Full Court Press as a Come-From-Behind Strategy to Win the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Game - A Case Study at the University of Pittsburgh

Oct 15, 2026

The paper examines how the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh cultivated an innovative and entrepreneurial culture among students and faculty. As part of the first Pathways program cohort, the school initiated a strategic process to activate student innovation capabilities and address growing demand for entrepreneurship-focused courses and programs. Development centered on four interrelated areas—people, policies, places, and programs—with quantified results. The short-term mission is to build skills for creating and launching impactful ideas, enabling long-term career impact in innovation and entrepreneurship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Covering the Full Court - Four Key Components of the Program

Policies

Places

Programs

People

| | Ad | vances in Engineering Edu | cation | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | SPRING 2020 Full Court Press as a Come-From-Behind Strategy to Win the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Game: A Case Study at the University of Pittsburgh WILLIAM W. CLARK MARY BESTERFIELD-SACRE University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA ABSTRACT This paper reflects on the process followed in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh to cultivate an innovative and entrepreneurial culture among students and faculty. As a member of the first cohort of the Pathways program, a strategic process was initiated to unlock the innovation capabilities of students and to feed the demand that early activities suggested existed for more entrepreneurial-focused courses and programs. The plan focused on four inter-related areas of development: people, policies, places, and programs. This paper describes steps undertaken for each key area, as well as why it is believed that each of these areas is necessary for a healthy and sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship culture. Quantified measures of results in each area are presented to describe progress and performance. The near-term mission of the program is to develop a culture in which students learn to create, cultivate, and launch impactful ideas, but the long-term goal is for students to carry those skills with them to realize impactful careers of innovation and entrepreneurship. Key words: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Creativity INTRODUCTION Cultivating an effective and sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) program is a multifaceted challenge involving people, places, policies, and programs, all of which are interdependent and none of which can be neglected. When setting out to create a culture in the Swanson School of Engineering (SSoE) at the University of Pittsburgh that approach was adopted by implementing a “full court press” of development. In basketball, the full court press is a tactic in which a team SPRING 2020 1 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Full Court Press as a Come-From-Behind Strategy to Win the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Game applies defensive pressure the entire length of the court. While some teams employ the full court press as a normal strategy, the tactic is often used when a team is behind in the later stages of a game to force turnovers and to wear out the opponent as a means of catching up. In a similar manner, the Swanson School of Engineering considered itself to be somewhat behind compared to other schools in terms of its entrepreneurship culture, so it adopted a full court press strategy – a multifaceted approach in which all necessary areas of innovation and entrepreneurship were addressed at once. The primary objective in developing the program was to establish critical components in four key areas, including Policies, People, Places, and Programs. This paper provides a brief story of that process, describing efforts in each of the four areas and providing a quantified snapshot of the current status. COVERING THE FULL COURT – FOUR KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM The Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh has a history of student participation in innovation, with the development of rapid prototyping facilities, creation of an interdisciplinary Product Realization capstone course, and participation in VentureWell (formerly NCIIA) programs throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The effort to create a more comprehensive program and a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship began in earnest in 2014 with its participation as one of 12 inaugural schools in the Pathways to Innovation Program directed by the NSF-sponsored EpiCenter at Stanford University (Giersch [et. al](et. al)., 2015) . Participation in the Pathways program involved a focused effort toward increasing education and opportunities in innovation and entrepreneurship, both in t

FAQs

What strategy does the paper use to describe the program’s approach?

It uses the basketball “full court press” as a metaphor for applying defensive pressure across multiple areas at once. The program addressed innovation and entrepreneurship through people, policies, places, and programs simultaneously.

Which four key development areas does the program focus on?

The program focused on Policies, Places, Programs, and People. Each area had specific goals tied to building a sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship culture.

What is the program’s mission in the near term and the long term?

The near-term mission is to develop a culture where students learn to create, cultivate, and launch impactful ideas. The long-term goal is for students to carry those skills into impactful careers in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Oct 15, 2026

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