Professor Laura Costanzo

• Entrepreneurship and strategic behaviour of family businesses and SMEs
• Sustainable entrepreneurship
• Social entrepreneurship
• Management teams’ strategic dynamics
• Uncertainty and intuition in entrepreneurial decision-making

Professor Costanzo is a qualitative researcher. Her research interests include entrepreneurship and strategic behaviour of family businesses and SMEs, sustainable entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, management teams’ strategic dynamics, uncertainty and intuition in entrepreneurial decision-making. These subjects are researched within different industry contexts in both developed and developing economies by applying different theoretical lenses of investigation, which so far have mainly included institutional theory, institutional logics, ambidexterity, paradox and imprinting theories.

Professor Costanzo has successfully supervised to completion 17 doctoral theses. She welcomes PhD applications on topics concerning family business strategy and entrepreneurial behaviour and their approach to innovation and succession, leadership and sustainable entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, intuition and business venturing, human strategic decision making in very uncertain environments.

Particularly, with regard to family businesses she is interested in understanding how these innovate and ensure a smooth transgenerational change, their environmental, social and economic sustainability, leadership approaches in family businesses including the role of women and next generation, the interface between the family and business entities and how such interface influences the trajectory of the family business development, the impact of family conflicts on decision-making, the influence of the macro culture and family identity in embracing innovation versus tradition, the role of the family founder’s intuition in business opportunity’s exploitation.

She also welcomes applications on new topics to address contemporary social, business and management issues with a focus on AI and sustainability and firms’ success and longevity. Professor Costanzo is keen in developing new theoretical paradigms and empirical approaches to research these new topics with the ultimate aim to make a contribution not only to the scholarship of strategy, entrepreneurship and management studies, but also to effectively impact on business and society.

Professor Costanzo’s research in the subject areas of strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship has been published in top ABS 3* and 4* including the Academy of Management Review, British Journal of Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, European Management Review, Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Gender, Work and Organisation. Her research work presented at international conferences has received international awards including the EURAM/SIMA best paper award for SMEs/International Management, BAM Strategic Foresight SIG, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence for Outstanding Paper in JFRC, and a nomination for top 10 Strategic Management Society/McKinsey Best Papers (USA). She has been chairing conference tracks at international conferences (European Academy of Management, Strategic Management Society) and she has been an invited keynote speaker at international conferences with a focus on entrepreneurial strategic processes. She is currently an Editor of the European Management Review (Strategy & Entrepreneurship Area).