Students are shifting their entrepreneurial sights, having watched their predecessors in once-touted internet careers flounder along with the industry. They are opting instead for ventures in more traditional areas of business activity, said Gary D. Libecap, director of the Karl Eller Center, home to the Berger Entrepreneurship Program.

There has been a real fall-off in student interest in software and electronic commerce," he said. "Students have a more realistic appreciation of what's possible in today's economy. They have realized that entry into the market is easier in more established fields."

For instance, several of this year's business plans are focused on the restaurant/hospitality industry, said Libecap. Among them is a plan to expand an organic pasta line, popular in the Pacific Northwest, to other parts of the country, and another to develop a chain of grocery stores specializing in multi-ethnic foods.

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The commercialization of new "tangible" technologies in fields such as engineering, optics, and medicine (see accompanying article), also is generating a great deal of interest among entrepreneurship students, he said.

"Overall, the phenomena of new venture development remains the same," said Libecap. "The shift is in industry sector."

According to Libecap, entrepreneurship faculty accommodate changes in student interests in terms of issues discussed in class. However, the basic curriculum remains intact from a process perspective. "Ideas may change, but what the students need to learn and do remains the same," he said.

An emphasis on identifying business opportunities, whatever the economy, has long been a tenet of the Eller College's Berger Entrepreneurship Program, Libecap continued. At a time when major companies are retrenching, he said, new ventures may more easily emerge.

Libecap pointed out that laid-off employees from big corporations comprise a readymade, and highly qualified, applicant pool for new ventures. Likewise, "If established firms are closing particular product lines and moving out of certain geographic locales, then there is going to be a market that is no longer being served," he said.

Which is where the entrepreneur comes in. Spotting and capitalizing on opportunities not immediately apparent to others is what, after all, differentiates an entrepreneur from the conventional businessperson.

"We teach our students that a downturn in the economy brings opportunities – for those who are looking for them," Libecap said.