1. Academy of Business Research
Atlantic City - September 13-15, 2011
University-Based Business Plan Competitions:
Does Institutional Environment Affect
Participation and Outcomes?
Linda W. Ross
Kimble A. Byrd

2. Purpose of the Study
• Business plan contests have been both hailed and
criticized for their capacity to identify and aid the launch
in high-tech entrepreneurial ventures.
• There is no published systematic analysis of business
plan competitions – mainly anecdotal information
• This study compares BPCs and their outcomes in top-
ranked programs in entrepreneurship, engineering and
general business .

3. Business Plan Competitions in the US

4. Guiding Questions
• Do nationally ranked programs in entrepreneurship,
engineering, and business provide nascent
entrepreneurs with access to business plan competitions
to aid in launching enterprises?
• Are there substantive differences in types of businesses
that win contests in universities that have highly ranked
entrepreneurship programs compared those with
programs that are unranked?
• Do universities with highly ranked programs in
entrepreneurship or engineering yield distinctive high-
tech winners?

5. Data Collection
• 109 colleges and universities selected using categorical rating
schemas for entrepreneurship, engineering, and business
programs.
• 2010 Princeton Review – Entrepreneur.com Top 25
Entrepreneurship Programs Undergraduate and Graduate
• 2010 U.S. News and World Report. Undergraduate and graduate
engineering programs accredited by ABET - Accreditation Board
• 2010 U.S. News and World Report, Top 25 undergraduate business
programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (Best Business Programs, 2010.)
• 2010 Bloomberg BusinessWeek ratings of full-time programs
(Morgeson, 2008). We included both Tier 1 MBA programs and Tier
2 programs

6. TABLE 1
TOP-RANKED PROGRAMS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
ENGINEERING AND BUSINESS IN THE US - 2010

7. TABLE 2
NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS WITH BUSINESS PLAN
COMPETITION ACTIVITY & AVERAGE PRIZE VALUE

8. TABLE 3
SAMPLE OF RANKED UNIVERSITIES
IN THE ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION WINNERS

9. Unranked General Business BPCS
Brown University
Simmons College
Florida Atlantic University
U. of California, Davis
Grand Valley State University
University of Mississippi
Oklahoma State University
U. of New Mexico
Saint Louis University
University of Toledo

10. TABLE 4COMPARISON OF WINNING BUSINESS PLAN INDUSTRY CONTENT IN 40 UNIVERSITIES
Entrepreneur Business Business
INDUSTRY ship Engineering Tier 1&2 Unranked
n=39 n=32 n=36 n=36
Media / Internet Apps 25.64% 28.13% 8.33% 13.89%
Medical Products and
23.08% 18.75% 19.44% 36.11%
Services
Consumer Products and
15.38% 0.00% 13.89% 8.33%
Services
E-Commerce & IT 10.26% 18.75% 16.67% 5.56%
Entertainment/Sports /
10.26% 12.50% 8.33% 5.56%
Education
Food/Beverage/Nutrition 7.69% 6.25% 5.56% 13.89%
Energy 5.13% 12.50% 5.56% 5.56%
Other 2.56% 3.13% 22.22% 11.11%

11. IMPLICATIONS…SO WHAT?
FOR RESEARCHERS:
• Provides initial data on whether Entrepreneurship Programs
more or less effective than STEM programs in developing and
launching new ventures?
• Research on Business Plan Competitions provides one
avenue to explore many of those larger pedagogical
questions.
• Creates a starting point for determining whether, as advocates
for business plan competitions believe, BPC’ s are a vehicle to
incentivize and thereby stimulate innovation.
• Provides an initial data-set to research for future queries about
whether BPCs stem the outmigration of talented innovators by
providing nurturing and support.
(c) Byrd and Ross, 2011.

12. IMPLICATIONS…SO WHAT?
FOR PRACTICE:
• There is value in understanding more about the relationship
between entrepreneurship programs and engineering
programs in institutions of higher education.
• Preliminary assessment of the utility of rankings of top-tier
academic programs as useful guide to quality.
• Pedagogical insight into whether business plans and
competitions and “American Idols” are the best way to
educate or produce new ventures?
• The decline in the growth rate of business plan competitions
in 2010 raises a question of whether some competitions are
may need an “exit or harvest strategy.”
(c) Byrd and Ross, 2011.

13. FURTHER INQUIRY
• GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS
– Are there regional variations in the selection of winners and their
product or service mix?
• INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
– Do institutional characteristics account for differences in the
backgrounds of individual entrepreneurs who are chosen as the top
competitors?
• COMPETITION CHARACTERISTICS
– Does the type and extent of the rewards structure create greater
launch capability or sustainability (Cash v. In-Kind Services v.
Incubation Space)?
(c) Byrd and Ross, 2011.

14. Thank You
Any Questions ????