WCRS: an incubator for novel ideas

paccar interior for WCRSFor entrepreneurs, collaboration can be key to innovation. The same is true for doctoral students and scholars in entrepreneurship. Faculty and graduate students from across the country and overseas met in Seattle September 4-6 for the 11th annual West Coast Research Symposium (WCRS) to do just that: collaborate. “The WCRS started as a simple idea to connect faculty and doctoral students passionate about technology-based entrepreneurship on the West Coast of the United States,” says UW professor Suresh Kotha. “It’s wonderful to see how it’s evolved into a premiere conference.”

Hosted by the UW Foster School of Business and presented jointly by the University of Washington, Stanford, Oregon, University of Southern California, and UC Irvine, the WCRS is an opportunity for researchers to share, discuss, and build upon the latest ideas in the world of technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The WCRS is an incubator for novel ideas that challenge received wisdom and offer valuable lessons to anyone who lives or wants to live in the world of technology entrepreneurship,” says USC professor Nandini Rajagopalan.  Stanford professor Kathy Eisenhardt, co-director of Stanford Technology Ventures, agrees: “This conference brings together scholars from major universities to share their latest insights. It’s cross-university collaboration at its best.”

Many of the 21 papers presented at this year’s conference focused new attention on topics ubiquitous to entrepreneurship: identifying and evaluating start-up opportunities, intellectual property and patent wars, navigating relationships with boards and investors.  Others addressed themes unique to specific demographics: technology choices in the solar photovoltaic industry, venture capital funding of Asian-led ventures, trends in the video game industry. “The WCRS gives us a chance to test drive new ideas, present our work in progress, draw the field’s boundaries, and shape its future trajectory,” says University of Oregon professor Alan Meyer.

A central component of the WCRS is a day-long workshop for doctoral students. WCRS faculty recognize the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship as key drivers in national economies, and encourage current PhD candidates to pursue research in this field. Students who attend the doctoral consortium leave having further developed their areas of interest and built relationships that last throughout their careers. “The relationships formed at the WCRS are often enduring in nature,” says Foster School associate professor Emily Cox Pahnke. “In fact, many doctoral students find themselves working with WCRS faculty on future research.”

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