Reflections on a New Academic Path: Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Sciences

With the development in 2002 of the Consortium for Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts, and with funding by the Kauffman Foundation of several campus-wide initiatives to infuse entrepreneurship into the liberal arts and sciences, there is increasing academic discussion of just what entrepreneurship might do for-or to-the liberal arts as they have been traditionally conceived. More than a new wrinkle, these endeavors would constitute a new path for institutions of higher education, especially liberal arts colleges and universities. From a person trained as an experimental social psychologist, but one who has taught psychological principles of entrepreneurship for more than a decade, here are some reflections on that path.

There Are Reasons to Begin the Journey

What are some of the important intellectual habits we seek to instill in our students? Many of us might answer "curiosity," "independence," or an ability to "communicate effectively." In animal terms, we would prefer their minds to be more like goats than like sheep: able to consume a little of everything, quite happy not to travel in herds, and a bit stubborn in defending their own positions. We would prefer that students be thoughtful and active participants in the communities and world around them instead of trudging through life forgetful of where they have been, oblivious to their current surroundings, and unconcerned about where they might be in the future. Indeed, development of a reflective life of the mind is often said to be a hallmark of a liberal education, itself frequently contrasted with preprofessional training in business or engineering. When asked by a student "What can I do with a major in psychology, or English, or history," many of us might reply, "DoP This undergraduate major isn't designed to teach you to do anything. Rather, it is designed to teach you one way to think about the world and your place in it."

As contemplation is an essential ingredient of reflective thought, action is an essential ingredient of entrepreneurial behavior. Identifying opportunities, finding ways to take advantage of them, enlisting others in the cause, and executing a plan all require doing. So by their very nature, entrepreneurship and liberal arts would seem like oil and water, or as I have argued elsewhere (2003), like oil and vinegar. Yet, there are some important similarities. Start with curiosity. A person inclined to ask "Why is it this way?" is also likely to ask "Why can't it be different?" or "Why can't it be better?" The first question might be prompted by simple curiosity, but the last one is about the opportunity for change. And in an influential paper on entrepreneurship, Shane and Venkataraman (2002) have noted that the individual discovery and exploitation of opportunities is at the heart of entrepreneurial activity.

Or consider independence of thought. We would hope that our liberal arts students would be aware of the views of others, but ultimately would make up their own minds instead of being led by the crowd. Research with a representative national sample of people starting businesses shows that one way in which they differ from others is that they are less likely to care about social and organizational recognition (Carter et al. 2003). Of course, we don't know whether the entrepreneurial activity preceded, followed, or was contemporaneous with this independent cast of mind, but the parallel between entrepreneurial behavior and desired liberal arts outcomes remains regardless of the direction of causality. Finally, consider communication of ideas. In the liberal arts, clarity of speaking is sometimes taken as a proxy for clarity of thinking. In entrepreneurship, effective communication of the power of an idea is the key to the creation of a strong venture team, the collection of necessary resources, and the eventual success of the enterprise. Thus in all three of these arenas, the "doing" that is essential to entrepreneurship has something valuable to contribute to the "thinking" that is fundamental to the liberal arts tradition.

But Watch Where You Walk

Even if the liberal arts can benefit from an infusion of entrepreneurial teaching and practice, as I believe to be the case, it is important to enter this realm with our eyes open for three reasons. The first concerns the faculty. More than a few of our colleagues were brought up in an intellectual tradition that places the life of the mind above commerce in the hierarchy of values defined for humankind. Liberal arts faculty who live by this Platonic ordering of values are likely to see their role as one of leading students away from crass materialism toward an appreciation of truth and beauty as ends in themselves. Because entrepreneurship involves the creation of value (though not necessarily commercial value), some critics can be expected to regard even "social entrepreneurship" with suspicion. Other faculty, who might think of entrepreneurship as originating in the business school, could consider an infusion of entrepreneurial thinking as just one more incursion of preprofessional training into what should be a more "pure" liberal education.