Our research fellows at the Institute for Development Strategies include scholars, policy makers, and entrepreneurs who are shaping how places perform and identifying what needs to be done to make them better.
We provide a forum for discussion, as well as collaboration on research projects and publications. We invite influential leaders and emerging leaders to join our Institute.
Director, Institute for Development Strategies | Distinguished Professor | Ameritech Chair of Economic Development
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Associate Director, Institute for Development Strategies | Associate Professor
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With profound sadness, we share that Dean Emeritus Charles "Chuck" Bonser passed away on August 14, 2024
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Magdalena Marczewska is a Senior Research Fellow at Indiana University (Institute for Development Strategies) and has been affiliated with the Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw—her home institution—since 2016. She specializes in strategy, with a focus on innovation and technology management.
Her professional experience spans academia and the business sector. In parallel with her academic career, she currently works as an Innovation Coach supporting startups and has previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Strategy and Development Specialist. This dual background enables her to connect rigorous research with practical applications for industry and public policy.
She has served as project leader or principal investigator on numerous research projects commissioned by institutions such as the European Commission, the Polish Ministry of Environment, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Polish Patent Office, the Polish National Science Centre, and the Polish Agency for Academic Exchange. Her research addresses key challenges including digital transformation and the sustainable development of companies, frequently within large international research consortia.
Her academic career has a strong international dimension. She has held visiting researcher / visiting professor positions at leading universities, including Imperial College Business School (as a NAWA-Bekker Fellow), the University of Glasgow (as a Dekaban-Liddle Fellow), and the University of Ferrara. She is also a Kościuszko Foundation Fellowship recipient. She has also expanded her expertise through research and training at the University of Kentucky, London School of Economics, University of Padova, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Harvard Business School, and Lund University, strengthening her collaborative ties across Europe and the United States.
In addition to her research and teaching, she has contributed as an expert for the Research and Innovation Observatory Network of Experts at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, served as the University of Warsaw’s representative on the Technical Committee for Environmental Management at the Polish Committee for Standardization, and acted as an independent evaluator for the EIT Food Seedbed Pre-Accelerator Program.
She is the author of books, policy reports, book chapters, and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on digital transformation, sustainable business models, and innovation management. Through her teaching and supervision of master’s students in international programs, she contributes to the development of future leaders in strategy
Maha Aly, MBA, Ph.D.
Aly earned her Ph.D. degree in entrepreneurial psychology from the University of Erfurt in Germany. She focuses her research activities on entrepreneurial behavior, emotions, and mindset, as well as customer/user-experience design concepts. She founded the Institute of Entrepreneurial Emotional Education & Research with Prof. Audretsch in 2021. She is a consultant for nascent entrepreneurs helping them implement lean-startup strategies, design thinking, user-experience design & usability principles, in addition to offering them emotional transformational coaching and emotional education. She was selected by Microsoft Egypt in 2015 and 2016 to mentor fresh graduates for employability and entrepreneurship.
Maksim Belitski, Ph.D.
University of Reading (U.K.), Henley Business School
Research interests: Innovation, market entry, entrepreneurship, and the leadership needs of top decision-makers and professional leaders at SMEs
University of Wuppertal (Germany), Chair of Industrial Organization and Innovation; Max Planck Institute of Economics (Germany)
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, innovation, competitiveness, and gender difference and gaps in the work force
Parthenope University of Naples (Italy), Associate Professor of Economics and Business Management
Research interests:Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Corporate Governance
Wendy Chen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas Tech University
Research interests: Innovation policy, social entrepreneurship and finance, nonprofit management, and economic development
Alice Civera, Ph.D.
Alice Civera, Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, University of Bergamo (Italy), Assistant Professor
Research interests: Science policy, Public management, academic career trajectories, academic entrepreneurship.
Mehmet Akif Demircioglu, Ph.D
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (Singapore), Assistant Professor
Research interests: Public management, public sector innovation, social media in the public sector, and employee attitudes
Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum (Sweden), Managing Director; Jönköping International Business School (Sweden), Professor of Economics
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, innovation, corporate governance, industrial organization, competitiveness, regulation
Brett Gilbert, Ph.D.
Kogod School of Business: American University, Regional Innovation Chair and Associate Professor (USA)
Research interests: Geographic clusters; disruptive technologies; clean technologies; new venture performance; international entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship in emerging economies, social entrepreneurship
Jack Harding
eSilicon, President and CEO (USA)
Interests: In addition to his work at eSilicon, a global semiconductor company, Harding maintains a balanced career, providing his services to industry, academia and government.
Monika Herzig, D.M.E.
