Stanford Graduate School of Business maintains centers and academic programs as a resource to encourage curriculum development, research, and interaction among academic disciplines.

Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

Building on a half-century tradition of entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies was founded in 1996 to address the need for greater understanding of the issues faced by entrepreneurial individuals and companies. The center focuses on case development, research, curriculum development, and student programs in the areas of entrepreneurship and venture capital. It also supports alumni and students engaged in entrepreneurial pursuits.

The center aims to:

• Promote research on entrepreneurial companies and on topics relevant to entrepreneurs,
• Enhance and expand the curriculum for graduate students who understand entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial companies,
• Provide resources for students and alumni embarking on entrepreneurial ventures, and
• Establish relationships with the local entrepreneurial community.

Center for Global Business and the Economy

Founded in 2004, the Center for Global Business and the Economy aims to be the leader in developing and disseminating curriculum materials, research, and conceptual frameworks on global issues. It encourages partnerships between the school and global managers, and supports rigorous and relevant research, teaching, and course development resources.

• Faculty associated with the center research issues that impact global businesses, infusing course work with current thinking on the inherent complexity of international business. Students develop an understanding of the challenges of running operations across dispersed geographies, in a variety of cultures simultaneously, and under different legal, economic, and political institutions.
• The center engages with globally minded leaders through conferences, seminars, and speaker events with the aim to spark discussion, debate, and ideas that inform and guide students, faculty, and global leaders.
• An understanding of global issues is an important foundation for students.

Center for Leadership Development and Research

Created in 2003, the Center for Leadership Development and Research promotes learning and scholarship organizational leadership. It is based on the premise that although management can be taught in the classroom, leadership is something that is learned best through experience — especially when experiences are shared with others who are willing and able to support the learning process.

It focuses on three broad areas of activity:

• Pedagogical initiatives and educational resources that help students develop critical leadership capabilities,
• Research that enhances an understanding of leadership, its practice, and potential consequences, and
• Programming and events that bring together scholars, practitioners, and students to examine provocative leadership topics.

Center for Social Innovation

The center is dedicated to breaking down boundaries and promoting the mutual exchange of ideas and values across sectors and disciplines and between theory and practice to develop innovative solutions to social problems. Its mission is grounded in a strong theory of change. All programs and initiatives are designed, coordinated, and integrated to achieve the following outcomes:

• Raise awareness about the principles, methods, and potential impact of social innovations,
• Build skills through education programs, both conceptual and practical, that enable individuals to become successful change agents, and
• Advance action by providing opportunities to implement social innovation practices into action to make change.

Corporate Governance Research Program

Established in 2006, the Corporate Governance Research Program is a leader in developing knowledge and education about domestic and international corporate governance. It is a companion program to the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, a joint initiative of Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School.

The program does this in three ways:

• Exploring areas of governance including boards, succession, planning, compensation, and more,
• Teaching using insightful materials including research, case studies, and more, and
• Engaging audiences to stay current through events, blogs, and social media.

Global Innovation Programs

Through our Global Innovation Programs, the Stanford Graduate School of Business offers our distinctive approach to teaching entrepreneurship and management to change agents throughout the world. These programs bring together participants from a broad range of backgrounds and give them the knowledge and direction they need to innovate and take their ideas to the next level. Our certificate programs include:

• Stanford Ignite: Powering Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Stanford Online Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Social Innovation Programs
• Summer Institute for General Management

Global Supply Chain Management Forum

The Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum is a leading research institute in partnership with industry and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. It advances the theory and practice of excellence in global supply chain management. Working with approximately 25 industrial organizations, the forum is actively engaged with a broad cross-section of leading and emerging industries to identify, document, research, develop, and disseminate best practices in a dynamic and increasingly global economic business environment.

• The forum brings faculty and students from different schools, departments, and disciplines together to research problems representative of those found by participating companies.
• Due to the recent trends of vertical disintegration, international procurements, new information technologies, and increasing pressure from customers on responsiveness and reliability, and the globalization of operations and markets, supply chain management has become at once a challenge and an opportunity.

Behavioral Lab

The Behavioral Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory designed for the study of human subjects. A major resource of the business school, the lab is available for use by all Stanford GSB faculty and PhD students, and research is primarily conducted in the organizational behavior and behavioral marketing fields.

Program in Healthcare Innovation

The mission of the GSB's Program in Healthcare Innovation is to promote research and teaching on the critical innovations that can transform global health care. This is accomplished by bringing together faculty from across the university, engaging students in thought-provoking learning opportunities, and collaborating with the alumni network in the healthcare sector.

Specifically, the objectives of the program are to:

• Stimulate more discussion and interaction between GSB faculty in different disciplines and faculty in the Schools of Engineering and Medicine on managerially relevant problems in the healthcare sector.
• Support student interests in the healthcare field by providing timely, relevant courses and course materials, hands-on learning experiences, and unique networking opportunities to help them become effective healthcare leaders.
• Engage the alumni network by initiating conversations among GSB faculty, students, and healthcare industry executives on the challenges facing their organizations and innovative, forward-looking solutions to address them.

Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies

The Institute, known informally as SEED, seeks to stimulate, develop, and disseminate research and innovations that enable entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders to alleviate poverty in developing economies. SEED's work is based on the belief that a critical route for economic growth is through the creation of entrepreneurial ventures and by scaling existing enterprises.

Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE)

Established in 1998, the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) is dedicated to advancing the understanding and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship in leading regions around the world.

SPRIE offers:

• Deep expertise and insights drawing on more than a decade of interdisciplinary and international research, publications and education at Stanford University
• Top-tier events, form international conferences to briefings and education programs
• Experienced leadership at the intersection of business, technology, policy and academia
• Broad reach to key people and organizations driving change in technology, energy, venture capital, policy, economics, education, and other arenas

Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance

Created in 2011 to help blaze an economically sensible path toward an advanced global energy system. The center, housed jointly at Stanford's law and business schools, incubates practical ideas and actual businesses intended to transform the energy world in two ways. The first is by helping attract massive capital flows. The second is by helping ensure that money is spent intelligently and efficiently.