A. Executive Summary
The Entrepreneurship Research Institute (ERI) can be the University’s vehicle for: (a) the promotion of research in Entrepreneurship, broadly defined; (b) fostering interactions and developing partnerships with the business community; and (c) engaging the local community. The institute will undertake cutting edge research in Entrepreneurship, raise the profile of UC Merced in the business community and facilitate student placement and fund-raising, as well as engage the local community in entrepreneurship activities and related opportunities in the area. UC Merced can become an entrepreneurship hub and a business incubator. Whereas we may not be able to replicate the success of Silicon Valley, it does cost a lot less to start up a company in Central Valley than in Silicon Valley.

B. Thematic Area
The primary thematic area is “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, but our proposal spans across other themes such as “Information, Computational and Data Sciences, and Engineering”, “Disparities: Equity, Diversity, Social Inequality”, “Environmental Sustainability”, and “Energy and Energy Systems”.

C. Intellectual Components of the Strategic Initiative
The Entrepreneurship Research Institute (ERI) aims at providing a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment fostering new research contributions related to Entrepreneurship and Business Administration, including small business administration and agribusiness, along the lines of business organization and governance, decision making, financial management, uncertainty, risk-taking and enterprise risk management, business strategy and game theory, economics of information, team-building, innovation and information diffusion, human resource management and incentive provision, environmental policy and sustainability, organizational behavior, business ethics and business communication. Emphasis will be placed on agribusiness and agricultural product processing, winery operations management, management of sustainable energy and water technologies, and micro-financing. We aim at stimulating new sources of funding facilitating research which will lead to publications in major scientific journals, supporting existing funded research, and supplying research techniques or services to faculty groups. We will also emphasize quantitative methods (including modeling, optimization, numerical data analysis, simulation techniques and statistical estimation) in our research, which is rapidly becoming a uniform theme across campus (see related proposals, such as the Statistical and Quantitative Research initiative of the Center for Statistical and Quantitative Research (CeQR)). Quantitative Methods can be a cross-campus initiative that will bring distinction to UCM.

The research focus of the institute stems from the existing expertise of the collaborators in this proposal, as well as from their future research plans. Specifically, the collaborators in this proposal have a proven track record in research related to executive promotion and compensation, performance pay and incentives, relative performance evaluation, limited liability and bankruptcy, organizational structure, labor and credit contracts, capital structure, individual and group decision making, computational modeling and data sciences, stochastic systems, Monte Carlo simulations and multi-objective optimization.

The collaborators and affiliates in this proposal are also interested in pursuing research on micro-finance and crowd-funding with applications to Central Valley. Some of the collaborators submitted a grant proposal to CITRIS focused on micro-financing in Central Valley as a facilitator of growth. Another group of collaborators recently submitted a grant proposal to USDA-NIFA-HSI on innovation and entrepreneurship programs for Hispanic College students to be involved in the agricultural (precision agriculture and unmanned drone programs) and food processing industry (Gallo and Foster Farms) of the Central Valley. And other members are engaged in the areas of knowledge diffusion, data sciences, interactive uses of technology, as well as Federal relations in general.

We will work closely with the Office of Research to seek funding from sources such as CITRIS, Blum Center, NSF etc. in order to undertake research projects in the research focus areas above. We will seek industry funding to establish conferences and workshops on innovation, entrepreneurship and finance.

We will work with COR, GC, CAPRA, UGC and DivCo to create a research center that will operate as an organized research unit (ORU) and will be open to all faculty and students across disciplines with an interest in research related to all aspects of innovation, entrepreneurship and the management of organizations, as well as staff that deals with businesses in their University capacity. We will request the Chancellor to appoint an Advisory Committee. We envision working with a variety of business organizations and recognized business leaders nationally and in the state, along with the Office of Research and Economic Development, so that UC Merced becomes an entrepreneurship hub and a business incubator. Whereas we may not be able to replicate the success of Silicon Valley, it does cost a lot less to start up a company in Central Valley than in Silicon Valley. If we focus on our competitive advantage, producing innovations in the areas of agribusiness and agricultural product processing, winery operations management, and management of sustainable energy and water technologies, we will put Merced on the map.

