Tomorrow’s Business Leaders Advised to Anchor Ambition with Responsibility at Third Symposium on Entrepreneurship & Technology
Boston University’s Metropolitan College (BU MET) held its third Symposium on Entrepreneurship & Technology on Friday, March 20, and Saturday, March 21, 2026, gathering business leaders, academics, and students for presentations, papers, and posters that explored this year’s theme, “Responsible Innovation and Systematic Entrepreneurship.” The event was hosted by the BU MET Department of Administrative Sciences, with Dr. Marcus Goncalves and Dr. Rajagopal serving as co-chairs of the symposium.
Through fascinating presentations like “Generative AI and the Erosion of Consumer Trust: Behavioral, Emotional, and Neural Evidence,” and “Perceived Authenticity Gaps and Customer Incivility in Ethnic Dining Experiences,” researchers examined the core issues facing international entrepreneurship, from neuromarketing and data ethics to AI teaching, learning, and career services possibilities, and innovation, technology, and global marketing. A total of 36 institutions submitted abstracts, drawn from 13 different countries.
Attendees were saluted for their “shared commitment to advancing entrepreneurship as a responsible, structured, and globally impactful discipline,” by Dr. Goncalves.
“Ultimately, the future of entrepreneurship will not be defined by innovation alone, but by how responsibly and systematically we choose to innovate,” he remarked. “Innovation today is no longer isolated—it is collaborative, interdisciplinary, and deeply human-centered.”
Ralph H. Groce, III (CGS, Questrom, MET), who is chair of the MET Dean’s Advisory Board as well as a member of BU’s Advisory Board, and earned his master’s in Urban Affairs from BU’s Metropolitan College, delivered the keynote address early Friday morning, following introductory and welcoming remarks from Dean Tanya Zlateva and Administrative Sciences Chair Irena Vodenska.
Mr. Groce, the president and chief operating officer of Scroobious, a startup initiative focused on creating equitable access to investment capital, began his remarks by paraphrasing a quote often attributed to Steve Jobs, saying, “The people crazy enough to change the world are the ones that do.”
Mr. Groce lauded BU MET for its commitment to helping people from all walks transform their lives through education for more than 60 years. “Metropolitan College was founded on a truly powerful concept—access changes lives,” he said.
While hailing the merits of innovation and growth, Mr. Groce also went to pains to emphasize the “responsibility” element of entrepreneurship. We are living in what he called an “extraordinary moment” that has given our business leaders “unprecedented power.”
“However,” he added, modifying an old adage, “power without responsibility creates consequential volatility.”
“The fact is,” Mr. Groce explained, “modern entrepreneurs make decisions that can impact millions—even billions.” But where elements like AI, cloud computing, and capital markets have had transformative effects on entrepreneurship, there have also been knock-on effects. “Barriers to entry have fallen,” Mr. Groce said, “but so have barriers to consequence.”
It is the responsibility of the principled business leader, then, to anticipate those consequences.
“It’s not an overreach to say that the choices that we make as entrepreneurs will redefine life as we know it on this planet,” he explained, going on to wonder how to responsibly build, deploy, and scale “in a world that largely incentivizes and rewards speed?”
In an environment where entrepreneurs building advanced technologies are now being confronted with decisions once reserved for governments and global institutions, the x-factor, according to Mr. Groce, is discipline.
“Entrepreneurship without discipline becomes speculation,” he said. “Entrepreneurship with discipline becomes institution building. . . [Responsible entrepreneurship] lives where builders pause long enough to ask, not only what can we build, but also what should we do?”
Mr. Groce then laid out his four pillars for responsible entrepreneurship: first, responsibility to capital. “Capital is not just fuel, it’s trust,” he said. “Whether from investors, customers, lenders, or personal savings, capital represents your belief in judgment.”
His second pillar was organization, or, as he characterized it, responsibility to people. “Organizations are moral ecosystems,” he said. “Employees are not expendable inputs—they are long-term partners in value creation.”
Mr. Groce’s third pillar was responsibility to society. “When you write code, you encode priorities,” he explained. The responsible entrepreneur, before setting out, asks who their work might benefit or disadvantage, or what unintended consequences their endeavor might bring.
Mr. Groce’s final pillar was responsibility for time. “Some founders chase valuation. Responsible founders chase durability,” he said. “Time is the ultimate auditor.”
For Mr. Groce, these pillars of responsible growth are foundational to best practices. And, he said, they foster greater success.
“There’s this misconception that responsibility slows innovation—in reality, responsibility strengthens it. Trust compounds. Customers return to businesses that they trust. Investors fund leaders they trust. Employees commit to cultures that trust people,” he said. “Trust becomes an appreciating asset. Integrity becomes a differentiator.”
By Saturday afternoon, it was time for the students, academics, and professionals in attendance to take what they’d learned and bring it to the world beyond. Dr. Goncalves provided closing remarks for the symposium, lauding the “powerful convergence of ideas” and highlighting that the two days of programming brought the year’s theme of responsible innovation to life.
“Across our sessions, we witnessed a powerful convergence of ideas,” he said. “From AI-driven innovation and neuromarketing to entrepreneurial finance, digital trust, gender inclusion, and global enterprise systems.”
Data, ethics, and trust must evolve in cohesion, Dr. Goncalves concluded, adding that “entrepreneurship, when approached systematically, can serve as a catalyst for inclusive growth, resilience, and societal progress.”
Enjoy photos from the event below.