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.
Professor Daniel Clark, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship is recruiting for a PhD student with a research interest in Gender and Decision-Making in Entrepreneurship. This position would be aligned, and partially funded by, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant that has already been awarded.
The grant proposal outlines a multi-year research program that would provide the data and theoretical inspiration for the dissertation, however the specific direction, collection, analysis and writing would be the candidate’s own.
Students would be co-supervised by another Ivey faculty member (to be determined), and have access to mentoring from Ivey’s globally recognized faculty in entrepreneurship, gender, and decision making.
Those interested should contact, as soon as possible, dclark@ivey.ca with their CV, research statement, and standardized scores; to express their interest and to request information about how to formally apply.
Other research in this space includes:
Jennings, J. E., Rahman, Z., & Dempsey, D. (2023). Challenging what we think we know: Theory and evidence for questioning common beliefs about the gender gap in entrepreneurial confidence. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 47(2), 369-397.
Kumar, M., Clark, D., & Tietz, M. (2022). High-potential Venturing By Female Entrepreneurs-A Fuzzy Set Analysis. Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference.
Clark, D. R., Pidduck, R. J., Lumpkin, G. T., & Covin, J. G. (2023). Is It Okay to Study Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) at the Individual Level? Yes!. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 10422587231178885.
Dempsey, D., & Jennings, J. (2014). Gender and entrepreneurial self-efficacy: a learning perspective. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 6(1), 28-49.
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
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
