The early story: A brief history of the creation of entrepreneurship at Babson College and the discovery of innovation’s missing imperative

Abstract

The authors document in detail how the entrepreneurship program was created at Babson College in the 1970s. They recount the early history of Babson’s program because the school was one of the first, if not the first, to make a huge institutional commitment that led to entrepreneurship becoming a core part of its academic programs. At the time, other schools had an entrepreneurship course or two, but Babson’s commitment involved the creation of an undergraduate major, an MBA concentration, an annual research conference, a Distinguished Academy of Entrepreneurs, an Entrepreneurship Chair, and numerous outreach programs. These efforts influenced other universities to increase their entrepreneurship offerings to the extent that a new academic discipline—entrepreneurship studies—was born. A second reason for this article is the belief by those directly involved in the creation of Babson’s program that the complete story has not been told and is in danger of being misunderstood. Like most innovations, the creation of Babson’s entrepreneurship program was not a neat and tidy affair, but one more consistent with the turbulent notions put forth by Joseph Schumpeter and Clayton Christenson. Understanding Babson’s early history with entrepreneurship can help others pursuing or facilitating their own academic innovations.