Jon Eckhardt
| Jon Eckhardt | |
|---|---|
 Jon_Eckhardt.jpg | |
| Born | |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Research on the individual-opportunity nexus in entrepreneurship; co-founder of gener8tor |
| Title | Pyle Bascom Professor in Business Leadership Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Professor Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Entrepreneurship |
Jon Eckhardt is an American academic specializing in entrepreneurship and innovation. He is the Pyle Bascom Professor in Business Leadership, Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Professor, and Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with a joint appointment at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.[1][2]
He is known as a pioneering scholar of opportunity theory (Individual-Opportunity Nexus) in entrepreneurship and for his work as a scholar-practitioner. His more recent research is focused on improving the quantity and quality of companies formed by universities. He has also co-founded the gener8tor startup accelerator and held leadership roles in university entrepreneurship programs.[3][4]
Early life and education
Eckhardt grew up in State College, Pennsylvania. He earned a B.S. with honors in economics from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. from University of Maryland, College Park.[1][2]
He served on active duty in the United States Army from 1988 through 1991.[1] Prior to enrolling in graduate school, Eckhardt worked as a financial analyst for Legg Mason Funds Advisor (Baltimore) and National Economic Research Associates (Washington, DC).[1] He also held technical roles, including as a system administrator supporting a lab of Digital VAX machines running 4.2BSD Unix and providing sales support for UREP, a program enabling Unix machines to communicate on IBM's BITNET.[1]
Academic career
Eckhardt is Professor in the Management and Human Resources department at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison. He holds the Pyle Bascom Professorship in Business Leadership, the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Professorship, and serves as Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Entrepreneurship. He also maintains an appointment at the interdisciplinary Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.[1][2]
From 2012 to 2019, he served as Academic Director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship. During his tenure, the center expanded into a campus-wide program with annual enrollment approaching 2,000 students. He co-founded the Entrepreneurship Science Lab, which applies data science to improve university-driven entrepreneurship.[1][2]
He has taught in undergraduate, MBA, Ph.D., and executive education programs at the university.[2]
Research
Eckhardt's research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the application of data science to business and entrepreneurial processes. His work addresses the role of opportunities in entrepreneurship and multistage selection processes in new venture creation and financing.[1]
His 2003 paper with Scott Shane, "Opportunities and entrepreneurship," published in the Journal of Management, has been cited more than 3,600 times and contributed to the development of the individual-opportunity nexus framework.[5][6]
Other works include research on multistage selection and venture financing, open innovation in platform ecosystems, and further development of the individual-opportunity nexus. As of 2026, his Google Scholar profile shows approximately 6,000 total citations and an h-index of 15.[5]
He has served as Editor-in-Chief (later Editor-in-Chief Emeritus) of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Exchange (EIX), an online publication bridging entrepreneurship research and practice.[2]
Patents
Eckhardt is a co-inventor of a technology to identify entrepreneurs in large populations using data science (U.S. Patent No. US 11,308,411 B2).[7]
Entrepreneurship leadership and external impact
Eckhardt co-founded gener8tor, a startup accelerator program that has been recognized with Gold-tier status in national rankings.[8] Sources state that gener8tor has supported 1,263 companies that have created more than 10,000 jobs and raised over $2 billion in follow-on funding.[1][3]
Eckhardt is an active angel investor who has served on the boards of several non-profits and several companies, including Health Decision (acquired), Extract Systems (acquired), and Leysi.
Eckhardt co-chaired the working group that designed the founder-forward strategy for entrepreneurship at UW–Madison. He was subsequently appointed Special Advisor to the Chancellor, to initiate implementation of the recommendations in the report.[4]
He has secured more than $6 million in external funding since 2010 from sources including the National Science Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and private donors. He is a former Kauffman Faculty Fellow.[1]
Awards and honors
Eckhardt has received awards for teaching, service, and research, including:
- Kauffman Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship Research, 2009, from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.[1]
- Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Distinguished Professorship (2016, renewed 2020) for excellence in entrepreneurship research.[1]
- Erwin A. Gaumnitz Distinguished Faculty Award for Service (2022) and Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award (2020).
- Mabel W. Chipman Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (2010).
- Wisconsin Naming Gift Distinguished Service Award (2014).
- Madison Magazine M-List recognition in entrepreneurship and technology (2013).
Selected publications
- Eckhardt, Jonathan T.; Shane, Scott A. (2003). "Opportunities and entrepreneurship". Journal of Management. 29 (3): 333–349. doi:10.1177/014920630302900304. (cited by more than 3,600 according to Google Scholar)
- Shane, Scott; Eckhardt, Jonathan (2003). "The individual-opportunity nexus". In Acs, Zoltan J.; Audretsch, David B. Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: An Interdisciplinary Survey and Introduction. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4020-7358-8. Search this book on
- Eckhardt, Jonathan T.; Shane, Scott; Delmar, Frédéric (2006). "Multistage selection and the financing of new ventures". Management Science. 52 (2): 220–232. doi:10.1287/mnsc.1050.0478.
- Eckhardt, Jonathan T.; Ciuchta, Michael P.; Carpenter, Mason (2018). "Open innovation, information, and entrepreneurship within platform ecosystems". Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 12 (3): 369–391. doi:10.1002/sej.1298.
- Blank, Steve; Eckhardt, Jonathan T. (2024). "The lean startup as an actionable theory of entrepreneurship". Journal of Management. 50 (8): 3012–3034. doi:10.1177/01492063231168095.
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 "Jon Eckhardt". Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Jon Eckhardt". Entrepreneurship Science Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Q&A: Jon Eckhardt wants to understand how UW students become entrepreneurs". The Capital Times. 2018-06-03. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "UW–Madison unveils strategic vision to boost entrepreneurship". University of Wisconsin–Madison. 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Jon Eckhardt". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
- ↑ Eckhardt, Jonathan T.; Shane, Scott A. (2003). "Opportunities and entrepreneurship". Journal of Management. 29 (3): 333–349. doi:10.1177/014920630302900304.
- ↑ "US11308411B2 – Systems, methods and media for automatically identifying entrepreneurial individuals in a population using individual and population level data". Google Patents. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
- ↑ "gener8tor retains gold status in national rankings". BizTimes. 2018-10-26. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
External links
- Official faculty profile
- Entrepreneurship Science Lab page
- Jon Eckhardt publications indexed by Google Scholar
- Jon Eckhardt on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 23: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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