Dr. A. Gregory Stone

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship

E-Mail: gregsto@regent.edu
Phone: (757) 226-4367

Education

Indiana University, Ph.D., Ed.S, MS, AB

Background

Dr. A. Gregory Stone is an Associate Professor in the School of Business assigned to teach in both the School's MBA program, and the Center for Leadership Studies Organizational Leadership Ph.D. program. Joining the faculty in 1995, his primary research areas are servant leadership, and exploring the use of entrepreneurship as an economic development tool to remove people with disabilities from welfare. Through a grant funded by the Coleman Foundation, he developed the first website designed to encourage and support people with disabilities in their exploration of entrepreneurship as a career alternative.

Dr. Stone was recruited to the California Lutheran University School of Business in 1988. He was the "Entrepreneur in Residence," and Chair of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Global Trade Center. He authored a two-year $170,000 Business and International Education Program grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education. In 1990, he led the first Trade Mission ever undertaken by a university to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore, with his students representing five U.S. companies and their products.

He was responsible for designing, developing, and implementing the first formal marketing department at Cardservice International, Inc., a fast-growing, privately-held credit card transaction processing company in Agoura Hills, California. As marketing director, he managed the corporate racing program involvement in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour, and was liaison between Cardservice International and the Spangler Racing Team.

Dr. Stone has consulted with the Tile Institute of America, Joni & Friends (JAF Ministries), Amerigon Incorporated, and Monsanto Corporation. He assists small businesses in the areas of new-business start-ups, business planning, market planning, customer relations, and exporting. While living in Thousand Oaks, California, he founded Starfire Foundation, Inc., an innovative not-for-profit that provided alternative sentencing job-training programs for persons convicted of alcohol and drug violations. The program provided rehabilitative job training in lieu of serving time in the county jail system or state penal institutions.

Areas of Expertise

Entrepreneurship
Servant Leadership
Small Business Management
Self Employment for People with Disabilities
New Business Start-ups
Small Business Exporting.

Research and Publications

Presented a paper entitled, "Using a Naturalistic Study Paradigm to Measure the Success of Entrepreneurship Education," at the Fourth Symposium on the Project for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education conference held in Atlanta in January, 1996. The paper was published in The Art & Science of Entrepreneurship Education: Volume IV.

Conducted a dissertation research study using qualitative naturalistic inquiry techniques to examine the extent to which a small business incubator was perceived as possessing the five attributes (characteristics) commonly found to be associated with innovations possessing high rates of diffusion (based in Diffusion and Adoption Theory). The following outcomes are being incorporated into diffusion and adoption theory literature:

There may be two groups of adopters indicating that the diffusion of innovations sometimes involves a double-adoption process and that the strength of the first adoption process can directly effect the outcome and impact of the second.

Evidence exists to support the phenomenon of attribute erosion, the process by which the compatibility characteristic of the innovation begins to deteriorate.

Although there may clearly be a double-adoption process, it is usually a one-shot diffusion. In this study, one-shot diffusion meant that the incubator is diffused only once within the local community.

Co-authored conference presentation paper with Dr. Tim Redmer and subsequent journal article entitled, "Cultivating Student-Managed Business Plan Projects," for presentation at the October, 1997, Christian Business Faculty Association annual conference.

Presented with Dr. Bruce Winston on "Technology Use in the Classroom" for the Tidewater Consortium in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Ongoing presentations with Dr. Bruce Winston on "Technology Use in the Classroom" for the Tidewater Consortium Summer Institute in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Ongoing presentations with Dr. Bruce Winston on "The Use of Technology in Online Instruction" to new and existing Regent faculty through the Master Instructor Program (MIP).

Presented the paper entitled, "Emerging Business Education Trends -- Who Needs the Professor?" with Dr. Bruce Winston and Shauna Tonkin at the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences (ASBBS) 7th Annual Meeting.

Journal Article entitled, "A Model of Servant Leadership: Setting the Stage for Empirical Research," by Farling, Stone, and Winston published in the Winter 1999 issue of the Journal of Leadership Studies.

Journal of Biblical Integration Business (JBIB), "The Impact of Leader Visibility on Servant Leadership," fall 2000 issue.

Co-author of "A Review of Servant Leadership Attributes: Developing a Researchable Model." Article has been accepted by The Journal of Leadership Studies for spring 2001 pending revisions.

Currently engaged in telecommuting values research with Dr. Winston for journal publication. The data collected in the survey of telecommuters regarding values is anticipated to be complementary to areas of Servant Leadership, thereby providing additional avenues for publishing.

Cultivate opportunities to co-publish journal and popular press articles with those Ph.D. students whose research/writing is exemplary and worthy of further professional develop and critical review.