Press Releases

The University San Diego School of Business Administration has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Foundation for Enterprise Development for research on private employee-owned firms.
 
The first project will investigate how the composition and scope of employee ownership changes over a private firm’s evolution and the factors influencing those changes. The second project looks at how private employee ownership firms can benefit from SEC Rule 144a in order to raise capital using private placements. The work on both projects will be completed over a 17- month period.
 
“We’re extremely pleased to receive this grant from the Foundation for Enterprise Development,” said USD School of Business Administration Dean David Pyke. “Employee owned firms are becoming increasingly important to the U.S. and world economies. This grant will support critical research on how firms in San Diego and across the country can use employee ownership to support their growth and expansion and we look forward to sharing the knowledge and insights gained from this work with the business community.”
 
USD School of Business faculty member Shreesh Deshpande will lead a research team that also includes faculty members Helder Sebastiao (School of Business Administration) and Frank Partnoy (Law School of Law). The results of the research will include a database of privately held firms in San Diego, a published peer-reviewed journal article and illustrative case studies for use in classroom instruction.

“Nearly half of the adult workers in the U.S., according to a recent General Social Survey (GSS), have some form of shared capitalism in their place of work, whether it comes from employee stock ownership, profit sharing, stock options, or gain sharing,” saysid Mary Ann Beyster, president of the Foundation for Enterprise Development.  “USD has assembled an excellent multidisciplinary team of faculty to evaluate how these practices work in combination during critical stages of a company’s growth.  The results will help business students and entrepreneurs build a solid understanding of the possibilities for their organizations and help train these leaders to make their organizations more sustainable in the future.”

About the Foundation for Enterprise Development

The Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED) was established in La Jolla, California, in 1986 by Dr. Robert J. Beyster, founder of Science Applications International Corporation. (SAIC), the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States. The FED FED promotes the concept of broad-based, participative employee ownership and entrepreneurism through catalyzing new research, education, policy development, and knowledge sharing that helps cultivate future generations of entrepreneurs.  For further information, visit www.fed.org.

About the USD School of Business Administration

The University of San Diego School of Business Administration is committed to developing socially responsible leaders and improving global business practices through innovative, personalized education and applied research. Go to www.sandiego.edu/business.

About the University of San Diego

The University of San Diego is a Catholic institution of higher learning chartered in 1949; the school enrolls approximately 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The inauguration of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies brings the university’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Law, Leadership and Education Sciences, and Nursing and Health Science.

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