Psychological Science and Entrepreneurship Poster Award

Bring your research to bear on understanding how people bring ideas to life

APS is pleased to offer an annual award recognizing and encouraging integrative research in the area of psychological science and entrepreneurship.

With the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Psychological Science and Entrepreneurship Poster Award is intended to stimulate research in entrepreneurship, which is the capacity and willingness to develop, organize, and manage a business venture, along with any of its risks, in the pursuit of opportunity and innovation. (”Business” can mean a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise such as a startup web platform, retail operation, or service or product provider, among other things.)

There are many ways psychological science can be applied to entrepreneurship research. Learn about past winners of the award and consider applying today.

How to Apply

Two $1,500 awards will be given, one to a student scientist and one to an early-career scientist. Awardees will also receive complimentary registration to the 2025 APS Annual Convention and special recognition at the Convention.

APS members can apply for this award when submitting their poster presentation for the 2025 APS Annual Convention held May 22-25, 2025. Applicants should follow the instructions under the “Psychological Science and Entrepreneurship Award” heading in the APS Call for Submissions.

Eligibility

All applicants for the award must:

• Be either a current undergraduate or graduate student, OR an early-career scholar, defined as having received their PhD within the past eight years,
• Be the first author on the submitted poster,
• Have no current existing financial relationship with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and
• Not have won the Psychological Science and Entrepreneurship Poster Award in the last 3 years.

All awardees must:

• Be APS members and
• Present their poster at the 2025 APS Annual Convention.

Criteria for Award

Submissions will be considered based on their relevance to the broad study of psychological science and entrepreneurship. Awardees do not currently need to be working on the topic of entrepreneurship but are asked to describe the potential relevance of their research to this area. Additionally, scholarly contribution to existing knowledge, application, or practice will be considered.

Past Award Winners

2023

• Student Winner: Chen Ji, Indiana University – Plenty or Reward? The Role of Hybrid Identities in Social Enterprises’ Resource Acquisition
• Early Career Winner: James Wages, University of Central Arkansas – A Normative Lay Theory of Risk-Taking: Using Peripheral Features to Disambiguate Risk

2022

• Student Winner: Heather Han, Northern Kentucky University – Craving Work? Development and Preliminary Validation of the Work Passion Scale
• Early Career Winner: Lining Sun, National University of Singapore – Treat Life As an Experiment: An Experimental Mindset Predicts the Navigation of an Uncertain Job Market

2021

• Student Winner: Dohung (Jacob) Cha, Seoul National University – Pleasurable Future Now, Painful Reality Later? Entrepreneurial Positive Future Thinking Predicts Stock Crashes in the Dot-Com Bubble (Burst), 1995-2001
• Early Career Winner: Nikki Blacksmith, Consortium Research Fellows Program – Diversity and Performance in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Case for Selection Research

2020

• Melanie Boudreaux, Nicholls State University – Using the Hexaco-100 to Measure Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation: Introducing the Hexaco-Ieo
• Gloria Ferron-Uribe, Utah Valley University – Entrepreneurial Tools: Resources and the Psychological Benefits
• Matt Howard, University of South Alabama – A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of Entrepreneurial Personality: Integrating Psychology and Entrepreneurship
• Amber Rouse, DePaul University – Black Female Entrepreneurs Maintain Work-Life Boundaries and Balance