Anil Transitional Entrepreneurship Conference
Entrepreneurship is rarely, if ever, described as a journey of privilege. It takes hard work, long hours, and income is not guaranteed just to name a few. However, when we look at the resources provided for entrepreneurs to alleviate and scale their businesses, such as business loans, grants, and even business contacts, research has shown us the undeniable disparities amongst those receiving those resources and those who are not. Therein lies the privilege.
Old Dominion University's entrepreneurship initiatives started coming into focus in summer of 2015, as Dean Tanner commenced his position at Strome College of Business (SCB). In the prior year, ODU had received a $11 million gift from Mark Strome to support entrepreneurship initiatives at ODU. Dean Tanner met with Anil Nair, Chair, Department of Management and Nancy Grden (AVP, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) to discuss SCB's strategies to promote entrepreneurship research and programs. They discussed how ODU's entrepreneurship initiatives could be differentiated from the large number of entrepreneurship programs across the country, and yet be rooted in the unique needs of the Hampton Roads region. Considering the number of military veterans in Hampton Roads undertaking entrepreneurial ventures while transitioning to civilian life, Dean Tanner and team decided to focus on challenges faced by them and others in similar situation. Thus, was born the concept of transitional entrepreneurship. 'Transitional Entrepreneurship' focuses on entrepreneurs who launch ventures to accomplish significant life or career transitions, but face adversities in doing so. Such entrepreneurs include veterans, women, minorities, immigrants, refugees, and individuals from economically distressed communities. In 2018, a gift from Marsha Hudgins, helped establish the Hudgins Transitional Entrepreneurship Lab to support entrepreneurs in underserved communities in Hampton Roads.
To execute the vision that Dean Tanner, Nancy Grden and Marsha had for ODU and SCB's entrepreneurship initiatives, Anil Nair was granted the prestigious E. M. Kauffman Grant — $400,000 over four years. The Kauffman Foundation ". . . works with communities and organizations to level the playing field for entrepreneurs who have been systemically left behind due to demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic barriers. The Foundation awards grants to organizations that have exceptional track records in removing barriers that make starting and growing a business more difficult."
The grant funds many entrepreneurship initiatives across SCB and IIE, including four annual colloquia focused on transitional entrepreneurship. In 2021, Nair and Assistant Professor Li-Wei Chen organized the inaugural Transitional Entrepreneurial Colloquium. Due to the pandemic, the colloquium —which included panel discussions and paper presentations — was held in a virtual format, and was attended by more than 130 scholars, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from 17 countries over two days. Nair said, "The colloquium helped ODU and Strome achieve global recognition for its entrepreneurship initiatives. It was attended by some of the top entrepreneurship scholars across the world, and editors of all leading entrepreneurship journals. The colloquium was a huge success due to the hard work of faculty, staff and graduate students. I particularly want to thank graduate students Chris Willis, Nick Salzman, Habib Islam and Matt Farrell. Evidence of the colloquium's success is that for the 2022 edition of the colloquium, we have received about three times the number of submissions we received last year."
The next hybrid colloquium will be held June 17 and 18 at the Strome College of Business.
