SCALEUP

About the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE)

The Texas State University CIE is a university center focused on connecting, supporting, and growing a robust innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem across all disciplines at Texas State. The CIE equips members of the university community with the skills, experiences, mindset, and necessary resources to become innovators and entrepreneurs who bring new ideas to life. The CIE engages with faculty, students, and alumni who are eager to positively impact the world by finding innovative solutions to complex, real-world, social, technical, and business challenges.

About the ScaleUP Program

The number of minority entrepreneurs in the United States has grown substantially in recent years with many minority populations experiencing a 2x increase in the number of entrepreneurs. However, once minority-owned businesses are launched, studies show that their growth lags that of non-minority businesses. If minority-owned businesses grew at the same rate, estimates suggest that over $5 trillion would be added to the national economy and over 21 million jobs would be created.

Although considerable research evidence explains the challenges facing minority-owned startups, far less is known about the challenges these businesses face when growing (compared to non-minority businesses). Recent studies offer initial insights into why this growth is slower, but much remains to be discovered. The goal of SCALEUP is to conduct research that identifies the challenges affecting minority-owned business growth and to develop practical tools that help overcome these challenges.

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Meet the SCALEUP Faculty Research Fellows

Three (3) Texas State faculty members have been selected to serve as CIE Faculty Research Fellows to support the SCALEUP program for a one-year period (beginning January 1, 2022). CIE Faculty Research Fellows will support the SCALEUP Program by participating in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research group charged with identifying and investigating factors that impede minority-enterprise growth and developing practical tools to solve these challenges.

Dr. Sid Anderson

Dr. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Marketing. He earned a PhD in Marketing (2016) from Florida State University after receiving his MBA (2011) and B.S. in Computer Information Systems (2000) from the University of Central Missouri. Prior to entering academia, he gained twelve years of experience in the IT industry, where he assisted in implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems; his consulting expertise includes data conversion and systems integration. His research interests include marketing strategy, healthcare marketing, and service operations management. His work has been published in Decision Sciences, Psychology & Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Journal of Retailing & Consumer Services, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Service Industries Journal, Health Services Management Research, Marketing Education Review, and Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education.

Dr. Min (Maggie) Wan

Dr. Maggie Wan is an Assistant Professor of Management in the McCoy College of Business Administration at Texas State University. Her research focuses on work-family issues, employee self-regulation, employee well-being, and cross-cultural human resource management. Her work has been published in various academic journals, including the Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, and Human Resource Management Journal. Dr. Wan serves as the communications director for the Work-Family Researchers Network’s special international group on Cross-Country Comparisons. She is also on the editorial review board of Cross Cultural & Strategic Management. 

Dr. Omar Lopez

Dr. López grew up in south Texas along the border in the Rio Grande Valley, in one of the poorest counties in the U.S. His daily observations of the effects from poverty on children and families left a definitive mark on his career decisions. Dr. López’ academic training includes the physical sciences, management, and education. This prepared him to work in different sectors as engineer, business consultant, and education policy researcher. While these occupations provided a way to make a living, his south Texas experiences gave him the passion to seek a meaningful life where his work could focus on using transdisciplinary methodologies to solve some of the thorniest problems confronting society's most vulnerable populations. The result is that his publications are diverse, having published in the fields of educational technology, economics of education, teacher education accountability, higher education sustainability, and family studies.

Additional Information

For additional information on the SCALEUP program, please click on the image or visit https://scaleup.txstate.edu/