Academic

Anne Miner is giving the opening remarks at a conference entitled "Technology Entrepreneurship and Institutions: Contemporary and International Research," which is being held at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. A trip back home for me, and a nice reunion with Anne, Masado Ueda, Timo Goeschl, and others.

Anne's central point -- one that I heard her make often during my time in Madison -- is that  entrepreneurship scholarship of the sort she is interested in promoting is not like car repair. The point of entrepreneurship scholarship of this sort is not to produce a how-to manual, but to understand the forces that drive entrepreneurial behavior. Of course, causal theories are nice, and as we develop them, society will benefit. But we shouldn't expect to find a "secret sauce" that can turn any region into the next Silicon Valley. Indeed, Anne asserts that there is no secret sauce.