Erkko Autio appointed Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Erkko Autio´s research focuses on the intersection between entrepreneurship, strategy, and innovation. His current active research interests focus on:

• innovation ecosystems;
• entrepreneurial ecosystems;
• comparative entrepreneurship;
• business model innovation; and
• new venture internationalisation.

Underpinning all these is the overarching theme of digitalisation: how is digitalisation impacting entrepreneurship (one manifestation of this being the widespread adoption of ´Lean Entrepreneurship´ practices)? How is digitalisation impacting the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem phenomenon? How is digitalisation enabling value co-creation in ecosystems, in particular through its enabling effect on business model innovation? And how is digitalisation transforming the patterns and sometimes the very meaning of new venture internationalisation?

The chair will be positioned in the department of Management. Part of the department is also the Tilburg Center of Entrepreneurship (TCE). TCE makes important contributions to entrepreneurship education at Tilburg University. Furthermore TCE performs applied research and conducts valorization of academic knowledge. Erkko Autio will conduct research on Entrepreneurship and Innovation and perform teaching in relevant (research) master’s and PhD programs. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation chair is a part-time position, starting 1. February 2017.

Professor Erkko Autio is Chair in Technology Venturing and Entrepreneurship at Imperial College London Business School. At the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, he directed the Diffusion of Innovation theme and Co-Investigator in the Digital City Exchange project. He is also a member of the Senate of Imperial College and serves in the Research Committee of ICBS.

Erkko is co-founder of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute and co-author of the Global Entrepreneurship Index and the EU Regional Entrepreneurship Index. He is also a founding team member of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor GEM initiative -- the World's largest ongoing research consortium in social sciences that has been running since 1997.

Following his Doctorate 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 at HEC Université de Lausanne in 2003, before taking up his current position at ICBS in 2006.

More information on Erkko’s ICL website: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/erkko.autio