Scott Shane

Scott Shane, PhD, is the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and a professor of economics at the Weatherhead School of Management. He has written or edited 16 books that include Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By; Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures; From Ice Cream to the Internet: Using Franchising to Unlock the Potential of Your Business; Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spinoffs and Wealth Creation, among five others. Several of his books have won the Best Business Book Award, Best Small Business Book Award, and the Golden Book Award, Taiwan.

The author of over 94 scholarly articles on entrepreneurship and innovation management, Shane's work has appeared in Management Science, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and International Journal of Industrial Organization, among others.His current research examines: (1) how entrepreneurs discover and evaluate opportunities, assemble resources, and design organizations; (2) university spin-offs and technology transfer; (3) business format franchising; (4) angel investing; and (5) genetic factors in entrepreneurship.

Shane has been a consultant to numerous large and small organizations and has taught in executive education programs around the world. Since his appointment at Weatherhead School of Management in 2003, Shane has taught courses in the areas of technology strategy and entrepreneurship. He is also the Managing Director of the Comeback Capital Fund, a venture capital fund investing in early stage companies in the Heartland.

Shane has been nominated for both the Weatherhead Teaching Excellence Award, and Carl F. Wittke Award for Best Undergraduate Teacher Nominee, Case Western Reserve University.

He is the Weatherhead School’s most highly cited faculty member. In 2009, he won the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, in 2015 he received the Weatherhead Enduring Impact Award, and in 2017 he received the Case Western Reserve University Faculty Distinguished Research Award. He received his PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

His previous faculty appointments include the University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology

Initially Appointed: 2003