Assoc. Prof. Michael Ciuchta Explores Spain鈥檚 Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
10/31/2022
By Ed Brennen
Thanks to a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Michael Ciuchta, an associate professor of marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation in the Manning School of Business, found himself in Madrid, Spain, earlier this year, surveying the country鈥檚 entrepreneurial ecosystem.
One thing he noticed is that some entrepreneurs would launch a venture in Spain, then take it to the United States to raise funding before eventually returning home. Ciuchta wanted to know more about these 鈥渞eturnee entrepreneurs,鈥� so he made them the focus of his Fulbright project, 鈥淪ocial Exchange in a Spanish Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.鈥�
鈥淚 had been to Spain a couple of times before, and I've always had an affinity for Spanish and Latin American culture, so I knew if there was ever the opportunity to come back, I would jump on it,鈥� says Ciuchta, who spent six months in Madrid conducting research and teaching a business elective course at Universidad Polit茅cnica de Madrid.
鈥淚t鈥檚 basically an engineering school, but they have a master鈥檚-level program that鈥檚 part of a European Union initiative called European Information Technology Digital where students specialize in tracks like fintech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and machine learning,鈥� he says. 鈥淚nnovation and technology is what I鈥檓 interested in researching and teaching, so that really appealed to me.鈥�
Recipients of are selected by the Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. The awards support international research by faculty with exemplary records of academic and professional achievement, service and leadership potential.聽
鈥淚t was incredibly rewarding and reinvigorating, both culturally and intellectually,鈥� says Ciuchta, who recently sat down to talk about the research, which is still in the early stages, and his Fulbright experience as a whole.
Q: How did you land on your research topic?
A: When I put in my proposal, I wanted to study the Madrid entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is a fairly broad topic. I really didn鈥檛 know what I didn鈥檛 know. Once I got there and started talking to potential collaboration partners, I developed a more refined idea of studying returnee entrepreneurs. These are people who launch a venture in Spain that is successful but needs additional funding. So they move it over to the U.S., maybe Silicon Valley, before eventually going back to Spain. I wanted to know why those people would return to Spain and what kind of obstacles they faced. How did they build up their social and human capital while they were abroad? What new challenges did they face when they came back? It could be really compelling to investigate that further. I probably need to work with faculty members over there, and some of them expressed interest and said it鈥檚 a tough topic that they鈥檇 be interested in pursuing.聽
Q: How does Spain鈥檚 entrepreneurial ecosystem compare to ours in the U.S.?
A: It鈥檚 similar but different. In the U.S., you have venture capital activity throughout the country. Granted, it鈥檚 concentrated in California, New York and Boston, but every state has venture capitalists. Whereas in Spain, it is definitely concentrated in Madrid and Barcelona. It鈥檚 just a much smaller country. The U.S. also has a widespread network of angel investors who were either former entrepreneurs themselves or professionals. They do have angel investors in Spain, but they're not at that level. Spain also doesn鈥檛 have the big manufacturing base that a country like Germany does, so Spain is really interested in digital technologies, software and service-oriented companies. A lot of their success stories have been from those types of sectors. As a member of the European Union, they also have to balance EU-wide initiatives with initiatives specific to their country, which is something else that鈥檚 very different than we鈥檇 see here in the U.S.聽
Q: As part of your Fulbright, you also taught a course. What was it, and how was the experience?
A: I originally planned to take the shell of my Managing Innovation course that I teach at the undergraduate level at UML and tailor it for the master鈥檚 level, with more of a European context. But I wanted to use my sabbatical as an opportunity to rethink my interests and investigate questions I don't necessarily get to examine in the courses I've been teaching. So I developed a class called Technology, Organizations and Society. The first part was about human interactions with technology at the individual level. Then I moved up a level to look at more organizational interactions with technology, which basically covered a lot of what I teach in my UML course. And the last component was more at a societal level: I examined ethical and moral implications and questions around emerging technologies 鈥� which I have now incorporated into my Managing Innovation course here.
Of the 20 students in the class, half were from Spain, and the rest were from Poland, Germany, Romania, Iceland, France and the Netherlands. I taught the class in English, which wasn鈥檛 too much of an issue. However, I decided to change the reading load once a student called it to my attention that English wasn鈥檛 their first language.聽
Q: What else were you able to accomplish during your time in Spain?
A: I attended a fantastic three-day conference called Crossing the Strait in C贸rdoba for Fulbright Scholars from Spain and Morocco. And I was able to network with scholars from Instituto de Empresa, a well-known Spanish business school. They invited me to some of their brown bag sessions where faculty presented papers.
I also used the opportunity to work on existing research projects. I had a research article called 鈥淭ransactive Memory Systems, Temporary Teams, and Conflict: Innovativeness During a Hackathon鈥� that was published in the . The leader author is Jay O鈥橳oole at Old Dominion University. We were interested in uncovering some of the team dynamics at a hackathon called the Global Game Jam, where teams have the weekend to come up with the prototype for a game. I also worked on a theory paper on entrepreneurial finance decision-making and a book chapter on improvisation and entrepreneurship with two Manning School Ph.D. students.聽
Q: You have been involved with UML鈥檚 Global Entrepreneurship Exchange (GE2) program, traveling with students to India. Would you like to bring students to Spain?
A: I am interested in potential study abroad opportunities in Spain. We have the infrastructure in place around GE2, and 51视频 has fairly extensive study abroad programs in Spain, including some through the Honors College. I鈥檇 like to increase the Manning School footprint in Spain, if possible. Maybe that鈥檚 having students go to Spain, or having students from Spain come here. Or maybe some type of faculty exchange. There鈥檚 also a big entrepreneurship and innovation conference in Madrid every summer called the South Summit. I met with one of the organizers, and they said they have students come in all the time to learn about it and volunteer. I鈥檓 going to explore the possibility of bringing UML students. I鈥檇 welcome any chance to return to Spain.