made. Boston: Little, Brown.
McClelland, D. (1961). The Achieving Society. New York: Free Press.
McClelland, D. and Winter, D. (1969). Motivating economic achievement. New York: Free Press.
Peter Drucker, P. (1982). Innovation and Entrepreneurship. New York: Harper & Row.
Peterson's Graduate Programs in Business, Education, Health, Information Studies, Law & Social Work 1998.
Peterson's Graduate Programs in the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences 1998.
Robinson, P. and Haynes, M. (1991), Entrepreneurship education in America's major universities. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, 15 (3), 41-52.
Sandberg, W.R. and Gatewood, E.J. (1991). A profile of entrepreneurship research centers: orientations, interests, activities, and resources. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, 15 (3), 11-24.
Schrage, H. The R&D entrepreneur: Profile of success. Harvard Business Review, 1965, 43 (6).
Schumpeter, J. (1934, 1961). The Theory of Economic Development. New York: Oxford.
Sexton, D.L. and Bowman, N.B. (1988). Evaluation of an innovative teaching approach for entrepreneurship. American Journal of Small Business, 12(3), 11-18.
Smith, N.R. (1967). The entrepreneur and his firm. E. Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
Solomon, G.T. and Fernald, L.W. (1991). Trends in small business and entrepreneurship education in the United States. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, 15 (3), 25-40.
Solomon, G.T., Weaver, K.M. and Fernald, L.W. (1994) A historical examination of small business management and entrepreneurship pedagogy. Simulation and Gaming, 25 (3), 338-352.
Timmons, J. (1971). "Black is beautiful, is it bountiful?" Harvard Business Review. 49 (6), 81-94.
Vesper, K.H. (1981). Frontiers of entrepreneurship research - 1981. Babson Park: Babson College.
Vesper, K.H. (1993). Entrepreneurship education 1993. Los Angeles, CA: Entrepreneurial Studies Center, UCLA.
Websites of Organizations and Magazines Mentioned
Organizations
Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management
Association for Private Enterprise Education
Family Firm Institute
International Council for Small Business
National Alliance of Women Business Owners
Small Business Institute Directors Association
Magazines
Black Enterprise Magazine
Inc. Magazine
Success Magazine - Top Entrepreneurship Program Listing (10/97)
Entrepreneur magazine
US News & World Report Magazine - Top Entrepreneurship Programs
Appendix
Aggregate Chronology of Contemporary Entrepreneurship
Education in America
1934 Schumpeter's The Theory of Economic Development published in English.
1947 Management of New Enterprises, first MBA entrepreneurship course offered at Harvard.
1949 Explorations in entrepreneurial history begins publication at Harvard. (First research journal focused on entrepreneurs. Ceased publication in 1969.)
1952 Pearce Kelley and Kenneth Lawyer's Case problems in small business management published by Prentice-Hall. (First small business trade book, contained short cases about small businesses).
1953 Entrepreneurship and Innovation offered at New York University by Peter Drucker.
1954 Small Business Management, first MBA small business course offered at Stanford.
1955 New York (State) Bureau of Business and Distributive Education implements a nondegree course, Small business management; adult course outline in state colleges (Library of Congress Call Number 59021189).
1956 International Council for Small Business formed (called the National Council for Small Business management Development until 1977).
1959 SBA Research Initiative Launched (First major government effort to use academics for substantive research on entrepreneurship. Included projects by Pickle, Mayer and Goldstein, Hoad and Rosko)
1961 McClelland's The Achieving Society published.
1961 Halsey Broom's Small business management published by Southwestern. (This is the first small business textbook, and remains in publication, with Justin Longnecker as Broom's successor.)
196? University of Oklahoma and Purdue (Arnold Cooper) report teaching small business-cum-entrepreneurship courses during the early and mid 1960's.
1963 Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM) begins.
1963 First endowed position, Georgia State University.
1965 Schrage's "The R&D entrepreneur: profile of success" comes out in Harvard Business Review. (First major work on high-technology entrepreneurship.)
1967 Norman Smith's The entrepreneur and his firm published. (First research contrasting high-growth entrepreneurs to slower-growth small business owners.)
1967 First contemporary MBA entrepreneurship courses introduced at Stanford & New York Universities.
1969 McClelland and Winter's Motivating economic achievement published.
1970 Leon Danco holds first interdisciplinary seminar on family business.
1970 First entrepreneurship center, the Caruth Institute of Owner-Managed Business, is established at Southern Methodist University.
