ProfessorErkko Autio

Professor Erkko Autio FBA FFASL is Chair in Technology Venturing and Entrepreneurship at Imperial Business School. 

Currently Erkko is working on the Wicked Acceleration Lab, a joint initiative between Imperial College Business School and Royal College of Arts that develops methods for Wicked Acceleration, DeepTech Acceleration and Moonshot Acceleration.

Erkko's work has been cited over 70 000 times in Google Scholar, and a recent Stanford University survey ranked him within the top 0,1% of the world's scientists in terms of research impact. In August 2024 he received the USC Helena Yli-Renko Research Impact Award, which is conferred to the most highly cited academic paper published in entrepreneurship six years prior (in this case, during year 2018). He was runner-up for the same award in 2007.

Erkko was a co-founder of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, co-author of the Global Entrepreneurship Index and the EU Regional Entrepreneurship Index, and a co-founder 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 digital entrepreneurship, scaling and scale-ups, comparative entrepreneurship, international entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, entrepreneurial ecosystems, business model innovation, and digital transformation. 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), and his research has been recognised with numerous best paper awards. He has also been recognised as one of the 50 most influential management scholars globally in terms of research impact (Aguinis et al, 2012). He is listed on Thomson Reuter's Essential Science Indicators top 1% most cited academics in Economics & Business worldwide.

His current research interests are in digital entrepreneurship, scaling and scale-ups, comparative entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovation ecosystems, data ecosystems, entrepreneurial resilience, wicked acceleration, business model innovation and algorithmic governance.
 
Erkko is also active in advancing the Design Science approach to entrepreneurship research. This approach focuses on solving 'field problems' that hamper entrepreneurial practice. In this research stream he has developed AI-powered mentoring platforms for deeptech de-risking and acceleration and scalable business model design. He has also developed numerous tools to advance entrepreneurial practice, including the Scaling Canvas, Triple Bottom Line Canvas, Platform Business Model Canvas, and Ecosystem Readiness Scale, among many others.

Following his Doctorate at Helsinki University of Technology (subsequently Aalto University), 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 Imperial Business School in 2006.

Erkko 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. During recent years he has been a regular advisor for Asian Development Bank, on digital and impact (sustainable) entrepreneurship.

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; California Management Review; 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's Entrepreneurship Division. 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 Business School, University of Zurich, University of Chicago, University of Sydney, 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 professors who have influenced venturing practice worldwide.

Erkko was elected as Fellow of the British Academy in 2019 and Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 2024. He is also a Fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association.

He enjoys disc golf, gym, running, tennis, skiing, has read more than ten metres of books on Roman history, 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!