Verdant Power for Their Amazing Interest in and Support for My Dissertation Work
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! iii! Microfilm or copies of this dissertation may be obtained from: UMI Dissertation Publishing ProQuest CSA 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ! ! iv! This study is dedicated to my parents: Venugopalan Mulloth and Malini Mulloth ! ! v! Acknowledgments ! ! The road to my Ph.D. has been an exceptional journey, one that I had never dreamed of. Looking back, I owe my sincere gratitude to many many wonderful people whom I have had the good fortune to meet and get to know. However, a few special people stand out in my mind who directly influenced my Ph.D. aspirations and the writing of this dissertation. I will focus on these individuals. This dissertation would not have been possible without the expert guidance, encouragement, advice and support of my Dissertation Chairman, Professor Mel Horwitch. Mel, I consider meeting you serendipity and one of the most important moments of my life. Your vision, care and accessibility are the primary reasons I was able to fulfill my doctoral aspirations. You, magically, time and again, have opened doors for me that I never knew existed. You have profoundly influenced me as an individual and I hope to constantly be able to learn from you and continue moving in the right direction. I am extremely grateful to the members of my doctoral committee, Professors Paul Light, Richard Wener and George Bugliarello who were very helpful and significant in producing this study. Professor Light exposed me to the fascinating world of social entrepreneurship. His book, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, was an inspirational source for me to dive further into this exciting field of study. Professor Wener provided me vital tips and information on research methods and was always available to hear about my thesis progress and results. He encouraged me to dig deeper into my case study research and ask provocative and significant questions to my interviewees. Professor Bugliarello was an invaluable source to discuss my ideas and thoughts. He provided me with a sense of history and a global perspective on the topic and helped shape this study by providing it general significance. It is important to note that this dissertation could not have been written without the two organizations I focused my study on allowing me complete access to their various documents and resources. I must especially thank Wendy Brawer of Green Map System and Ron Smith of Verdant Power for their amazing interest in and support for my dissertation work. For busy entrepreneurs, they were incredibly accessible and ensured that I was working with the most current company information. They also made sure that ! ! vi! I had access to others in their organization in a timely and efficient manner. Although not named specifically, I also must thank the many individuals I interviewed in the course of my research. Without their help, my analysis and understanding of the organizations would be have been much less valuable and in depth. In the Department of Technology Management, many persons played an important role in this dissertation. I must especially thank the Department Head (and former Ph.D. program advisor), Professor Bharat Rao for admitting me with a research fellowship into the doctoral program and for also serving as an important source of inspiration as I went about my coursework and research. Professor Rao’s excellent seminar offering on “Managing Technological Change and Innovation” was my very first exposure into the fascinating world of technology management research and it provided me with a sense of excitement about the possibilities of research in this field. Another important person in the department who influenced me profoundly was Professor Nina Ziv. Professor Ziv encouraged me to expand beyond my immediate horizons and was very gracious to let me be part of her research work as a co-author on a few conference articles. These were my first experiences with management research and it gave an indication of what it takes to conduct research in this field. I am also deeply appreciative of the knowledge imparted to me by the Department’s other faculty members, Professors Anne-Laure Fayard and Oded Nov, by way of doctoral seminars and individual discussions. Professor Barry Blecherman provided me with a good understanding of quantitative managerial issues with an excellently executed seminar filled with real world examples and anecdotes. It was a real pleasure to share doctoral studies with Bojan Angelov. The two of us were the inaugural Ph.D. students in the program and we have shared several interesting and fascinating experiences along the way. The remaining Department members were also instrumental in making sure that there were no hiccups along the path of my doctoral journey. In particular Professor Bohdan Hoshovsky continually reminded and encouraged me to remain focused and take the necessary steps required to obtain the degree. Also, Janelle Meehan provided superb administrative support to ensure that everything was in place during the course of my doctoral studies. ! ! vii! I am also very thankful to Professor Jill Kickul from NYU Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies for her great perspectives on my thesis and for sharing with me numerous research papers, presentations and conference ideas relevant to my thesis. She was a solid source of support when I needed to talk to someone outside of my committee regarding my dissertation. I am extremely appreciative of the BEST Entrepreneurship Center at NYU-Poly where I have been employed for the past three and a half years. In particular, I am very grateful to the Director of the Center, Bruce Niswander, for his support and friendship over the years. I am positive that I would not have been able to experience life, have a job and conduct my research studies, all at the same time, without his support and presence. Bruce, I believe that having the opportunity to work with you, get to know you and be involved in the business incubators efforts, have been an invaluable learning experience for me and something I will be eternally grateful to you for. You are truly a very special person and someone I will always consider a close friend. My life in New York City would not have been as wonderful without my friends. In particular, I owe sincere gratitude to my good friend and former roommate, Adam Horwitch. Adam has been a constant source of inspiration for me to look beyond what is happening today and he is the very reason I choose the clean technology industry as my field of study. Among my other friends, I owe sincere gratitude to Arielle Silverman, Ganesh Ramanathan, Matthew Bishop and Murat Cannoyan. This dissertation would never have seen light without the love and support of my family in India and the United States. My parents, Venugopalan Mulloth and Malini Mulloth taught me early about the importance of being a person of integrity and truthfulness and to sincerely care for the people around me. It is their unconditional love, support and devotion that has motivated me for so long. I thank them for believing in me and for giving me the freedom to follow the path I wanted to pursue with regard to my career and life in general. I cannot state enough my sincere gratitude to my sister, Shoba Menon, my brother-in-law, Rajiv Menon, my amazing nephew, Sidharth Menon, and precious niece, Maya Menon. It was their warmth and care that made me feel that I was indeed home away from home in New York City. ! ! viii! I sincerely thank my close friend Erin Newton for sticking by me these past few years and for being a very effective taskmaster by making sure that I get things done on time! Erin also had the unenviable task of editing and formatting manuscripts of this document, which she so masterfully and professionally accomplished. Finally, I would like to thank my favorite New York City cafes (88 Orchard, ReBar and Café Henri in particular) for allowing me to work on my dissertation side by side with New Yorkers. I only hope that one result of my thesis will be in some small way to improve the quality of everyday life for such inhabitants of NYC. As a closing note, I feel the need to once again express my gratitude to two individuals already mentioned. Mel and Bruce, meeting and interacting with you over the past few years, has changed my views on life and the world at a fundamental level that is hard to explain in mere words. It far transcends this dissertation document. Sam Cooke will always be one the artists listed on my iPod play list. ! ! ix! AN ABSTRACT DIVERSITY IN CONTEMPORARY ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE EVOLUTION OF TWO REPRESENTATIVE CLEAN TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES IN NEW YORK CITY AS CASES IN POINT by Balashankar Mulloth Advisor: Mel Horwitch, Ph.D. Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Technology Management) January 2011 At the highest level, this dissertation examines the diversity, especially the existence of both purely business and socially purposeful activities, prevalent in contemporary entrepreneurship. This study uses the clean technology industry and New York City as its research context. A central component of this study is a comparative analysis and discussion of two New York City based clean technology organizations: Verdant Power and Green Map System. This study explores these enterprises employing an in-depth, case study approach. Based on the analysis and discussion of these two case studies, nine critical dimensions of contemporary entrepreneurship were identified. The two organizations were then individually placed within the nine identified critical dimensions and significant related observations were also made.