Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

This article fills a need in the entrepreneurship literature by investigating the finances of entrepreneurship centers throughout the world. Entrepreneurship center directors were surveyed (249 U.S. and 111 Global) about the various facets of their center’s finances. We received 174 responses for a 49% response rate (U.S. 49%, international 49%). We explore the financing of entrepreneurship centers and the relationship between U.S. and international centers. The results of this research project can be used as a benchmark for entrepreneurship center directors in understanding the financial challenges confronting their centers.

This article examines the financial activities within a sample of entrepreneurship centers in the United States. 249 entrepreneurship centers were surveyed about their center's endowments, budgets, salaries, fundraising, seminars/workshops and other financial activities. We received 122 responses for a 49% response rate. The findings of this research can be used as a benchmark for both U.S. schools and center directors in deter,mining benchmarks for their respective centers.

This study fills a gap in previous research by performing an in-depth analysis of 146 entrepreneurship centers in the United States. This two-part study looks at the characteristics of the entire sample of entrepreneurship centers and then examines the differences between top-ranked centers and nonranked centers. The findings indicate that top-ranked centers have three times as many endowed chairs as non- ranked centers. Top-ranked centers also offer more comprehensive graduate pro- grams. Overall, top-ranked centers have more resources and personnel. The findings of this study will assist students, faculty, staff, administrators, directors, and other stakeholders of entrepreneurship centers.

A comparative study was used to analyze the financing of small businesses, less than 3 years old versus firms 3 years and older in Nebraska. Findings indicate that younger firms will give up partial ownership of their company in exchange for equity financing and managerial assistance significantly more than older firms. New firms were also found to be more willing to give up 100% ownership and a local market in exchange for majority ownership and a national market. Moreover, no differences in startup financing were found between younger versus older firms.