|
HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
Business Administration
Semester:
2nd Semester
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Dr. Naomi Hausman
Coordinator Office Hours:
Per Appointment
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Naomi Hausman
Course/Module description:
Innovators generate new ideas and entrepreneurs bring these ideas to life. They drive local and global growth, and a budding field of research seeks to understand who they are, how to attract them, how to help them thrive, and what they can do to maximize their own chances of success.
This course provides a taste of this field, studying select pieces of research on topics that tend to get attention from entrepreneurs as well as in the media and popular conversation. Students will learn not only the bottom-line findings of the research but also learn how to discern which findings are worthy of more weight. In that pursuit, the course offers some instruction in causal inference (the practice of inferring that one thing has caused another) and research methods. Students considering the research track, writing a thesis, or continuing to a research MA could get a good start in this course.
The research will occasionally be accompanied by case studies highlighting related ideas. Students will present these cases, focusing on drawing the connections.
Rest assured, while the syllabus includes academic research papers, students are not expected to be able to understand the technical aspects on their own. They should understand the material in the papers’ introductions and be able to explain what the paper is about when they arrive in class. Reading the introduction to each paper in most cases will be sufficient preparation. We will look at other sections together, and the instructor will explain any relevant technical aspects in class.
Course/Module aims:
• Learn evidence on the workings of entrepreneurship and innovation
• Improve your ability to interpret research for professional and personal purposes
• Gain an understanding of basic research methods that enable causal inference
•present a case while connecting to the research learned in class
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Be able to interpret empirical research. Understand basic research methods. Know a few things on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Attendance requirements(%):
80%
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
lectures, student case presentations and discussions
Course/Module Content:
Week 1: How do startups attract investors?
Research method spotlight: Experiments/ RCTs
Week 2: Can VCs improve startup performance?
Research method spotlight: Diff-in-diffs (and reduced-form IV)
Week 3: Do government R&D grants increase innovation?
Research method spotlight: Regression Discontinuity (RD)
Week 4: Public versus private firms and innovation
Research method spotlight: Instrumental Variables (IV)
Week 5: Institutions, policy uncertainty, and innovation
Research method spotlight: Inspired-by-Regression-Discontinuity
Week 6: How do accelerators work?
Week 8: How important are alternative income sources for entrepreneurship?
Research method spotlight: Diff-in-diffs (DD)
Week 10: Personalities of Entrepreneurs
Week 11: Gender gaps in business and entrepreneurship
Research method spotlight: Field Experiments./RCTs
Required Reading:
Weeks 1 and 2: Introduction, and
Gender gaps in business and entrepreneurship
Research method spotlight: Field Experiments./RCTs
* Bursztyn, Leonardo, Thomas Fujiwara and Amanda Pallais. (2017). “Marriage Market Incentives and Labor Market Investments,” American Economic Review, (107)11:3288-3319.
Howell, Sabrina T., and Ramana Nanda. "Networking Frictions in Venture Capital, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship." (pdf) Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-105, April 2019. (Revised July 2020.) View Details
Case Presentations: Eliminating the Gender Pay Gap: Gap Inc Leads the Way; How Genentech closed the leadership gap
Week 3: How do startups attract investors?
Research method spotlight: Experiments/ RCTs
* Bernstein, Shai, Arthur Korteweg, and Kevin Laws. "Attracting Early Stage Investors: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." Journal of Finance 72, no. 2 (April 2017): 509–538.
Case Presentations: Smartix: Swinging for the fences
Week 4: Can VCs improve startup performance?
Research method spotlight: Diff-in-diffs (and reduced-form IV)
* Bernstein, Shai., Xavier. Giroud, and Rick Townsend. "The Impact of Venture Capital Monitoring." Journal of Finance 71, no. 4 (August 2016): 1591–1622.
Gompers, Paul A., and Josh Lerner. "Venture Capital and the Creation of Public Companies: Do Venture Capitalists Really Bring More than Money?" Journal of Private Equity 1, no. 1 (Fall 1997): 15–32.
Case Presentations: Eatigo
Weeks 5 and 6: Public versus private firms and innovation
Research method spotlight: Instrumental Variables (IV)
Bernstein, Shai. "Does Going Public Affect Innovation?" Journal of Finance 70, no. 4 (August 2015): 1365–1403.
Case Presentations: Edison Schools; Beyond Meat; Lemonade
Week 7: Do government R&D grants increase innovation?
Research method spotlight: Regression Discontinuity (RD)
* Howell, Sabrina, “Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants.” 2017. The American Economic Review 107 (4).
Hausman, Naomi, and Rabi, Ron. “The heterogeneous effects of government R&D grants: Evidence from Israel,” Working Paper.
Case Presentation: Distribution of a COVID-19 Vaccine: Whose Interests Take Priority?
Weeks 8 and 9: How do accelerators work?
* Cohen, Susan, Daniel Fehder, Yael Hochberg, and Fiona Murray, “The Design of Startup Accelerators,” 2019. Research Policy, Vol. 48 No. 7
Case Presentations: Lovepop; Scale up! (Google Accelerators); HKST
Week 10: No Lecture
Week 11: [Zoom] Personalities of Entrepreneurs
* Kerr, Sari Pekkala, William R. Kerr, and Margaret Dalton. "Risk Attitudes and Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs and Venture Team Members." (pdf) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 36 (September 3, 2019): 17712–17716.
Additional Reading Material:
Optional but helpful: Mostly Harmless Econometrics (textbook)
Grading Scheme :
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture/ Seminar / Pro-seminar / Research proposal 50 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 40 %
Other 10 %
Additional information:
An official syllabus is available on the instructor's website: https://sites.google.com/site/naomihausman/teaching
|
