Sérgio Costa concluded his PhD in November 2014 at the University of Strathclyde, UK, with Jonathan Levie (University of Strathclyde) and Marina Biniari (University of Aalto, Finland) as his advisors. Besides being a researcher at INESC TEC, Sérgio Costa is also Visiting Research Fellow at University of Gent, in Belgium, and Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Porto.

In his PhD thesis, titled Business Model Change in Early-stage University Spin-offs, the INESC TEC researcher addresses the evolution of the business models of early-stage university spin-offs. Using an exploratory and qualitative methodology, the researcher followed  eight companies, in about 100 interviews, collecting data over various periods of time. This work is innovative not only because of the broader methodology used, in which the researcher analyses the business models of companies throughout time, but mainly because of the analysis focusing on this type of company, something which is unheard of in the field of management.

For the Portuguese researcher, being nominated for the most important award given to PhD dissertations in entrepreneurship “is very emotional and I feel a complete sense of fulfilment, because this means that the major experts in this field appreciate my work.” Moreover, “I was very pleased because I now understand that all the effort I put in the PhD was worth it”, the researcher confessed.

This is the most important competition in the world in the field of management. The initiative is organised by the Academy of Management, which is responsible for the most important publications in this field. The winner will be receiving a 1,500 dollar prize. The results will be announced in August, at the Academy of Management’s Annual Meeting, in Vancouver, Canada.

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this article are associated with the following partner institutions: U.Porto and INESC TEC.

INESC TEC, July 2015