Analyzing Entrepreneurial Profiles of Nations – 21 Apr

There is considerable interest among policy-makers in measuring the entrepreneurial character of nations. A number of approaches and indices have been proposed for the study of the question. But what is an ‘entrepreneurial economy’? In this talk Professor Erkko Autio, QinetiQ-EPSRC Chair in Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship in Physical Sciences, reviews different approaches to measuring the entrepreneurial character of nations and discuss their merits and weaknesses. He concludes by proposing a policy-oriented conceptual definition for the concept of an ‘entrepreneurial nation’.

About The Speaker

Professor Erkko Autio, QinetiQ-EPSRC Chair in Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship in Physical Sciences, Director, Energy Business Research Laboratory, and Director of Postgraduate Studies, Imperial College London Business School (ICBS).

Following his Doctorate in Technology at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), he held a number of academic roles including professor and director of the Institute of Strategy and International Business at HUT in 1999, Visiting Professor at CERN in 2001 and Professor and Director of Institut Stratège, HEC Université de Lausanne in 2003, before taking up his current position at ICBS in 2006.

At Imperial College, he is a member of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, where he directs the Entrepreneurship, Transfer and Adoption theme. This theme carries out research on entrepreneurship, technology transfer, technology adoption, and related technology strategies. As the empirical context, research in this theme focuses predominantly on digital technology industries as well as the energy sector. An important ongoing project, Innovation Momentum, seeks to understand ecosystem building strategies and related business models in platform technology contexts.

Erkko Autio has been a founder and advisory board member of a number of companies from consultancy to technology-based ventures and venture funds, and he has worked widely with industry and government in Europe and Asia. He was a founding coordination team member of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor GEM initiative. With 70 participating countries, GEM is one of the largest ongoing research consortia in social sciences. Erkko served in GEM’s founding coordination team and has coordinated GEM research into high-growth entrepreneurship for over ten years.

He serves in numerous journal editorial boards, and his research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal; Academy of Management Review; Strategic Management Journal; Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of International Business Studies; Strategic Organization, Research Policy; McKinsey Quarterly; Journal of Management Studies; Journal of Business Venturing; Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Small Business Economics, among others. His research has been cited in more than 1 000 academic articles (ISI Web of Science) and in public media, e.g., Economist, Fortune, MSNBC, and in some 200-300 news media in over 80 countries.

Four technology ventures started by his students have been listed in Europe’s ‘100 Hottest Technology Ventures’ list, and his doctoral students have received numerous awards for research excellence, including two ‘Best PhD Thesis’ awards by the Academy of Management. He is himself also a recipient of numerous awards, the most recent being the 2010 American Marketing Association’s Gerry Hill Award in recognition for an article that has significantly influenced entrepreneurship and marketing research over the past decade.

Event Details

When: Thursday 21st April 2011
Time: 930am-1130am
Where: Seminar room 1, Level 1, I3 Building, 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, National University of Singapore

Register here.

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