Sandra Kauanui, Ph.D.

Expert in entrepreneurship and business management Florida Gulf Coast University

  • Fort Myers FL

Sandra Kauanui helps the entrepreneurial-minded build businesses, generate revenue and earn degrees.

Contact

Florida Gulf Coast University

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Media

Biography

Sandra Kauanui is a professor of entrepreneurship at Florida Gulf Coast University. Kauanui led the team that created the curriculum for the entrepreneurship master's program and the undergraduate major and minor at FGCU. She also planned and executed the Runway Program incubator, which helps students from across campus to start and build their businesses while pursuing degrees.

Kauanui is also a professor emerita of management and human resources at California State Polytechnic University. Prior to her life in academia, Kauanui started and ran her own successful business for 20 years, providing financial, strategic planning and accounting services to entrepreneurial firms.

Areas of Expertise

Organizational Behavior & Culture
Seed-stage investing
Entrepreneurial Brand & Product Management
Entrepreneurship & Community Innovation
Venture Capital and Angel Capital
Business & Leadership
Lean Startup Method
Spirituality and Entrepreneurship
Startup Businesses
Entrepreneurship

Accomplishments

Woman of the Year

2021-11-01

Awarded by Gulfshore Life magazine

Wilford L. White Fellowship

2008-06-01

"Selection as a Wilford L. White Fellow is the highest recognition that the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) gives to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the development, furtherance and benefit of small and medium sized businesses."

Professor Emerita, Management and Human Resources

2007-06-03

Awarded by at California State Polytechnic University

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Education

George Washington University

Ph.D.

Organizational Behavior

1997

The College of William and Mary

MBA

1992

Virginia Wesleyan College

B.A.

Management

1990

Affiliations

  • Roundtable of Entrepreneurship Educators of Florida : Board Chair
  • United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship : Member
  • International Council of Small Business & Entrepreneurship : Member

Selected Media Appearances

FGCU dropout returns to school, starts program to motivate at-risk young adults

NBC2  tv

2022-09-13

Sandra Kauanui talks about FGCU's School of Entrepreneurship and how it helped a student create a non-profit called Strive Hall.

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FGCU’s Sandra Kauanui creates program for students who share her entrepreneurial drive

Gulfshore Business  print

2022-01-01

Sandra Kauanui talks about her life journey and how she helped create the FGCU Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship.

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Entrepreneurship program helping students create and keep businesses in Southwest Florida

Fox 4  tv

2021-12-18

Sandra Kauanui talks about FGCU's new Master's of Entrepreneurship.

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Selected Event Appearances

A partnership grounded in entrepreneurship

Gov. DeSantis' Business Development Mission to Israel  Tel Aviv, Israel

2019-05-28

Catalyzing Deep Change in Regional Communities: Making a Dent in the Universe Together

Sobey School of Business  Halifax, Nova Scotia

2017-10-12

The Spiritual Entrepreneur

Indian Institute of Management International Conference  Bangalore, India

2012-01-09

Selected Research Grants

Institute for Entrepreneurship: Runway Program & Seed Funding

Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation

2016-09-01

The FGCU Runway Program is a free business incubator that is open to students and alumni. Participants regularly meet with an assigned Runway Program Advisors to receive feedback on ideas and progress, and set achievable goals towards launching their business venture. The Runway Program follows Lean Startup methodologies. Participants identify and validate the existence of a problem or opportunity, and then develop solutions and a plan that they can test with real customers. At the end of the semester-long program, qualified participants have the opportunity to pitch for equity-free seed funding to launch their businesses.

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Businesses

West Financial

Sandra Kauanui founded this company and served as president from 1971-1993.

Selected Articles

Social innovation and poster presentations: Service-learning for business students in a team-based course

Journal of Education for Business

Manegold, J., Schaffer, B., Arseneau, E., Kauanui, S.

2019

This paper describes a course project that delivers the theoretical application of effective team processes through a unique blend of service-learning and social innovation. Through this project, student teams develop collaborative relationships with military veterans who are in the early stages of business development, resulting in both educational and social benefits for the students, veterans, and the surrounding community. The authors describe the design of the course project and partnership with veterans, as well as the interactive poster-presentation forum that showcases the results of these service-learning projects. We discuss relevant supporting theory and conclude with pedagogical recommendations for instructors.

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Entrepreneurship and the General Education Curriculum: Ready or Not?

Global Journal of Entrepreneurship

Arseneau, E.; Schaffer, B.; Randall, C.; & Kauanui, S.

2017

While entrepreneurship is now widely recognized as an essential component to undergraduate business education, it is not often available to students across multiple disciplines. Recognizing the benefits of entrepreneurship, we argue that the course is a natural fit for inclusion in university General Education curricula The purpose of this article is threefold. The first is to review why entrepreneurship programs and coursework can have difficulty gaining acceptance into existing university General Education structures. The second is to explain the process and outline how inclusion of an entrepreneurship course in the General Education curriculum can be facilitated. The third purpose utilizes the sociological theory of structuration (Giddens, 1984) to develop a process model to help business faculty deal with potential sources of resistance. We hope to provide educators with a means for developing strategies for successfully positioning entrepreneurship courses into General Education programs. We conclude our analyses with practical implications, relevant examples and recommendations for moving forward.

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Are you happy yet? Entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being

Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion

Sherman, C. L.; Randall, C.; & Kauanui, S. K.

2016

This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being and flow, productivity, and intrinsically-based success or extrinsically-based success. Subjective well-being and flow have been studied in educational, health, and work environments; however, only recently has the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2013 examined well-being of entrepreneurs. In entrepreneurs it is particularly important because understanding the relationship between subjective well-being (happiness), and the factors of flow, productivity, and definition of success can influence entrepreneurial decision-making and overall firm performance. A survey of 191 entrepreneurs in Florida and California was used to collect data that was then analyzed using factor analysis, correlation, and regression. Entrepreneurial well-being was shown to increase with the presence of flow, intrinsic definitions of success, and productivity in entrepreneurs. Extrinsic factors that entrepreneurs use to define success, however, were negatively linked to well-being.

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