1970 First major academic research conference, Symposium on technical entrepreneurship, chaired by John Komives and Arnold Cooper at Purdue. (Library of Congress call Number 72177979 //r883).
1971 Peter Kilby's Entrepreneurship and economic development published. (Seminal early compilation of entrepreneurial theory and research.)
1971 "Black is beautiful, is it bountiful?" by Jeffry Timmons comes out in Harvard Business Review. (First major published work on minority entrepreneurship.)
1972 First MBA entrepreneurship concentration, University of Southern California
1972 Small Business Institute program launched by US Small Business Administration at Texas Tech University. (SBI sponsored student performed field consulting projects to small businesses).
1972 First undergraduate concentration, University of Southern California
1973 Association of Private Enterprise Education formed
1973 Lawrence Klatt's Small business management: essentials of entrepreneurship published. (One of the first texts to cross over from small business to entrepreneurship.)
1974 New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur text with cases first published. (First entrepreneurship case text.)
1974 Gordon Baty's Entrepreneurship: playing to win (Reston Publishing) is first published. (The first trade volume to get significant use in entrepreneurship classes - also one of the first texts devoted exclusively to the contemporary approach to entrepreneurship.)
1974 Entrepreneurship Interest Group (after 1987, Division) of the Academy of Management formed under the direction of Karl Vesper.
1975 Vesper reports 104 colleges/universities with entrepreneurship courses
1975 Leon Danco's Beyond survival: a business owner's guide for success (Reston Publishing) and Benjamin Becker's and Fred Tillman's The family owned business (Commerce Clearing House) published.
1975 5 endowed positions (Katz, 1991a)
1976 American Journal of Small Business (after 1988, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice) first published.
1977 Entrepreneur Magazine begins publication.
1979 Inc. Magazine begins publication.
1979 Harold Livesay's American Made published (launching point for the "entrepreneurial decade" of the 1980's)
1979 127 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1980 First "state of the art" conference held at Baylor University.
1980 11 endowed positions (Katz, 1991a)
1981 First Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference
1982 First undergraduate entrepreneurship course in a Marketing Department (University of Illinois- Chicago)
1982 Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, edited by Kent, Sexton and Vesper.
1982 315 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1983 First entrepreneurship course in an Engineering School, University of New Mexico
1983 The Business of Art first published.
1984 First Price-Babson College Fellows Program offered. (Pioneering training program for tenure-track and adjunct faculty in entrepreneurship.)
1984 Robert Hisrich and Candida Brush publish "The women entrepreneur: management skills and business problems" in JSBM. (First major work on women entrepreneurs.)
1984 First single campus business plan competitions at Babson College and University of Texas-Austin (known as MOOT CORP).
1985 Journal of Business Venturing begins publication.
1985 Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship first published. (This volume legitimized entrepreneurship among traditional Business School faculties and greatly increased the visibility of entrepreneurship among Business school alumni.)
1986 First national business plan competition held, under the direction of Tim Mescon, University of Miami.
1986 Vesper reports 253 colleges/universities with entrepreneurship courses.
1986 590 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1986 Advances in the study of entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth begins publication
1987 David Birch's Job creation in America first published. (Provided impetus for government interest in entrepreneurship as the engine of economic growth).
1987 First National Business Plan Competition, San Diego State University.
1988 Family Business Review begins publication.
1989 Special Issue of Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice on the infrastructure of the academic discipline of entrepreneurship.
1990 102 endowed positions (Katz, 1991a).
1991 1060 undergraduate schools with courses (Solomon and Fernald, 1994)
1992 Vesper reports 370 colleges/universities with entrepreneurship courses.
1993 Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth begins publication
1993 First of 3 special September issues of Simulation & Gaming appears on entrepreneurship education. Others appear in September 1995 and September 1996.
1996 First Family Business major offered, Texas Tech University
1998 SBA preliminary results show 1400 undergraduate schools with courses in entrepreneurship or small business.
1998 208 endowed positions.
1998 VuSME, the Virtual University for Small and Medium Enterprises goes on the World Wide Web. (First entrepreneurship distance education program deployed by a university, in this case a consortium of four schools.)
1999 Summer Special Research Forum on International Entrepreneurship published in Academy of Management Journal. (First special issue of a mainstream management journal dedicated to a theme in mainstream entrepreneurship.)