UC Davis experts: Entrepreneurship

The following University of California, Davis, faculty members are available to comment on entrepreneurship.

Management of technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, new products

Andrew Hargadon, associate professor and director of technology management programs for the Graduate School of Management, is an expert in technology management, management of innovation, entrepreneurship and the management of new product development. Hargadon's research is focused on the point at which technology and innovation meet and the interplay between product development and marketing. He looks at the sources of new ideas and the notion of "knowledge brokering." His book, How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate describes how engineers and entrepreneurs pull together old ideas and ways of thinking from different areas and use them to create revolutions in other industries and fields. A former design engineer for IDEO Product Development and Apple Computer, Hargadon also studies how entrepreneurs and designers must overcome the fact that people adopting innovations rely on familiar understandings and ideas to make sense of new technologies. Contact: Andrew Hargadon, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-2277, abhargadon@ucdavis.edu.

Women and entrepreneurship, economic development

Nicole Woolsey Biggart, dean of the Graduate School of Management, is a professor of both management and sociology, and she holds the Jerome J. and Elsie Suran Chair in Technology Management. Biggart is an authority on organizational theory and management of innovation. Her research interests include economic and organizational sociology, firm networks, industrial change and social bases of technology adoption. The author of seven books or book-length reports, Biggart has studied a wide array of sectors, organizations and markets around the world, including the auto industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Argentina; the U.S. commercial building industry; Japanese management strategies in the United States; management and organization in the Far East; organizational explanations for scandals in the White House; organizational change in the U.S. Post Office; and the sociology of labor and leisure. She is also an expert in the formation of business clusters. Contact: Nicole Woolsey Biggart, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7366, nwbiggart@ucdavis.edu.

Entrepreneurship, venture capital, commercialization

Richard Dorf is a professor in the Graduate School of Management and a professor emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He researches and teaches entrepreneurship, technology and innovation management, management of nonprofits, new venture management, venture capital management, and technology policy and technology management. He is also a consultant in engineering project development, commercialization, innovation, management, and new business ventures. He teaches courses on new and small business ventures, and sustainable and responsible business. Dorf has authored more than 30 books including Entrepreneurial Ventures, in which he discusses the essence of entrepreneurial activity and its importance to the life of capitalism and growth. Contact: Richard Dorf, Graduate School of Management, (530) 754-9061, rcdorf@ucdavis.edu.

Entrepreneurial criminals

Some of the same attributes that create successful, legitimate business people may operate in the criminal world, says Bill McCarthy, an associate professor of sociology at UC Davis. His finding has broad implications for public policy. "Some offenders score high on measures of competence, they're willing to work with other people and they make decisions that increase their earnings," McCarthy says. "We bear a considerable cost imprisoning people like this who could make a contribution in the legal economy." Borrowing ideas from economic theories about the attributes that contribute to prosperity in legitimate enterprises, McCarthy says people who were the most successful at crime have a strong desire to succeed, specialize, are risks-takers and are willing to work with others. And, importantly, they are competent. Contact: Bill McCarthy, Sociology, (530) 752-1563, bdmccarthy@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts

• Claudia Morain, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, .

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