- About the Lecture
-
About the Lecture
Ed Roberts reviews the effects of entrepreneurship within MIT and the relation of MIT entrepreneurship to larger communities.
Much of the research under discussion comes from a 2006 study of MIT alumni conducted by Roberts and Charles Eesley of the Sloan School. The study polled MIT alumni about companies they had started or co-founded and which were still in business. 20% reported founding a total of 25,800 companies that met this standard. These companies had a total employment of 3.3 million and generated revenues of almost one trillion dollars. Put in other terms, living MIT alumni constitute the equivalent of the eleventh largest economy in the world. "MIT is the most productive institution anywhere in the world in creating new companies," Roberts says.
The study found many intriguing trends. For one, the rate at which alumni have been starting companies has accelerated over the decades. The number of alumni starting their first firm (as opposed to their second or third company) has grown from about 1000 in the 50's to 9000 during the 90's. Entrepreneurship is spread throughout the alumni, regardless of where or what they studied. When alumni found multiple companies, the second tends to do better than the first, and the third, better than the second. Non-native students found companies, usually in the US, at twice the rate of native students. Women alums are less likely to found companies than men. The effects are highly concentrated geographically: 31% of the firms and payroll are in Massachusetts.
Two questions often provoked by these results are: why has this happened and how can my region or country create an MIT? While Roberts disavows any firm conclusions, he points out that MIT has a long history of deliberate, focused efforts at nurturing entrepreneurship, particularly over the last forty years. His talk reviews the many chapters of this relationship, which ranges from promoting business plan competitions among students, to organizing the licensing office around a focus on startups, to sponsoring educational and networking events among alumni, to integrating the campus around the entrepreneurial mission. As to the second question, Roberts says one of the key ingredients is patience. Building the MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem took a long time.
Download the report: Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MITRelated Videos
-
The Tough Get Growing: How to Succeed in a Down Economy
Eugene Fitzgerald , Daphne Zohar and Helen Greiner
November 16, 2009
-
Reflections on an MIT Education
A. Pappalardo
April 28, 2008
-
Jenkins’ Farewell: Reflections on a Career at MIT
Henry Jenkins
April 22, 2010
-
- About the Speaker
-
About the Speaker
Edward B. Roberts '57, SM '58, SM '60, PhD '62
David Sarnoff Professor of the Management of Technology
Chair, MIT Entrepreneurship CenterDuring the past 45 years, Ed Roberts has become internationally known for his research, teaching and active involvement in many aspects of technology management, including technology strategy, corporate venturing, product innovation management, and technology-based entrepreneurship. He served as co-director of the MIT International Center for Research on the Management of Technology.
Roberts was a founding member of the MIT System Dynamics Group, is Founder and Chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and was a founder and for more than 30 years chaired MIT Sloan's Management of Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group. He co-founded and for nearly 20 years chaired the mid-career MIT Management of Technology (MOT) Program. Most recently he co-created and directs the MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship & Innovation MBA Track.
He has been a co-founder and/or director of numerous emerging technology companies. Roberts has authored more than 160 articles and eleven books.
Roberts holds 4 degrees from MIT. - About the Host
-
About the Host
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the world’s leading business schools — conducting cutting-edge research and providing management education to top students from more than 60 countries. The School is part of MIT’s rich intellectual tradition of education and research.
MIT Sloan began in 1914 as engineering administration curriculum in the MIT Department of Economics and Statistics. The scope and depth of this educational focus have grown steadily in response to advances in the theory and practice of management to today’s broad-based management school.
A program offering a master’s degree in management was established in 1925. The world’s first university-based executive education program — the MIT Sloan Fellows — was created in 1931 under the sponsorship of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., an 1895 MIT graduate who was then chairman of General Motors. A MIT Sloan Foundation grant established the MIT School of Industrial Management in 1952 with a charge of educating the “ideal manager.”
Video Player
MIT’s Entrepreneurial Development and Impact Over the Past 50 Years
- Edward B. Roberts '57, SM '58, SM '60, PhD '62
- June 5, 2010
- Running Time: 1:02:20
