Eden S. Blair

Education

Ph.D., Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship, University of Wisconsin-Madison

M.B.A., Entrepreneurial Skills, Texas Tech University B.S., Sociology, Honors College Graduate, University of Houston, University Park

Biography

Eden S. Blair has been at Bradley University since 2007. She is currently a professor of entrepreneurship. Her work experience includes completing two years of National Service through the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and co-founding and working with various non-profit ventures. Dedicated to her community, Eden is a board member of Grafelman Farms Animal Rescue and the Peoria County Board member for District 6. Eden advises students from across campus on business formation and ideation. She sits on numerous advising boards for social ventures and governmental agencies.

Teaching

Eden teaches courses in our convergence capstone, where students work with real clients and interdisciplinary teams to solve real-work problems as well as courses on creativity and innovation and principles of management. With a strong belief that all students can be innovative, Eden teaches students from all five colleges on campus within her courses and as modules in other courses. These courses are designed to minimize the risk of failure when starting a business, social enterprise, or developing new business ideas in existing organizations.

Courses Currently Teaching:

• ML 252 Organizational Creativity
• ML 452 Strategic Management
• BUS 400 Convergence Capstone I
• BUS 401 Convergence Capstone II
• ML 350 Managing Results in Organizations

Scholarship

Research interests include entrepreneurial cognition, unconscious entrepreneurial behavior, and legal issues of entrepreneurship.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles in the Last Five Years

Marcum, T.M., Blair, E.S. (2020). Companies with Purpose: An Update on the L3C, Its Uses and Possibilities. University of Missouri at Kansas City Law Review.

Marcum, T. M., Blair, E. S. (2018). “Over- and Underfunding: Crowdfunding Concerns of the Parties Involved. DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal, 16(1).

Blair, E. S. (2017). You Had Just One Job. Experiential Entrepreneurship Exercises Journal, 2(1), 12-17.

Blair, E. S., Marcum, T. M., Kuobova, V. (2015). ‘L3C’ designation doesn’t matter to consumers. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange.

Blair, E. S., Marcum, T. M. (2015). Heed Our Advice:  Exploring How Professionals Guide Small Business Owners in Startup Entity Choice. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 249-265.

Nagy, B., Blair, E. S., Lohrke, F. T. (2014). Developing a scale to measure liabilities and assets of newness after start-up. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 10(2), 277-295.

Research Awards

• 2017 Schultze Publication Award, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange (EIX), 2014 Schultze Award, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange (EIX), “Outstanding Reviewer, Cross-Campus Entrepreneurship,” USASBE, 2011

Leadership in Academic Societies

• Editorial Review Board Member, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange, 2014 – 2020
• Editorial Review Board Member, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 2011 – 2014
• Track Chair, Case Analysis, USABE 2021-2022
• Board Member, USASBE, 2014-2015, Law and Entrepreneur SIG chair 2015 and 2018

Service

College and University

As the secretary for the University Senate, Eden was part of the Faculty Committee that evaluated Academic Program restructuring for the university president. She also sits on the Foster College of Business/Caterpillar College of Engineering committees on Convergence and its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
She co-founded the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and is the Director of Curricular Programs and the faculty liaison between the Foster College of Business and the Turner School. She is also advisor for the Bradley chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

Professional

Eden formerly sat on the editorial board of the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange. As an ad hoc reviewer, Eden has reviewed recently for the Journal of Small Business Strategy, Journal of Small Business Management, the Academy of Management and the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), where she has been a track chair, proceedings chair, and Special Interest Group chair for Entrepreneurship and Legal Issues.
Since 2019, Eden has been elected as a Peoria County Board member, where she is Vice-Chair for the Health Committee, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Entrepreneurship and Small Business, which has granted $150,000 in loans to new start-ups and Chair of the Loan Review Committee, which has vetted and recommended almost $6 million in loans from Peoria County government.