Kennesaw State named Birton Cowden as the first research director in the Robin and Doug Shore Entrepreneurship Center housed in the Coles College of Business Aug. 8.
Cowden will be serving as an assistant professor in the Michael A. Leven School of Management, Entrepreneurship and Hospitality.
“I’m excited to help bridge that gap between understanding more about entrepreneurship mechanisms and the external economy,” Cowden said. “Also to build resources for new ventures and corporations in the Atlanta area.”
Cowden said he is optimistic about coming to KSU, as it is Georgia’s first university to offer a Bachelor of Business Administration in entrepreneurship.
“KSU has the potential to build a top-notch entrepreneurship program,” Cowden said. “I really feel that the university is well poised to be a leader in entrepreneurship locally and nationally as well.”
Cowden said entrepreneurship is a fruitful area of research in business because there is still much more to understand about what entrepreneurship is and how it works. He also said there is more to understand about startups — organizations working to be more entrepreneurial — and universities that seek to give students an entrepreneurial skill set.
“More and more corporations are trying to find individuals with that enteral mindset to help them navigate the dynamic market,” Cowden said. “Just having that entrepreneurship skill set can help a student if they ever want to start their own business.”
Cowden said it is important for students to go out into the market and interview consumers to “unearth the truth” and discover if their business model ideas and hypotheses are true.
He says his interest in entrepreneurship research stems from growing up in a family business and through his education. Cowden received a master of science in strategic management and a master of business administration from Indiana University. He also earned a doctorate in business administration from Saint Louis University.
“My Ph.D. program really helped me understand the community that I was desperately seeking,” Cowden said. “It exposed me to how to teach entrepreneurship and to discovering the research opportunities within it.”
Cowden will also be teaching the capstone course for the entrepreneurship degree program, and he described his teaching style as “experimental.”
“If I was going to teach someone how to play basketball I wouldn’t give them a lecture and book about it,” Cowden said. “I want to give you the ball and take you to the court and actually play so that you can experience what it means first hand.”
Cowden joined KSU after taking a four-year-long academic journey in Massachusetts, serving as the director of new ventures at the Isenberg School of Management for the University of Massachusetts.
While serving at the university, Cowden co-founded the University of Massachusetts’ Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, which was later recognized by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
He also led the world’s largest “idea jam” where university students across the state pitched ideas for new businesses or products in a fast-paced event.