Accomplishments: Jazz pianist, composer, cofounder of not-for-profit organization "Jazz from Bloomington," executive board member of Jazz Education Network, author, and educator
University of Augsburg (Germany), Associate Professor of Economics
Research interests: Urban/regional/spatial economics, environmental economics, endogenous growth theory, entrepreneurship, numerical methods solving DSGE models, spatial econometrics
DIW Berlin (Germany), Director of Entrepreneurship
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, empirical industrial organization and institutional economics, experimental and behavioral economics, and microfinance
Self-Employed Social Entrepreneur and Research Fellow, Jackstädt Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research
Research Interests: consulting on entrepreneurial ecosystems and how people, companies, organizations and politics work together to bring about sustainable social innovations and changes
Indiana University, Kelley School of Business (USA), Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, entrepreneurial leadership
Albert Link, Ph.D.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (USA), Virginia Batte Phillips Distinguished Professor
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, technology and innovation policy, the economics of R&D, and policy/program evaluation
Erik Lehmann, Ph.D.
University of Augsburg (Germany), Director of Global Business Management
Research interests: Links between corporate governance in family and entrepreneurial firms, innovation, public policy, education and innovation systems, financial constraints and regional and global competition
Magdalena Marczewska, Ph.D.
University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management
Research interests: Strategy, Innovation and technology management, Sustainable development
Assistant Professor of Business Dynamics, Innovation and Economic Change at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany)
Research interests: aspects of entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems, academic entrepreneurship, university-industry collaborations and public policy
Senior Research Associate at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Uschi Backes-Gellner, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Universität Zürich
Research interests: Entrepreneurial economics, innovation economics, entrepreneurship in university, empirical methods.
University of Augsburg (Germany) Chair of Management & Organization, Research Assistant
Research Interests: effects of internationalization in higher education, strategic management in economic development, public policy and management
Universiteit Utrecht (the Netherlands), Associate Professor Economics of Transition and Sustainability
Research interests: Growth theory, sustainability, entrepreneurship, innovation
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Bergamo University (Italy), Department of Management
Research interests: entrepreneurship, innovation management, knowledge spillovers and hidden champions
University of Augsburg (Germany) Chair of Management & Organization, Assistant Professor
Research interests: aspects of entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems, academic entrepreneurship, public policy evaluation, startup accelerators and innovation intermediaries.
Siri Terjesen, Ph.D.
American University (USA), Interim Director of the Center for Innovation and Chair in Entrepreneurship; Norwegian School of Economics (Norway), Professor of Strategy
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, corporate governance, strategy, gender, development
Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), Professor of Economics and Entrepreneurship
Research interests: Entrepreneurship, industrial economics, industrial organization and policy, and small business economics
University of Wuppertal (Germany), Assistant Professor for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Corporate Change
Research interests: Economic and managerial psychology, entrepreneurship and innovation, and organizational behavior
Silvio Vismara, Ph.D.
University of Bergamo (Italy), Department of Economics and Technology Management, Assistant Professor
Research interests: Corporate finance, business valuation, entrepreneurial finance, and banking
Juergen Weigand, Ph.D.
WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany), Chairholder of the Institute for Industrial Organization
Research interests: Corporate governance and business competition
Katharine Wirsching, Ph.D.
University of Augsburg (Germany), Assistant Professor at the Chair of Management and Organization
Research interests: Corporate governance and innovation in family firms, female and immigrant entrepreneurship, public policy
Sebastian Aparicio, M.Sc, M.Phil
Aparicio is pursing an International Doctorate in Entrepreneurship & Management (IDEM) at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. His research interests include: entrepreneurship, institutional Economics, economic growth, economic Development, applied Econometrics, and system dynamics.
Kathrin Bischoff, MScBA
Bischoff is a Ph.D. candidate in sustainable entrepreneurship at the University of Wuppertal where she is involved in research and teaching activities in entrepreneurship education, sustainable entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder management.
Farzana Chowdhury, Ph.D.
Chowdbury successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation at O'Neill in the summer of 2015. Her research focuses on the impact of corruption on entrepreneurship and social welfare.
Ludvig Levasseur, Ph.D.
Ludvig Levasseur serves as a post-doctoral researcher at Oklahoma State University Spears School of Entrepreneurship. His research interests are time perspective, alertness, mixed methods, family business, and venture capital. He received his Ph.D. in Management from PSL-Université Paris-Dauphine.
Hugo Menendez, MPA
Menendez graduated from O'Neill with his MPA in May of 2016. During his time at O'Neill, he served as a graduate assistant at the IDS, as well as Director Audretsch’s teaching assistant. He currently serves in the Office of Education Innovation, in the Indianapolis Mayor's Office, as the Financial Performance Analyst. His responsibilities include monitoring and evaluating the financial performance of Mayor-sponsored charter schools.
Christina Theodoraki
Theodoraki is a PhD candidate at the University of Montpellier, funded by the Labex Entrepreneurship in the School of Business. Her teaching areas are Management, Business Plan, and Entrepreneurial Support. Her areas of research include entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurial support, and inter-organizational strategies with a focus on business incubators.
