The mission of the research component of the AU Center for Innovation is to:
Recent research projects include:
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's (GEM) social entrepreneurship activity research is based on interviews with 167,793 adults in 58 economies in 2015, and is thus the largest comparative study of social entrepreneurship in the world.
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The purpose of the study is two-fold. First, the team sought to expand the limited current theory in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Second, the project sought to better understand the specific state of the ecosystem in Tampa Bay.
Dr. Siri Terjesen is the Director of the AU Center for Innovation. She has over 100 peer-reviewed scholarly publications in leading journals such as Academy of Management Review; Journal of Management; Journal of Operations Management; Business Ethics Quarterly; Journal of Business Ethics; Academy of Management Learning & Education; and Strategic Management Journal. She has also published white papers for organizations such as the Kauffman Foundation, World Bank and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Her research has been featured in leading media outlets, including Bloomberg, US News & World Report, New York Times, Huffington Post, and CNBC. Concurrently, she is a Professor .2 at the Norwegian School of Economics (Norges Handelshøyskole: NHH) in Bergen, Norway. Her research has garnered over 5,000 citations on Google Scholar.
Dr. Terjesen is an Associate Editor of Academy of Management Learning & Education, Small Business Economics, and Industry & Innovation, and a member of the editorial boards of Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice and Corporate Governance: International Review. Dr. Terjesen is also an affiliated researcher with Catalyst and the Ratio Institute, and Membership Chair of the Academy of Management's Entrepreneurship division. She has received numerous teaching awards from both student organizations and national associations, most recently from American University's Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life as Outstanding Faculty Member for 2017. She received the same award from Indiana University's Alpha Kappa Psi chapter in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
She is a co-author of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's Social Entrepreneurship report and is the Project Director for the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute's Female Entrepreneurship Index. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Terjesen was a management consultant with Accenture on projects in Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Berlin. Dr. Terjesen was also a competitive ultradistance runner, representing the United States, England, and Queensland (Australia) in international competitions.
Polina Trusova studied psychology at Heinrich-Heine-University (Düsseldorf, Germany) from 2010 to 2016, specializing in occupational psychology. During that time she undertook internships in human resources in different consulting companies. Since April 2016 she is a doctoral scholar at the "Manchot Graduate School "Competitiveness of Young Enterprises" at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at Heinrich-Heine-University. Her research interests are teamwork in innovative young enterprises and gamification. She has been invited to the American University Center for Innovation to conduct a research project focusing on innovative young enterprises founded by teams in March 2018.
Dr. Maria Figueroa-Armijos is Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Management and Affiliated faculty at the AU Center for Innovation.
She completed a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Missouri, where she specialized in Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development, and holds a BSc in Sustainable Development from EARTH University in Costa Rica.
Dr. Figueroa-Armijos specializes in entrepreneurship and regional economic development, and conducts research on entrepreneurship policy, regional innovation, entrepreneurial finance, crowdfunding, and corporate social responsibility.
Dr. Figueroa-Armijos has taught in the MSc in Management Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles and has been an invited speaker at the Economic Research Service (ERS) in the United States, KU Leuven in Belgium, and University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland.
Dr. Figueroa-Armijos has also been invited to participate in The Baugh-Ratio Colloquium for Young Social Scientists: Policy for Innovative Entrepreneurship in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2017.
Hezun Li is a visiting PhD student from the Central University of Finance and Economics, China, on a China Student Research scholarship for 2017-8. Hezun has published several research papers based on his fieldwork study in various Chinese firms, and is currently investigating topics in entrepreneurship, strategic management, performance measurement system, and cost management.
Stine Øyna’s main academic discipline is entrepreneurship with particular emphasis on early internationalization of start-ups. Stine is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Agder (Southern Norway), where she also teaches ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ to undergraduates. Stine’s other research interests include women in entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset. Stine took her Msc at UiA and COMAS (Israel), and worked for UiA’s research management department, as well as South Norway’s European Office in Brussels, before starting her PhD. Stine will join AUCI for a short stay in Summer 2018.
In Spring 2017, Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 students undertook research projects on: