Rice Professor Honored with Grant for Entrepreneurship Research

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has recently granted $1.5 million to a researcher at the Rice University – Jones Graduate School of Business for entrepreneurship research, which will examine the impact of education on entrepreneurial success.

Yael Hochberg is currently the Ralph S. O’Connor Associate Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at the Jones School, and is one of the foremost experts on accelerator programs. In addition to her professorship, Hochberg is the managing director of the annual Seed Accelerator Rankings Project and head of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative.

“Many resources are thought to feed into entrepreneurial success…however, very little evidence exists to support the notion that business acumen and education accelerate startup success. We believe our study will help develop sharp inferences that will contribute to our current understanding factors contributing to entrepreneurial success,” Hochman said.

This month, Hochman was awarded with the 2016 Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship. The award is given each year to a scholar whose research has made a significant contribution to entrepreneurship, while still early in their career. In addition to the grant, the award includes a $50,000 prize.

Hochman emphasized the importance of such research considering the extreme growth of accelerator and incubator programs over the last decade, which focus specifically on entrepreneurship and innovation. The shift to this sort of co-working facility is not only growing in popularity for private investors, but also policymakers and corporations around the globe.

The Kauffman Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo., and is aimed at offering educational resources for entrepreneurs while accelerating metro-area entrepreneurship hubs. The foundation also works to create economic independence by focusing on youth educational achievement.

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