New Initiative Studies Commerce Through a Liberal Arts Lens

A new concentration - Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship - will have three tracks: business economics, organizational studies, and entrepreneurship and technology management. It will replace Public and Private Organizations.

by Tracie Sweeney

Prompted by a growing interest among Brown faculty and students in the study of commerce, commercial behavior, organization and management, and technology and entrepreneurship, the University has launched a multi-departmental initiative in Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (COE).

The centerpiece of the initiative is a multidisciplinary, multi-track undergraduate concentration overseen by the departments of Economics and Sociology and the Division of Engineering.

"We want to create a novel venture in the spirit of Brown," says Professor of Economics Ivo Welch, who heads the initiative.

"The intellectual questions that the COE program seeks to explore are of first-order importance, not only to the program and students, but also to the core disciplines themselves," said Welch. "For example, the nature of how organizations form or how network interaction appears in markets is not a COE question, but a question of interest to core economists, core engineers, and core sociologists."

In one sense, Welch said, "the COE program is merely a small evolutionary step - most of the courses in the proposed concentration are already being offered. But in another sense, the program is revolutionary - it seeks to transform itself into a premier intellectual endeavor at Brown."

"This initiative allows Brown to create a program that will meet student interests, attract additional excellent students and faculty to the University, and create a model for the study of commerce, entrepreneurship and organizations from within a liberal arts curriculum," said Brian Casey, assistant provost.

According to Casey, the new concentration will have three tracks: business economics, organizational studies, and entrepreneurship and technology management. It will replace Public and Private Organizations (PPSO). Beginning in academic year 2005-06, the first group of freshmen and sophomores will take the foundation courses in COE; juniors and seniors will complete concentrations in PPSO.

Students will have the opportunity to learn the methodological approaches of economics, sociology, engineering, and entrepreneurship, studying for-profit and non-profit enterprises in the national and global economic context, Casey said. Specific emphasis will be placed on the formation, growth, and organization of new ventures, innovation in commercial applications, financial markets and the marketplace, and management and organizational theory.

When fully funded, the COE initiative and concentrations will be supported by a group of leading national and international entrepreneurs and executives, appointed annually, who will bring their experiences and expertise to bear on the program and its students. These Entrepreneurial Fellows will be asked to offer lectures, meet with students, attend classes in the program and, where appropriate, advise and guide students in specific projects. Fellows will be spread across each of the respective disciplines and will be supported by funds from the COE initiative.