I recently had the incredible opportunity to deliver the keynote presentation at the Paris School of Business’ symposium on Entrepreneurial Research: Past, Present and Future. First, I’d like to again thank the school for this experience and my gracious host, Dr. Adnane Maalaoui, for introducing me to his students and giving this first-timer a glimpse of Paris.

I had promised to share what I learned at the symposium, and I will attempt to give you the highlights. I found that there is tremendous research being done by doctoral students who want to make an impact on entrepreneurship education as well as to share the work of the researchers who came before them. (Interestingly, entrepreneurship as a research field has only existed for the past 30 to 50 years.) The students at the Paris School of Business and affiliated universities in Europe provided a look into the future of entrepreneurship education during the symposium, and it is bright:

• The educational ecosystems is vibrant with dedicated students and educators sharing and building on entrepreneurship research;
• Students globally continue to be interested in entrepreneurship, but the ecosystem isn’t developed enough to deal with failure and risk in many regions;
• It is important to remember that although at MIT we focus on innovation-driven entrepreneurship, there are entrepreneurs around the world creating small sustainable business that support families and change the lives of many (but are not necessarily innovation-driven);
• Current cases taught to students could be updated to better reflect the changing entrepreneurial ecosystem;
• Financing ventures continues to be a struggle particularly outside the USA;
• Food and wine can be enhanced by rigorous debate, even in France;
• The Eiffel Tower is even beautiful in the rain, as I learned from our final night with a dinner cruise on the Seine with students and faculty.

As an entrepreneur in a vibrant MIT ecosystem where we teach students through experience, it was inspirational to meet some of the global educators and Ph.D. students who are continually doing research that helps prepare entrepreneurs to make an impact in the world.

When I decided to pursue my doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, I had already been an entrepreneur and business executive, but I joined UPenn’s Chief Learning Officer program and focused on work-based learning and closing the 21st century skills gap – this led me to my current role at MIT which is all about creating a learning environment for entrepreneurs. The Ph.D. students and faculty I met in Paris are developing competencies in new venture development, resource management, micro, social and strategic entrepreneurship using analytics/statistics to evaluate interventions and outcomes based on those responses.  I was able to connect with so much of their research both on an academic and practical level.

Another exciting development for French entrepreneurship was the election of President Emanuel Macron on May 7, just before the start of the symposium.  President Macron ran on a platform to make France globally competitive and is enthusiastic about startups in France. Macron’s pro-technology and pro-entrepreneurship views are discussed in this  article and this TechCrunch interview  conducted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January Las Vegas, attended by 190 French startups (at the time, Macron was France’s Economy Minister). It will be interesting to watch how the French startup ecosystem progresses under this new president.

I’m also sharing some resources that may be of interest:

• My presentation from the Symposium:

How Paris & Boston can learn from each other’s Entrepreneurship Communities,
by Trish Cotter

• A presentation by Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship that also shares ideas on:

The Past, Present and Future of Entrepreneurship Education, by Bill Aulet

• Great accounts to follow on Twitter:
  Paris School of Business @PSBeduParis, Grenoble Ecole de Management @Grenoble_EM, and Ecole de Commerce @EDCofficiel (The first is in in English, the second two are in French – but Twitter has a handy translate button.)

  Also, make sure you are following the Martin Trust Center at MIT … @EshipMIT !

In closing, I’ll share the words of Jean-Baptiste Say the French economist who first coined the word “entrepreneur” around the year 1800:

“The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.”

Bonne chance to all of our entrepreneurs!