PhD Student awarded Kauffman Grant to study entrepreneurship
PhD Candidate, Ting Zhang, is pursuing her PhD in Entrepreneurship in the School of Public Policy and was recently awarded a 15k Dissertation Fellowship Grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The award is given to current Ph.D. students engaged in the research related to entrepreneurship.
Congratulations on your recent award. What is the nature of your research in entrepreneurship?
Thank you. My entrepreneurship research focuses on the role of elderly entrepreneurship in an aging US "knowledge economy."
Why did you focus on the area of elderly entrepreneurship in your research?
Facing the aging population and the resulted social, economic, and fiscal impacts, I believe the elderly can be an active group contributing to the economy instead of being treated as a burden. Also, the elderly deserve a better life with more respect and confidence. To achieve this, elderly entrepreneurship is a starting point due to two reasons: (1) there are many factors encouraging the elderly to be entrepreneurs; and (2) seniors are typically excluded from the connotation of entrepreneurship.
How will you utilize the 15k award ?
It will be used for academic activities related to my research of entrepreneurship.
Are there other resources at Mason that are helping you to conduct your research?
Absolutely. First of all, my professors motivation and their high quality of research are the precondition for my progress in the dissertation research. The School of Public Policy offers a highly entrepreneurial environment for innovative ideas, research, and even practice. The enormous help and training from my dissertation committee members and my colleagues at the School of Public Policy have been very helpful from extracting data to discussing methodologies. In addition, the Uddevalla Entrepreneurship Research Conference last year and the annual Mason Entrepreneurship Research Conferences offer great insights on current research into entrepreneurship.
What kind of impact do you think your research can or will have?
I hope to eventually publish a book that can call for the public attention on developing and encouraging the elderly entrepreneurship for our economy and for our seniors.
For more information: School of Public Policy
If you would like to contact Ting Zhang about this research: tzhang@gmu.edu