Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56535
To help spur their efforts, Lenox now directs the newly cre- ated Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), a collaboration that aims to build the community of scholars passion- ate about social responsibility, pub- lic policy, and sustainability. Based at Darden, ARCS is sponsored by Dartmouth University, Duke University, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the Uni- versity of Virginia, and the Univer- sity of Western Ontario. ARCS will provide academics with a research portal to data about the environmental performance of U.S. firms and facilities, as well as a research affiliates program for uni- versity faculty, doctoral students, and researchers at think tanks and other research institutions. The group will sponsor a two-day annual conference on sustainability at one of its partici- pating institutions on a rotating basis. Lenox's next study will explore green innovation and entrepreneur- ship—specifically, whether state-level renewable energy credits lead to greater innovation, an influx of new businesses, and more "green" jobs. He hopes that ARCS will make research on topics like these more frequent and broaden the network of academics in the field. "There are interesting conversa- tions to be had about these top- ics," Lenox says. "We need to talk more about how we unlock the power of entrepreneurship and use business and commerce as engines for doing good." To read more of Lenox's research, visit his Web site at faculty.darden.virginia. edu/LenoxM/research.htm. detailed business plans, however, had no bearing on whether or not they got the nod from venture capitalists. "You're better off investing in David Kirsch Brent Goldfarb VCs Fund Businesses, Not Business Plans Many a business course has taught the importance of a carefully con- sidered and constructed business plan. But is a business plan really a necessary step toward obtain- ing financial backing? Not really, according to researchers from the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business in College Park. The research was conducted by David Kirsch, associate professor of management and entrepreneurship; Brent Goldfarb, assistant profes- sor of management and entrepre- neurship; and doctoral student Azi Gera. The three focused their attention on startup activity during the dot-com bubble—April 1999 to February 2002. They examined the business plans and funding requests of 718 startups. They pulled the information from a sample of dot-coms in the Business Plan Archive, a historical research and preservation project. Kirsch directs the archive, which is supported by the Library of Congress' National Digital Infor- mation Infrastructure Preservation Program. The researchers found that of these requests, only 58 actu- ally received funding. Whether or not entrepreneurs had prepared your idea and your social network as well as finding potential inves- tors and customers—the intangi- bles around your business that are going to make it more likely you succeed," says Kirsch. That's not to say that a business plan is not useful. It is an essen- tial organizational tool, say the researchers. It gives entrepreneurs a starting point for their business- es, and provides venture capitalists with a quick overview. But a plan "is a limited-use document that will in no way substitute for the hard work of actually building a business," says Kirsch. "Form or Substance: The Role of Business Plans in Venture Capital Decision Making" appears in the May 2009 issue of the Strategic Management Journal. For information about the Business Plan Archive, visit www.business planarchive.org. Media Can't Pop the Bubble Many people blame the media for making a bad economy worse by continu- ally emphasizing bad financial news. However, the media play a smaller role in popping a financial bubble than many critics might think. A new paper, "The Role of the Media in the Internet IPO Bubble," explores the impact that media coverage had on stock performance during the dot-com bubble, from 1996 to early 2000. Utpal Bhat- tacharya and Xiaoyun Yu, profes- sors at Indiana University's Kelley BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2009 53