About Robert

Robert Vesco

I'm doctoral student at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

I want people to pursue opportunities and happiness and I believe entrepreneurship is one important way people can do that.

My research interests include understanding (a) why some areas are more entrepreneurial than others, (b) what drives people to pursue entrepreneurship, and (c) how can policies foster effective and sustainable entrepreneurship.

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A Startup Visa That Works, But Loan Programs For MBAs That Don't

A lot has been said about the proposed start up visa legislation that would grant immigrants visas in exchange for starting certain types of businesses here in the US.

This is long overdue and a great development.  Let's hope this legislation passes.

That said, there is another source of entrepreneurship that the US is also preventing and that source is MBA students who are saddled with enormous debt. A common comment heard in the hallways of MBA schools is "Yes, I would love to join or start a business, but my hundred plus grand in debt makes this impossible."

So what could be done about this problem?

  1. Nothing, it's not a problem. Those who chose to get an MBA should have known the costs and constraints that it would impose. No need to encourage more moral hazard from MBA students....
  2. Create loan forgiveness programs/scholarships like those offered by both schools and governments specifically for those MBAs (or undergrads) who decide to start  or join a startup.
  3. Create loan deferment programs.

While there are a few schools that are offering to repay part of the loan MBA students incur there could be more. And as far as I know, there is no government program that offers loan forgiveness for MBA students who decide to go the start up route. That said, I'm not too sure that would be such a good idea.

Alternatively, perhaps allowing MBA students to defer their MBA loans for a certain number of years would be a better idea. This would allow them to pursue their dream and see if it works out without the immediate fear of having to pay back their massive loans. If their venture doesn't work out, then it's back to the corporate world. They would still be accountable. Now, the government already offers deferment for economic hardships but it is a complicated process to get approval for (and maintain) and it lasts only up to three years. More importantly, it only covers, as far as I know, certain types of loans. Many of the private, non-federal loans, may not be covered. Thus, ideally there would a loan deferment program for anyone who decides to create a qualified startup regardless of where their loans come from.

Right now, there are many MBA students who would love to pursue their startup dreams but who feel their only choice is to work with established companies in order to pay off their loans. This is one more source of constraint to entrepreneurship that is holding this country back. While allowing immigrants to start businesses in this country in exchange for visas is a hugely important policy goal, I would argue that helping our MBAs start businesses would be a close second.

Webscraping with R

I'll be giving a talk at the DC Meetup group on "Webscraping with R" on June 24.

If you're interested in learning more about R or webscraping in general come join us.

http://www.meetup.com/R-users-DC/

Top Journals in Management and Strategy

Each business school, and each department/sub discipline within that school, has a set of journals that measure faculty performance. On the strategy side of the department of management and organization at U of Maryland's business school these six journals are considered A-level.

Academy of Management Review

The mission of the Academy of Management Review (AMR) is to publish new theoretical insights that advance our understanding of management and organizations. AMR is receptive to a variety of perspectives, including those seeking to improve the effectiveness of, as well as those critical of, management and organizations. Submissions to AMR must extend theory in ways that permit the development of testable knowledge-based claims. To do this, researchers can develop new management and organization theory, significantly challenge or clarify existing theory, synthesize recent advances and ideas into fresh, if not entirely new theory, or initiate a search for new theory by identifying and delineating a novel theoretical problem. The contributions of AMR articles often are grounded in "normal science disciplines" of economics, psychology, sociology, or social psychology as well as nontraditional perspectives, such as the humanities. AMR publishes novel, insightful and carefully crafted conceptual work that challenges conventional wisdom concerning all aspects of organizations and their roles in society.

Academy of Management Journal

The mission of the Academy of Management Journal is to publish empirical research that tests, extends, or builds management theory and contributes to management practice. All empirical methods -- including, but not limited to, qualitative, quantitative, field, laboratory, and combination methods -- are welcome. To be published in AMJ, a manuscript must make strong empirical and theoretical contributions and highlight the significance of those contributions to the management field. Thus, preference is given to submissions that test, extend, or build strong theoretical frameworks while empirically examining issues with high importance for management theory and practice. AMJ is not tied to any particular discipline, level of analysis, or national context.

