Entrepreneurship & innovation

Is coding an essential job skill of the future? Should MBA students learn to code? Darden Professor Alex Cowan answers five questions on the building blocks of much of our digital world.

Studies show that gender bias in the venture capital (VC) industry hurts both female founders and has negative financial consequences for VC firms. Darden Professors Morela Hernandez and Roshni Raveendhran show how algorithm-aided, data-driven approaches can help investors mitigate bias and make better and more equitable funding decisions.

Health care in the United State is wildly complicated and remarkably expensive. Paul Matherne (EMBA ’10), a Darden lecturer, pediatric cardiologist and acting chief medical officer of UVA Health, looks at the misaligned incentives at the heart of U.S. health care system.

Odds of survival are slim when it comes to startups. One essential variable that goes into the equation: geography. New research supported by Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has produced the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem quality index, which measures the health of a location based on five key characteristics.

With a global population projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, food production will require innovative new methods for producing more food, more sustainably. Here, Darden Ideas to Action highlights one company trying to do just that: Beanstalk, founded by brothers Mike and Jack Ross in 2017.

The myth of the iconic founder amplified by the media is as misleading as it is seductive. David Touve, senior director of ventures at UVA Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, dispels some of the most common misconceptions about entrepreneurs.

Digital technologies are redefining business landscape, disrupting markets and industries. Darden Professor Michael Lenox offers insights on how large incumbent firms can tackle the challenges of digital transformation.

Most new ideas never evolve into profitable innovations. Darden Professor Raul Chao spells out an iterative process for increasing the odds of market success and shares insights on avoiding three all-too-common pitfalls.

Digital technologies are redefining business landscape, disrupting markets and industries. Darden Professor Michael Lenox offers insights how incumbent firms can start capturing the opportunities offered by digitization.

E-commerce has changed the way business is done — and what consumers expect. But transporting goods from distribution points to customers’ homes is expensive and inefficient — especially in suburban and rural areas. What might the future bring in the way we shop?