Skip to Main Content

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship involves creation. This can include, but not limited to, the creation of new opportunities and technologies, the creation of new firms, the creation of new products and markets within existing firms, the creation of new and better ways of doing business, and the creation of key entrepreneurial resources, which ultimately leads to the creation of value—economic and social—for entrepreneurs as well as various stakeholders. Entrepreneurship is foundational to the study of business management. Indeed, without entrepreneurship, there is no business to manage.

The Entrepreneurship group at Ivey is made up of faculty who research different elements of entrepreneurship at all levels of analysis—from individuals to global environments—and especially as it relates to understanding what leads entrepreneurs to be successful. This includes research on entrepreneurial cognition and decision making, new venture creation, entrepreneurial firm growth and performance, entrepreneurial strategy, innovation and the role of technology, family business, the economics of entrepreneurship, regional entrepreneurial dynamics and development, and international entrepreneurship.

*Please note that Entrepreneurship is a stream under General Management

Areas of Research Focus

  • Entrepreneurial cognition and decision making
  • Entrepreneurial firm growth and performance
  • Innovation and the role of technology
  • Field, laboratory and natural experiments
  • The economics of entrepreneurship
  • Gender and entrepreneurship
  • Social entrepreneurship
  • Entrepreneurship and disadvantage
  • International entrepreneurship
  • Organizational sponsorship, accelerators and incubators

Faculty in the Entrepreneurship group have regularly published in premier management, entrepreneurship and technology journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Small Business Economics, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Strategic Management Journal, among others.

PhD Student Opportunities

Each year, the Entrepreneurship Area Group admits one or two qualified, highly motivated, and intellectually curious applicants into our PhD Program. We welcome applicants who are interested in any entrepreneurship-related (broadly defined) topics, including, but not limited to, the current and past Areas of Research Focus of our faculty members listed above. Once admitted, the student will be assigned a Faculty Mentor with whom they will work closely for the first two years in the Program.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Ivey

Ivey Business School is committed to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Please explore Ivey’s EDI homepage for more information on Ivey's commitment to EDI, to read about Ivey’s progress in the EDI Update, and to meet Ivey’s EDI Advisory Council members.

Ivey Business School invites applications from all qualified individuals. Ivey is committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace, and welcomes applications from women, members of racialized groups/visible minorities, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of any sexual orientation, and persons of any gender identity or gender expression.

PhD Graduates

The doctoral program in Entrepreneurship is designed for those interested in pursuing academic careers in entrepreneurship at top business schools.

Dr. Maya Kumar

Assistant Professor, IE Business School

Dr. Maya Kumar
PhD Dissertation:

The Role of Early Customers in the Venture Creation Process

While startups’ interactions with early potential customers may occur long before product creation, entrepreneurs often fail to recognize how these interactions impact startup development. My research proposes that early customers are central influences and develops a model of customer interactions. More specifically, my dissertation focuses on answering: When and how do startups interact with early customers during the venture creation process, and how do these interactions create path dependence for the type of organization being created?.... Read more about this thesis

Discipline Coordinator

Simon C. Parker

Dr. Parker is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School. He joined Ivey in 2008 after a sabbatical at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Dr Parker is a Field Editor at the Journal of Business Venturing and a Co-Editor at the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed articles in economics, entrepreneurship and management journals, and is the author of The Economics of Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition 2018). He was as advisor to the OECD on entrepreneurship and SME public policy in Italy in 2013 and Canada in 2015, and is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and workshops. He also regularly leads doctoral training seminars at universities in the US, UK and Europe.

Dr. Parker published about two case cases on entrepreneurship every year, with a particular interest in the challenges and strategies associated with Internet-based start-ups, including their use of social media. His recent cases illustrate bootstrapping in an Ottawa-based venture, Lightenco; entrepreneurial leadership in a management buyout from DuPont, DSS; and social influencer marketing in Toronto-based Viral Nation, which is North America’s leading influencer marketing agency.

Read full profile »

Connect with Ivey Business School