Achieving Societal Potential

Stephen Spinelli, Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Global Management at Babson College

Stephen Spinelli is Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Global Management at Babson College and is a renowned leader in defining the field of entrepreneurship.

Stephen Spinelli is Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Global Management at Babson College and is a renowned leader in defining the field of entrepreneurship. Outside of academia, Spinelli was a co-founder of Jiffy Lube International while he also co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of American Oil Corporation, which he sold in 1991.

For Spinelli, entrepreneurship can be learned and therefore can be taught. "However, there are innate personal characteristics that foster entrepreneurial behaviour." Spinelli indicates that the variable people deal differently with is an ambiguous environment. "In entrepreneurship, ambiguity is your friend.' People find value in solving problems and creating greater certainty."

Teaching and Ethics

In entrepreneurial teaching, ethics need to infil-trate the curriculum, according to Spinelli. "At Babson the faculty has written a 'framework for ethical decision making' that draws heavily on the scholarship of the liberal arts faculty."

For Spinelli, entrepreneurship entails a holistic view of the environment and teaches and draws on many skills and capabilities. "Entrepreneurship is also opportunity focussed and therefore value creating. More and more, I believe that entrepreneurship education is essential to achiev-ing the potential of a society."

Economic Prosperity

Spinelli outlines how research at Babson College, particularly in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) indicates that the health of the economy is heavily reliant on entrepreneurial activity. However, Spinelli asserts that there are many 'kinds' of entrepreneurship. "Some folks start businesses because there are simply no other options. This necessity based entrepreneur-ship may not have a significant impact on the economy. However, the slice of entrepreneurship that focusses on high impact ventures, sometimes called 'gazelle' firms, are robust creators of jobs and economic value.

"How does entrepreneurship education fits into the development of an economy? Entrepreneurship education performs many functions. Firstly, entrepreneurship is opportunity focussed and tends to sharpen the student's lens regarding the nature of their careers."