Timothy Bernarr Folta
Professor
Faculty Director, CCEI
Thomas John and Bette Wolff Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship
Management
See Professor Folta’s personal page and CV
Education/Professional Certification
- Ph.D. in Management, Purdue University (1994)
Areas of Expertise
- Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Innovation Policy
- Corporate Strategy and Diversification
- Market Entry and Exit
- Managing Uncertainty
Biography
Timothy B. Folta (Ph.D. Purdue University) is Professor, Thomas John and Bette Wolff Family Chair of Strategic Entrepreneurship at University of Connecticut, Faculty Director of the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Assistant Program Chair of the Strategic Management Division (5000 members) of the Academy of Management.
His research and teaching examine both entrepreneurship and corporate strategy, analyzing decisions around entry, exit, and diversification. He is currently examining the role of the corporate headquarters in multi-business firms in reallocating strategic resources across businesses, and the effectiveness of government grant programs in supporting technical entrepreneurship. His research has appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Strategic Management Journal. He is Associate Editor of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, co-Editor of a 2016 volume of Advances in Strategic Management on Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy, and on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Strategy Science. Tim has held leadership positions in the Academy of Management, serving as a member of the executive committees of the Business Policy and Strategy (BPS) Division (2003-2005) and the Entrepreneurship Division (2015-present), co-Chair of the BPS Doctoral Consortium (2004-2005), and member of the BPS Research Committee (1999-2001).
He has been a Fellow at the University of Strasbourg (France) Institute for Advanced Study (2012-2016), and a Visiting Professor at LUISS University (Rome). Prior to his UConn appointment he held the Brock Family Chair of Strategic Management at Purdue University. He regularly teaches executives, masters, undergraduates, and Ph.D. students.
Achievements
- 2012 IDEA Foundational Paper Award in the Entrepreneurship Division at the Academy of Management honoring a paper that has powerfully and positively changed the conversation in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a decade
- 2009 Fulbright Special Senior Scholar Award for the 60th anniversary of the Fulbright program in Italy
- 2006 Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration Award for the best conference paper exploring the importance of small business to the U.S. economy or a public policy issue of importance to the entrepreneurial community
- 1994 Gleuck Best Paper award in the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management
- 1992 Best Empirical Paper award in the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management
Select Book Chapters, Monographs, or Videos
- See TEDx Purdue talk on ‘Myths of Entrepreneurship‘. Also listed on “7 TED Talks that Will Change the Way You Look at Business“
- ‘Hedging strategies,’ (with A. Sakhartov) In M. Augier and D. Teece (Eds.) Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave MacMillan: London. 2013.
- ‘Entrepreneurial risk,’ In D. Kuratko and M. Morris (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurial Research. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA. 2012.
- ‘Information asymmetry in entrepreneurship,’ (with S. Dutta) In D. Kuratko and M. Morris (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurial Research. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA.
Select Publications
- ‘Endogeneity in Strategy-Performance Analysis: An Application to Initial Human Capital Strategy and New Venture Performance‘ (with V. Rocha, M. van Praag, and A. Carniero). Organizational Research Methods (forthcoming).
- ‘Entry, exit, and the potential for resource redeployment‘ (with M. Lieberman and G. Lee). Strategic Management Journal, 38(2017): 526-544.
- ‘Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy (with C. Helfat and S. Karim). Volume 35 of series titled Advances in Strategic Management, 2016, London:Emerald Publishing.
- ‘Examining resource redeployment in multi-business firms‘ (with C. Helfat and S. Karim). In Folta, Helfat, and Karim (Eds.) Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy, Advances in Strategic Management, 35 (2016).
- ‘A comparison of the effect of angels and venture capitalists on innovation and value creation‘ (with Supradeep Dutta). Journal of Business Venturing, 31(2016): 39-54.
- ‘A model scholar and preeminent contributor to our understanding of strategic entrepreneurship: Arnold C Cooper (1933-2012).’ Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 8 (2014): 349-360.
- ‘Getting beyond relatedness as a driver of corporate value,’ (with A. Sakhartov) Strategic Management Journal, 36(2015): 1939-1959.
- ‘Resource relatedness, redeployability, and firm value,’ (with A. Sakhartov) Strategic Management Journal, 35 (2014): 1781-1797.
