1st Bradford-Osborne Awards Celebrate Game-Changing Research on Businesses Owned by People of Color, and Solicits Ongoing Research Focus with Annual Award
UW Foster School of Business, UCLA Anderson School of Management, and JP Morgan Chase Institute Recognize Impact of Growing Businesses Owned by People of Color and Partner to Further Research and Outcomes in this Area.
What is this award?
The Bradford-Osborne Research Award is the first national award recognizing scholarly research published that advances knowledge that will accelerate the growth of businesses owned by people of color. The inaugural recipients were celebrated in a national presentation on October 22, 2020. In addition to recognizing groundbreaking research, the awards seek to stimulate additional research, provide public and corporate policy makers with insights to guide decision-making, and equip business support organizations to deliver impactful programming.
Why is it important?
Take it from Lifetime Leadership Award winner, Timothy Bates, whose research points to significant economic impact. Small businesses in the US account for nearly 50% of the private sector workforce. Between 2002 and 2016, small businesses in the US that were owned by people of color added 4 million new employees, accounting for all the net new jobs at small businesses. Given the US’s changing demographics, this trend will likely continue. While people of color owned businesses are adding employees at a faster rate than their White peers, they remain smaller and more fragile. Research like that done by Bradford and Osborne address both the opportunities and challenges for these businesses.
Who won this inaugural award?
The Lifetime Leadership Award went to Timothy Bates, Distinguished Professor of Economics from Wayne State University, who in his 40+ year academic career published more research on minority entrepreneurship than any other researcher in the US. The 2020 Bradford-Osborne award recipients were Peter Younkin and Venkat Kuppuswamy for their 2017 Management Science paper “The Colorblind Crowd? Founder Race and Performance in Crowdfunding.” The review committee comprised of Foster faculty was impressed by the unique combination of methods and concrete/evidence-based recommendations regarding the disadvantage that African American men face when attempting to raise funding.
How did this award get started?
Named for its founders, Bill Bradford (UW Foster) and Al Osborne (UCLA Anderson), the award includes a cash prize for the winners and a national forum for presenting the research findings. Together, Bradford and Osborne have published more than 60 research articles focused on entrepreneurs of color and the dynamics of their businesses. Their funding of this award is yet another of their many innovations amidst pioneering careers.
By establishing the Bradford-Osborne Research Award, the Foster School makes an important commitment to amplifying academic research on minority businesses, investing in the intellectual community that can apply academic research to create positive social change. The Bradford-Osborne Research Award is just one of the many steps that the Foster School is taking to help create a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable community and to serve our purpose of working together to create insights that better humanity.