Whereas several units on campus are engaged with entrepreneurship issues, there is no uniform representation of these activities. The institute we propose will provide an umbrella to coordinate all these activities, facilitate cooperation and enable seeking additional funding. We aim at working with all three schools on campus, as well as with SNRI and HSRI to this end. Given the University’s mission, we will also provide an environment were diversity in all its forms is embraced.

As acknowledged by the Management Program Review, UC Merced’s Management Program must develop reciprocal relationships with business and community leaders. In this respect, we propose to work closely with the Career Services Center, Development and Alumni Relations, Corporate Relations, CITRIS, the Margo F. Souza Leadership Center, the Small Business Development Center at our Fresno facility, the Engaged Transformation of Poverty (ETP) in the San Joaquin Valley initiative, the “Global California: The World at Home” initiative, the Blum Center and the Foster Family Center along the following lines: (i) investigate the needs of the state businesses; (ii) support small businesses in the area; (iii) organize business days on campus with Career Services and Development for various businesses that include a panel discussion of the employment needs of the company and of what UC Merced has to offer (similar to the Gallo day Career Services recently organized), with student involvement and recent recruit involvement; (iv) organize classroom visits and interactive sessions for business community members; (v) facilitate student involvement with business projects; (vi) facilitate faculty and student internships with local companies similar to the ones recently secured with Gallo and HotChalk; (vii) investigate fund-raising possibilities with Development among local businesses and entrepreneurs; and last but not least (viii) engage the local community to embrace business development opportunities. We also propose to work closely with students and support their efforts (for example, the student led Entrepreneurial Society Club, the Investment Club (sponsored by Mark Harris), the Business Society, and a new student publication in the works entitled Management Review).

As part of the functions of the institute, we propose to create distinguished speaker series, in cooperation with Career Services and Development, and with financial support from the local business community, which may include: (a) a Leadership Series designed for high-profile business or community leaders; (b) an Entrepreneurship Series designed for entrepreneurs and business managers. We will also support academic, community and student conferences on themes in entrepreneurship, including (for example) the annual Entrepreneurial Seminar and Pitchfest in collaboration with the Merritt Writing Program and the Entrepreneurial Society of UCM (TESUM), a student led club.

Last but not least, the institute will work closely with all existing Schools (SSHA, SOE and SNS) as well as with the E&J Gallo Management program, and will operate under the auspices of the new School of Innovation, Management & Economics when it is established.

D. UCM’s Relative Role
UCM is uniquely positioned to becoming an entrepreneurship hub for Central Valley given its focus on cutting-edge research embracing innovation and entrepreneurship. The emphasis of our proposal on small business administration, agribusiness and agricultural product processing, winery operations management, management of sustainable energy and water technologies, and micro-financing not only will distinguish UC Merced from other UC campuses, but it will spearhead development and growth in Central Valley. Our proposed institutions and programs will exploit all synergies across campus and build on existing strengths in technology, engineering and natural science fields.

Programs that relate to what we propose are the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute at Cornell University, and the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School. However, none of these institutes have the unique focus we propose above on small business administration, agribusiness and agricultural product processing, winery operations management, management of sustainable energy and water technologies, and micro-financing.

E. Faculty Participation
The Gallo Management program has about 370 undergraduate students currently. With a projection of 9,000 undergraduates, Management should have about 800 students who can benefit from the proposed initiatives. Related fields in Economics, Applied Math, Engineering, Sociology, Political Science and Psychology can also benefit. We will explore all possible links to undergraduate and especially graduate education. Specifically, we will work with Economics, MBE and MIST in curriculum planning.

F. Special Programmatic Needs
Distinguished programs require distinct foci and distinguished faculty. However, Institutes cannot hire faculty directly (however, we do encourage hiring in fields related to Entrepreneurship such as Financial Management or Asset Pricing and Investments or Marketing). Administrative support, space, and operating funds will be needed for the Institute. University, grant, and endowment support will be sought for the Institute's activities.