UCCS is celebrating a milestone in advancing interdisciplinary entrepreneurship research.
The El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialization (EPIIC) recently awarded its first grant from the new EPIIC/Center for Entrepreneurship (CfE) Entrepreneurship Scholar Program. Designed to catalyze innovative, cross-disciplinary scholarship, the program provides seed funding to faculty and graduate students exploring how entrepreneurial opportunities are discovered, evaluated and brought to life across diverse fields.
The inaugural recipient, Hayley Blackburn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Innovation & Design Librarian in the Kraemer Family Library, is leading a timely and forward-looking project titled “Entrepreneurship and Legitimacy Among GenAI Content Creators and Tech Influencers.” Her research examines how creators producing content about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) establish credibility, shape public understanding and operate as entrepreneurs within the rapidly evolving influencer economy.
Blackburn’s work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, media studies and emerging technology. Through a multi-method approach—including analysis of 40–60 podcasts and YouTube videos, interviews with GenAI content creators and a large-scale audience survey—her study will explore how influencers construct entrepreneurial identities, communicate ethical responsibilities and influence perceptions of innovation and disruption. In doing so, the project not only advances scholarly understanding of digital entrepreneurship but also addresses critical questions about trust, authority and ethics in an era where public knowledge of AI is increasingly mediated by online creators.
Importantly, the project aligns with the EPIIC/CfE Entrepreneurship Scholar Program’s core mission: to support research that is both interdisciplinary and impactful. By drawing on frameworks from media sociology, journalism and innovation studies, Blackburn’s work highlights how entrepreneurial activity extends beyond traditional business contexts into new digital and cultural domains. Her project also creates meaningful opportunities for student engagement, including funding for an undergraduate research assistant who will contribute to data collection and analysis while gaining hands-on research experience.
With a $5,000 award supporting data collection, student involvement and dissemination efforts, Blackburn’s project exemplifies the type of high-potential, publication-oriented research the program was designed to foster. The initiative itself aims to fund multiple projects annually, strengthening UCCS’s position as a hub for entrepreneurship scholarship across disciplines.
Faculty and graduate students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship-related research are encouraged to explore this opportunity. To learn more or discuss potential project ideas, please reach out to Matt Metzger, CfE Research Director, at [email protected].