School of Public Policy Celebrating 10 Years

Dr. Qingfang Wang’s research examines how inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems can be intentionally designed to promote community wealth creation and equitable economic growth.

Over two decades of scholarship, her work has focused on how race, gender, immigration, and place shape entrepreneurial opportunity in underserved communities. Drawing on comparative and multi-city research, Dr. Wang shows that entrepreneurship operates through ecosystems shaped by institutional design, including how public agencies, universities, financial institutions, and community organizations structure support, coordinate resources, and govern economic development.

In her recent work, Dr. Wang advances a framework of institutional space-making to explain how inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems take shape in practice. She demonstrates that equitable growth emerges when actors collectively redesign governance arrangements, strengthen relational infrastructure, and adapt implementation strategies to local histories and community needs. These ecosystem-level efforts support community wealth creation by reinforcing local job generation, business stability, and reinvestment in place. This research informs policy innovation, anchor-institution strategy, and community-engaged scholarship at the UCR School of Public Policy, while supporting student training and applied research focused on building durable, equity-centered economic systems.