Prof. Eric Gedajlovic appointed as inaugural Beedie Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Beedie School of Business Professor Eric Gedajlovic has been appointed as the Beedie Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship.

Eric Gedajlovic, a professor at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, has been appointed as the Beedie Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship for a five-year term.

The newly created professorship focuses on scholarship that is relevant to business strategy and entrepreneurship at both global and local levels – and outreach activities that disseminate academic research.

Gedajlovic’s research is widely cited by scholars working in the fields of strategy, organizational theory, entrepreneurship, international business, family business as well as industrial economics and sociology. It has been included in graduate and undergraduate level text books in the fields of strategic management and industrial economics.

“Our increasingly multi-polar, interconnected and turbulent world presents managers and entrepreneurs with momentous challenges and opportunities,” said Gedajlovic. “In my role as the Beedie Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, my teaching and research will revolve around helping people and organizations meet these challenges, and also identify and act upon opportunities that create value for themselves and their communities.”

In addition to his research and teaching, Gedajlovic is serving as co-chair of the Academy of International Business Annual Meeting in Vancouver next summer. The event is one of the world’s largest gatherings of scholars devoted to international business, with over 1,000 attendees.

“Eric is an outstanding scholar whose work reflects our strategic research themes as a business school, especially the realms of entrepreneurship, innovation and global business,” said Daniel Shapiro, Dean of the Beedie School of Business. “As a teacher, he has shown a proclivity for classroom creativity such as through the creation of the undergraduate Opportunity Fest at SFU Surrey. I am delighted that Eric will serve in this role – one that is a testament to his impressive track record of research and academic impact.”

Through his scholarship, Gedajlovic seeks better explanations of strategic and entrepreneurial processes by considering the institutional, historical and organizational contexts in which they are embedded. He has collaborated with more than 30 different scholars based in North America, Europe and Asia.

His research has been published in many top ranked Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship journals including Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Organization Studies.

The $1 million endowed professorship is funded by the record $22-million donation made by Ryan and Keith Beedie in February 2011, which established the Beedie School of Business. Ryan Beedie has generously waived his naming rights to the professorship, in order to encourage new donations to the professorship. The Beedie School of Business is currently fundraising for a new donor to leverage the $1 million endowment match and name the professorship.