Jacqueline Kirtley

Jacqueline (Jax) Kirtley studies how strategy and technology evolve in early stage entrepreneurial firms developing revolutionary and disruptive technologies. She uses multi-year longitudinal field studies to examine hard-science startups in energy and cleantech, robotics, and medical devices, the scientists and engineers who found these firms, and the public and private organizations that support them in their earliest days.

Professor Kirtley is a co-organizer of the Wharton Technology and Innovation Conference, a Representative-at-Large for the Entrepreneurship & Strategy IG of the Strategic Management Society, and a mentor for the University of Pennsylvania’s Y-Prize Competition.

Professor Kirtley did her doctoral studies in the Strategy & Innovation Department at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. She holds a bachelor of science from MIT in Ocean Engineering with a minor in Mechanical Engineering as well as a master of science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, also from MIT. She received an MBA with high honors from Boston University. Prior to entering academia, Professor Kirtley taught science and engineering through live demonstrations at the Museum of Science Boston.

Research Interests:

• technology entrepreneurship, early stage strategy evolution, technological innovation

Research

• Jacqueline Kirtley and Siobhan O’Mahony (2020), What is a Pivot? Explaining When and How Entrepreneurial Firms Decide to Make Strategic Change and Pivot, Strategic Management Journal.
  
• Jacqueline Kirtley (Working), Leveraging Uncertainty: the Power of Entrepreneurial Firms.Abstract
  
• Fernando Suarez and Jacqueline Kirtley (2012), Dethroning an Established Platform, Sloan Management Review, 53 (4), pp. 35-41.
  

Awards and Honors

• Kauffman Dissertation Fellow, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2016
  
• INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition Finalist, INFORMS College of Organization Science, 2014
  
• School of Management Doctoral Fellowship, Boston University, 2010-2014
  
• Recipient, LEAD Fellowship, Boston University School of Management MBA Program, 2007-2009
  

In the News

• The Great Resignation has spurred a new class of entrepreneurs: full-time side hustlers, solopreneurs, and freelancers, Business Insider - 10/13/2021
  
• To Change, Pivot, or Persist, Wharton Scale School - 09/14/2021
  

Knowledge @ Wharton

• When and How Entrepreneurs Pivot, Knowledge @ Wharton - 6/11/2019
  
• Can Tesla Avoid a Breakdown?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 5/21/2018