- ‘Rationalizing organizational change: A need for comparative testing,’ (with A. Sakhartov) Organization Science, 24, 4 (2013): 1140-1156.
- ‘Entrepreneurial entry thresholds,’ (with B. McCann), Journal of Economic and Behavioral Organization, 84, 3 (2012): 782-800.
- ‘Performance differentials within geographic clusters,’ (with B. McCann) Journal of Business Venturing, 26, 1(2011): 104-123.
- ‘Hybrid Entrepreneurship,’ (with F. Delmar and K. Wennberg) Management Science, 56, 2(2010): 253-269.
- ‘Demand- and supply-side agglomerations: Distinguishing between fundamentally different manifestations of agglomeration,’ (with B. McCann) Journal of Management Studies, 46, 3(2009): 362-392.
- ‘Sunk costs, uncertainty, and market exit: A real options perspective,’ (with J. O’Brien) Industrial and Corporate Change, 18, 5(2009): 807-.
- ‘A transaction cost perspective on why, how, and when cash impacts firm performance,’ (with J. O’Brien) Managerial and Decision Economics, 30, 7(2009): 465-479.
- ‘Location matters: Where have we been and where might we go in agglomeration research,’ (with B. McCann) Journal of Management, 34, 3(2008): 532-565.
- ‘Determinants of firm-specific thresholds in acquisition decisions,’ (with J. O’Brien) Managerial and Decision Economics, 29, 2-3(2008): 209-225.
- ‘Moderating effects of investor experience on the signaling value of private equity placements,’ (with J. Janney) Journal of Business Venturing, 21, 1(2006): 27-44.
- ‘Uncertainty, irreversibility, and the likelihood of entry: An empirical assessment of the option to defer,’ (with D. Johnson and J. O’Brien) Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 61, 3(2006): 432-452.
- ‘Geographic cluster size and firm performance,’ (with A. Cooper and Y. Baik) Journal of Business Venturing, 21, 2 (2006): 217-242.
- ‘Non-additivity in portfolios of exploration activities: A real options-based analysis of equity alliances in biotechnology,’ (with R. Vassolo and J. Anand) Strategic Management Journal, 25, 11(2004): 1045-1061.
- ‘Entry in the presence of dueling options,’ (with J. O’Brien) Strategic Management Journal, 25, 2(2004): 121-138.
- ‘Strategic benefits to firms issuing private equity placements,’ (with J. Janney) Strategic Management Journal, 25, 3(2004): 223-242.
- ‘A real options perspective on entrepreneurial entry in the face of uncertainty,’ (with J. O’Brien and D. Johnson) Managerial and Decision Economics, 24, 8(2003): 515-533.
- ‘Signaling through private equity placements and its impact on the valuation of biotechnology firms,’ (with J. Janney) Journal of Business Venturing, 18, 3(2003): 361-380.
- ‘Temporary workers as real options,’ (with D. Foote) Human Resource Management Review, 12, 4(2002): 579-597.
- ‘Option value and entry timing,’ (with K. Miller) Strategic Management Journal, 23, 7(2002): 655-665.
- ‘Real options in equity partnerships,’ (with K. Miller) Strategic Management Journal, 23, 1(2002): 77-88.
- ‘The effect of national culture on partner buyouts in cross-border biotechnology alliances,’ (with W. Ferrier) Journal of High Technology Management Research, 11, 2(2000): 175-198.
- ‘Governance and uncertainty: The tradeoff between administrative control and commitment,’ Strategic Management Journal, 19, 11(1998): 1007-1028.
- ‘Survival of the fittest? Entrepreneurial human capital and the persistence of underperforming firms,’ (with J. Gimeno, A. Cooper, and C. Woo) Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 4(1997): 750-783. Winner of 2012 IDEA Foundational Paper Award honoring a paper that has powerfully and positively changed the conversation in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a decade by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
- ‘Entrepreneurial information search,’ (with A. Cooper and C. Woo) Journal of Business Venturing, 10, 2(1995), pp. 107-120.

timothy.folta@uconn.edu | |
Phone | +1 (860) 486-3734 |
Mailing Address | Unit 1041 |
Office Location | BUSN 344 |
Campus | Storrs |