Author Profile

James Koch

James V. Koch is Board of Visitors Professor of Economics and President Emeritus at Old Dominion University. He has held positions at Illinois State University, California State University at Los Angeles, the University of Grenoble (France), Brown University, Rhode Island College, Ball State University, the University of Hawaii, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and the University of Montana. He served as President of the University of Montana (1986-1990) and Old Dominion University (1990-2001) and was named one of the 100 most effective college presidents in the United States.

Dr. Koch has published twelve books and 110 articles in refereed journals. His research has focused primarily upon applied microeconomics topics and his work on the economics of intercollegiate athletics, the economics of discrimination and affirmative action, TQM, and the economics of education has been reprinted and cited frequently. He has done extensive work in the economics of e-commerce.

Dr. Koch's research on the risk-taking behavior of corporate CEOs was funded by the Kauffman Foundation and was published as Born, Not Made (Praeger, 2008, co-author James L. Fisher).

Articles by James Koch


Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made? (Part I)

Today’s Pope Center commentary presents arguments by two distinguished writers on an age-old question: can entrepreneurship be taught or is it hard-wired into us? The first argument, by former university president and economist James V. Koch, suggests that entrepreneurship is primarily a matter of our inherent gifts. The second argument, by Buck Goldstein, Internet entrepreneur and “Entrepreneur in Residence” at UNC-Chapel Hill, suggests that entrepreneurship is more a “habit of mind” that can be developed.