Erkko Autio

Summary

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. He was a founder of the Energy Business Laboratory of ICBS and directed ICBS Doctoral Programme for 7 years until June 2015.

His Google Scholar profile can be found here.

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.

Erkko has conducted pioneering research in the areas of comparative entrepreneurship, international entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, and most recently in systems of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial  ecosystems. His research has been cited in hundreds of news media in over 80 countries (including The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, CNN, MSBNC, among others); in over 18 000 academic publications (Google Scholar), and his research has been recognised in the form of numerous best paper awards and similar recognitions. Professor Autio was recently recognised as one of the 50 most influential management scholars globally in terms of research impact (Aguinis et al, 2012).

His current research interests are in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy (notably, National and Regional Entrepreneurial Ecosystems), innovation ecosystems, innovation momentum strategies, business model innovation and innovation from Big Science.

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.

Erkko Autio has been a founder, non-executive director and advisory board member of a number of technology-based ventures and venture funds, and he has worked widely with industry and government in Europe and Asia. He has advised the European Commissioner for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and he chaired the Europe Innova Expert Panel on ‘Gazelle’ Policy from 2006 to 2008. In 2016 he advised EU DG GROWTH on a shift towards an entrepreneurial ecosystems policy.

Four technology ventures started by his students have been listed in Europe’s ‘100 Hottest Technology Ventures’ list, While at Helsinki University of Technology, over a period of 15 years, he was closely involved in launching and developing the Otaniemi Science Park – Innopoli complex, the largest science park in the Scandinavian countries. Combined, new businesses founded by his students have created several billions of Euro of new market value.

Erkko serves and has served in numerous journal editorial advisory boards, including Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. His research has been published in 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; Small Business Economics, among others.

His doctoral students have received numerous awards for research excellence, including two ‘Best PhD Thesis’ awards by the Academy of Management. His doctoral students have been placed in faculty positions in universities such as the University of Southern California, EM Lyon Business School, Warwick Business School, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Imperial College Business School, University of Zurich, University of Chigago, Aalto University, Minnesota Institute of Technology, among others. Erkko is himself also a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 American Marketing Association’s Gerry Hill Award for an article that has significantly influenced entrepreneurship and marketing research over the previous decade.

In Fall 2015 he was voted by a web-based technology practitioner community to the list of top 100 entrepreneurship professorswho have influenced venturing practice worldwide.

He enjoys running (no talent), tennis (can just about hold the racket right), skiing (emphasis on survival), F1 (watching), has read more than five metres of books on Roman history, can list Roman emperors well into the fourth century AD, and he has perfected a recipe for seafood pasta in almost weekly iterations over the past ten years -- and his family still agrees to eat it!