Summer Scholar Research

Eric Singh `11 worked with Dr. Anita Waters in Sociology/Anthropology on research titled “Outlining Entrepreneurship for Refugees: Possibilities for Somali Business Ownership in Columbus, Ohio.”

Overview

The Burton D. Morgan Program for Liberal Arts and Entrepreneurship Education brings innovation and entrepreneurship to the fore in one of Denison’s most valued programs, the Summer Scholar Program.  Each summer several faculty/student pairs will be selected to conduct innovation-related research.

• Application Guidelines [pdf]

Summer Scholars — Summer 2010

• Ruiya Huang `12 and Dr. Robin Bartlett: Department of Economics

  Offshore Outsourcing: Its Development, Current Status and the Exploration of Its Future Potentials in Chinese Firms Being Outsourcing Partners

  Outsourcing has become a very popular business conception in the recent years. In the literature concerning outsourcing, there exist different approaches of defining outsourcing and there exist different attitudes towards outsourcing. The positive and negative effects that outsourcing has on employment, productivity and intellectual property rights are much debated. Outsourcing is a frequently chosen business solution. The micro-analysis of outsourcing for a firm has crucial meanings on whether a firm should outsource any of its business or not and on how to improve its outsourcing performance. With the goal of studying outsourcing and exploring entrepreneurship possibilities in outsourcing, in this research I studied the definition, the history, the debate of outsourcing, the micro-analysis method to analyze and evaluate outsourcing, the process and management of outsourcing, and the case study of the software industry in China, the general investment environment in China. This paper also provides an entrepreneurial exploration, giving a business idea on a b2b e-marketplace platform that is based on the research of outsourcing and the Chinese software industry.

 

• Erik Singh `11 and Dr. Anita Waters: Department of Sociology/Anthropology

  Outlining Entrepreneurship for Refugees: Possibilities for Somali Business Ownership in Columbus, Ohio

  This paper is a work of exploratory research on the nature of entrepreneurship among the Somali immigrant and refugee population in Columbus, OH that includes business strategies and suggests for more success among Somali entrepreneurs. This research relies upon the literature from entrepreneurship studies in entrepreneurship scholarship, ethnic entrepreneurship literature in sociological scholarship, and interviews conducted from Somali entrepreneurs in Columbus to formulate business strategies and suggestions for successful entrepreneurial venturing within “ethnic enclaves”—areas of immigrant concentration where market activity takes place primarily between ethnics in a highly developed economy. The entrepreneurial strategies outlined here are stated in order to better facilitate the economic, and therefore. societal integration of Somali refugees into Columbus.

Innovation Summer Scholars — Summer 2009

• Brooke Esarey`11 and Dr. Joe Reczek: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

  Synthesis and testing of electron-rich aromatic molecules for a low cost solar cell: An innovative approach to the materials chemistry of solar cells

  The goal is to creatively enhance an important technology, Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, with the long-term goal of bringing it to be useful and marketable product. Though this is a heavily chemistry-based undertaking, the objectives of this project encompass a broader impact on the environment through innovation and entrepreneurship. The outcome of this research aims at an imaginative new approach to provide new solar cells that could impact a worldwide audience. We hope to break established paradigm of dye-monolayers in DSSCs by using novel DACLCS.