Strategic Management Journal

The journal publishes original material concerned with all aspects of strategic management. It is devoted to the improvement and further development of the theory and practice of strategic management and it is designed to appeal to both practising managers and academics. Papers acceptable to an editorial board acting as referees are published. The journal also publishes communications in the form of research notes or comments from readers on published papers or current issues. Editorial comments and invited papers on practices and developments in strategic management appear from time to time as warranted by new developments. Overall, SMJ provides a communication forum for advancing strategic management theory and practice. Such major topics as strategic resource allocation; organization structure; leadership; entrepreneurship and organizational purpose; methods and techniques for evaluating and understanding competitive, technological, social, and political environments; planning processes; and strategic decision processes are included in the journal.

Administrative Science Quarterly

ASQ regularly publishes the best theoretical and empirical papers based on dissertations and on the evolving and new work of more established scholars. Look to ASQ for new work from young scholars with fresh views, opening new areas of inquiry, and from more seasoned scholars deepening earlier work and staking out new terrain.

ASQ publishes the best organizational theory papers from a number of disciplines, including organizational behavior and theory, sociology, psychology and social psychology, strategic management, economics, public administration, and industrial relations. Look to ASQ for work that transcends the bounds of particular disciplines to speak to a broad audience.

Organization Science

Organization Science is ranked among the top journals in management by the Social Science Citation Index in terms of impact and is widely recognized in the fields of strategy, management, and organization theory. Organization Science provides one umbrella for the publication of research from all over the world in fields such as organization theory, strategic management, sociology, economics, political science, history, information science, systems theory, communication theory, artificial intelligence, and psychology.

Management Science

Management Science is a scholarly journal that publishes scientific research into the practice of management. Our scope includes articles that address management issues with tools from foundational fields such as computer science, economics, mathematics, operations research, political science, psychology, sociology, and statistics, as well as cross-functional, multidisciplinary research that reflects the diversity of the management science professions. Our interest extends to managerial issues in diverse organizational forms, such as for-profit and nonprofit firms, private and public sector institutions, and formal and informal networks of individuals. We welcome theoretical, empirical, prescriptive, and descriptive contributions.

Creating Opportunities for Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Escaping the green prison: Entrepreneurship and the creation of opportunities for sustainable development (possibly gated) is a paper by Desirée F. Pacheco, Thomas J. Dean b, and David S. Payne soon to be published in the Journal of Business Venturing.

It's a fresh paper on the topic of sustainable entrepreneurship that looks at how and why entrepreneurs create changes in society. It's full of real life examples as well as some interesting theory. The emphasis of the paper is on how entrepreneurs themselves, and through business led non-profits, create change with little mention on the role of traditional environmental non-profits. This leaves the paper with the feeling that entrepreneurs have taken the lead role  in creating changes in norms, property rights, and so on. I'm not so sure that's the case, but nevertheless, it's nice to read a paper that highlights the collective action of entrepreneurs rather than that of governments or non-profits.

Abstract:

While entrepreneurial activity has been an important force for social and ecological
sustainability; its ef?cacy is dependent upon the nature of market incentives. This limitation
is sometimes explained by the metaphor of the prisoner's dilemma, which we term the green
prison. In this prison, entrepreneurs are compelled to environmentally degrading behavior due
to the divergence between individual rewards and collective goals for sustainable
development. Entrepreneurs, however, can escape from the green prison by altering or
creating the institutions—norms, property rights, and legislation—that establish the incentives
of competitive games. We provide a variety of evidence of such entrepreneurial action and
discuss its implications for theory and practice.

What do We Know about Social Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Empirical Research

What do We Know about Social Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Empirical Research.

Worth checking out if you want a high-level overview of what's been done in this space and the various schools of thought.


Social Entrepreneurship Research

Looking for social entrepreneurship research online can be a challenge. There just doesn't seem to be that many good sources around. To aid in this issue, the University Network, formed by Ashoka, the Skoll Centre, and several other partners, combined their forces to create a resource hub around promoting social entrepreneurship. While there are no shortage of such organizations  what caught my attention is that they've created a social entrepreneurship e-journal on SSRN. These are the top categories they've setup so far:

Social Entrepreneurship

Unfortunately, SSRN still doesn't have RSS feeds setup for it's journals, only for specific authors, so you still need to subscribe to their emails to get the latest updates. This is a shame because it makes it harder to sift through research and promote research outside of SSRN. On the upside, you can now comment on SSRN articles.