With technology radically changing the way enterprises of all sizes operate and link up with one another, and the relentless force of globalization creating new opportunities and challenges, institutions of all types are now expected to act as entrepreneurs. Fortune 500 corporations create venture capital funds, universities incubate biotechnology companies, governments continually seek processes of reinvention, and individuals regard themselves as free agents.

In fact, the entrepreneurial mindset is crucial for anyone hoping to survive and thrive in this new era. And, for many, embracing the mind-set has proved difficult. That hasn’t been the case here at Stern, where entrepreneurship is both a primary academic core competency and a guiding animating spirit.

We offered our first course in entrepreneurship in 1982, long before the Internet entered the lingua franca. And in the years since, we have inculcated the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship into our faculty and students – as a strategic way of thinking.

Since 1983, the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, endowed in 1996 by William Berkley, chairman of Stern’s Board of Overseers, has proved both an anchor and a motor. Led by Professor Ari Ginsberg, it has pioneered new curriculum and brought highly regarded scholars and practitioners into the Stern community. Last year, the Berkley Center launched an Entrepreneurship Scholar-in-Residence Program with the appointment of Thomas McCraw, the renowned Harvard Business School historian. We are proud to feature his article on Joseph Schumpeter, the great theorist of entrepreneurship, in this issue. We are also pleased to feature Ari Ginsberg’s article on corporate venturing, which links Schumpeter’s notion of “creative destruction” to the entrepreneurial initiatives that established companies undertake to help create new businesses.

In keeping with its spirit, the Berkley Center has acted like, well, like an entrepreneur: building relationships with Stern community members active in the field, and forging alliances with other institutions. In February, it co-hosted a venture capital event with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Entrepreneurship Center. In April, the Center sponsored the Second Annual Maximum Exposure Business Plan Competition which provides Stern students who aspire to be entrepreneurs with exposure to new venture investors and the venture capital community, as well as academic and business leaders in the field of entrepreneurship. There’s more – far more – to come. Last spring, Stern received state-wide approval to offer Entrepreneurship and Innovation as a co-major, and in the fall, we will introduce four new courses, including Negotiation for Entrepreneurs and Global Economic Integration and Entrepreneurship. And high-profile entrepreneurs, CEOs, and venture capitalists will regularly visit Stern to exchange ideas with our faculty and students.

Entrepreneurship is “hot” now in academic circles. Here at Stern, we’ve been studying and talking about the subject too long to regard it as a fad. Many investing and business models have come and gone in recent years. But the values, principals, and techniques of entrepreneurship endure.

I commend this issue of SternBusiness to you heartily, and invite all members of the Stern community to sample our offerings – on entrepreneurship and other vital subjects.

George Daly
Dean