With the Flyers/Blackhawk Stanley Cup hockey championship series tied up, check out our Kaizen interview with Ed Snider, owner of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Dr. Kline, Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies at the University of Illinois, Springfield, gave two talks this month at Rockford College. Here is Stephen Hicks’s interview with him on the main points of his talk on business ethics:

The talk was sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

Forthcoming: Our interview Professor Kline on David Hume, who, according to a recent vote by contemporary philosophers, is the most influential dead philosopher.

Here’s a short video clip about CEE‘s winning a 2009 Templeton Freedom Award from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation:

This video is also at AERF’s Atlas Network site.

Excellent news: The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has won a Templeton Freedom Award. The awards are decided and given by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

From the AERF press release announcing the 2009 Templeton Freedom Awards:

“Award for Special Achievement by a University-based Center – The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford College in Illinois is awarded the University-based prize for launching six courses focusing on the ethical infrastructure of entrepreneurship and the preconditions of the free society in ethics.”

We are very proud of what we have accomplished in less than three years, and we are very happy to get the recognition and the $10,000 prize.

More information about the 2009 awards is at the AERF site.

An interesting paper published this summer by Vivek Wadhwa et al.: “Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation.”

The paper’s abstract:

“Entrepreneurs are among the most celebrated people in our culture. Celebrity entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, often grace the covers of prominent publications. These company founders and innovators fuel economic growth and give the nation its competitive edge.

“However, very little is known today about the backgrounds, life histories, motivations and beliefs of these entrepreneurs. So myths and stereotypes prevail. The commonly held belief is that entrepreneurs are young, lightly-educated, childless unmarried workaholics. They are perceived to come from rich families and graduate from elite colleges.

“But is this true?

“This research answers some of these questions. This is based on a survey of 549 company founders in 12 high-growth industries.

“It finds that most founders came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds, are well-educated and married with children. The strongest motivation for starting a company was to ‘build wealth.’ Other popular motivators included capitalizing on a business idea; the appeal of a startup culture; a desire to own a company; and a lack of interest in working for someone else.”

Here’s the link to the paper at the Social Science Research Network.

Check out this documentary to be released this fall: Ten9Eight. Directed by Mary Mazzio, it is about a dozen instant-classic American success stories — and entrepreneurship’s power over poverty and adversity.

In an upcoming issue of Kaizen we interview Steve Mariotti, founder and CEO of the impressive Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Several of the young entrepreneurs in Ten9Eight are graduates of NFTE.

CEE has moved into the new world of social networking, now having Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship:
Website: http://www.ethicsandentrepreneurship.org/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/pages/Rockford-IL/Center-for-Ethics-and-Entrepreneurship/33385773294
Twitter: RC_CEE

Department of Philosophy, Rockford College:
Website: http://www.rockford.edu/?page=Philosophy
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockford-IL/Rockford-College-Philosophy-Department/120214339280
Twitter: RCPhil

(Thanks to Anja Hartleb-Parson and Shawn Klein for activating these features.)

Entrepreneurship and finding your passion in life sometimes happens from being inspired by great achievements by others. So check out this series of great science, engineering, and technology stories.

To be offered in the Fall 2008 semester. In this course students will consider a range of ethical, political, and economic issues about sports: Why are sports so universally popular? What physical and psychological values do they provide? Does the playing of sports develop good character? Why are many sports fans so fanatical? What is the proper place of sports in higher education? Is there anything wrong with ticket-”scalping”? How should mega-sports complexes be funded—politically or through the market? See the Sports Ethics flyer.

The second issue of our glossy newsletter, Kaizen, has been published.

It features news about some of the Center’s faculty, last semester’s student prize-winners in Capitalism—and a feature interview with New York City painter Michael Newberry.

We hope you enjoy it.

You can also download a PDF version of the issue.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.