Iowa State University : Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative

The best educational programs are built on a solid research foundation. Research ensures that we understand what to teach and how to teach it. Entrepreneurship is no exception.

Current Research Projects:

USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant: Designing an Undergraduate Certificate Program in Biobased Products - an Entrepreneurial Approach
- During the summer of 2007 faculty at Iowa State University were awarded a United States Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grant to create an interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate program in biobased products combining technology and entrepreneurship education.
  The goal of the $139,000 grant is to prepare students entering the biobased product industry to discover new business opportunities and ultimately create businesses to meet the needs they identify. The 20-credit undergraduate certificate will provide a way for students to receive formal recognition of focused study in a specialized area that is less comprehensive than an undergraduate major and more comprehensive than a minor.
Kauffman Foundation Grant: An Assessment of the Causes and Consequences of Entrepreneurship in Rural and Urban Markets: Applying and Augmenting the National Establishment Time-Series (NETS) Database
- The research project will identify and measure factors that affect firm survival in urban and rural markets in Iowa. Using a survey of firms in the NETS database we will obtain business climate data that will enable us to identify sector-, location- and policy-specific factors that affect firm creation and survival.
Successful Rural Entrepreneurship: Developing A Curriculum Aimed At Attracting And Retaining College Graduates To Rural Areas

A representative survey of over 5,000 Iowa State alumni will identify which graduates started rural businesses and/or reside in small towns. We will establish how those decisions relate to family background, collegiate academic program and extracurricular activities, and work career after graduation. Survey data from the universe of all Iowa firms that have a Dun and Bradstreet number between 1992-2005 will be used to evaluate what community and firm factors influence firm decisions to locate in rural areas and firm survival. A subset of firms will be analyzed more deeply to establish the degree to which rural firm success depends on local social capital and community support. The results of the analysis will be used to develop a curriculum aimed at students interested in agricultural and rural entrepreneurship. The curriculum will focus uniquely on firm and community strategies that have been shown to succeed in the difficult markets of the rural Midwest.

Case Studies:

Cory's Country Lamb (prepared by AgMRC)

West Liberty Foods (prepared by AgMRC)

Doc's Hunt Club (prepared by AgMRC)

Falcon Orchard (prepared by AgMRC)

Geisler Farms Inc. (prepared by AgMRC)

Publications:

"Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?" by Cornelia Butler Flora