PALO ALTO, Calif., May 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Starting this fall, Palo Alto University (PAU) will offer the first of three 100% online courses of its new Psychology of Entrepreneurship Certificate Program. Designed for professionals, business leaders, students, and would-be entrepreneurs anywhere in the world, the program promises an in-depth look at the entrepreneurial process and the key role personal psychology plays in it.

Program founder Jerry I. Porras, PhD, a professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Business as well as PAU, says most entrepreneurship programs focus on business and entrepreneurial principles alone.

"We didn't find another that emphasized psychology across the entire program," Porras said. "We believe this makes our program unique literally unique in the growing field of behavioral economics. It's groundbreaking. There's nothing else like it around."

Lending credence to the crucial role of human behavior in entrepreneurial undertakings, Porras added, are entrepreneurs themselves.

"When you talk to entrepreneurs who've been successful, they attribute a huge portion of their success to the human side of the process. How entrepreneurs regulate their own temperaments, their ability to motivate people, the interpersonal dynamics of relationship building, these are big determinants in their success. Research supports all of this. And yet, when you go look at entrepreneurship programs elsewhere, they don't emphasize that."

The first course in PAU's upcoming program certainly does. Titled "Entrepreneur as a Person: Leadership the Psychology of Entrepreneurship," it will help students develop and hone skills in human resources management, leadership, and organizational behavior within the context of launching and running a new organization.

The second course, "Your Product, the Consumer's Mind, and Entrepreneurial Marketing," teaches marketing concepts and methods, consumer behavior, such as motivation and needs, along with problem solving. And in the third, "The Entrepreneurial Process: From Coffee House to Business Plan to IPO," teams of students will write business plans for real startups and take actual steps towards their implementation.

All three online courses must be completed to earn the program certificate.

Porras contends PAU is ideally suited and situated to offer the Psychology of Entrepreneurship program. Known as a school of psychology, PAU has evolved and branched out to look at more of society through a psychological lens. For example, it offers programs in the psychology of business, of law, and of education.

"Psychology affords a way of reinterpreting subject areas that have been the focus of degrees," Porras added. "If you study in just a single discipline, it doesn't capture reality. The cross-disciplinary understanding is really the most useful and potent understanding around. Palo Alto University comes from these roots. And in Silicon Valley, we have all the benefits of being in a rich, startup ecosystem."

For more information on Palo Alto University's Psychology of Entrepreneurship Certificate Program, visit: http://www.paucertificateofentrepreneurship.com, or call 888-350-8331.

Media Contact:

Rich Kass
Palo Alto University
415-722-6030
Email

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SOURCE Palo Alto University