Becoming Aware of and Learning How to Navigate the SBIR Program: The Entrepreneurs' Perspectives

Little is known about how much technological innovation is lost in the United States because technology entrepreneurs do not have the financial capability for the research and development necessary to bring an idea to a commercial level. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is part of a national innovation system developed to support research and development efforts for technological innovation by small business. The program is national in purpose, but regionally distributed. The old adage of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer seems to hold true with 56% of SBIR awards going to the same handful of states since the genesis of the program. This study explored the phenomenon of how entrepreneurs in Minnesota learned to navigate the SBIR program by interviewing six entrepreneurs who had experienced various levels of success. Intellectual capital.human, social, organization learning.served as the thread woven through all aspects of the participants learning how to navigate the SBIR program. As the stories unfolded, the participants description of learning by "doing it" revealed the complexity of the interrelationships; and an adaptable and flexible learning style which Kolb (1984) refers to as learning in a holistic way.