Chair in Entrepreneurship
Roles and Responsibilities
Professor Francis Greene is Chair of Entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh Business School.
Background
His impact and engagement work has sought to practically improve entrepreneurial understanding among start-up and scale-up entrepreneurs and the wider support and policy communities. He has worked for the OECD, the European Commission, the Federation of Small Business, major UK banks, as well as individual and national governments. He was also the Director of the Scottish University Scale up Consortium. This was a collaboration between the 16 Scottish University Business Schools and led to the successful creation of the E2 programme. This provided innovative scale-up education for Scottish scaling entrepreneurs.
His teaching portfolio includes undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education in a variety of universities and to different clients. His most recent executive education teaching was for Peking University.
He is an expert advisor to the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry where he has written for the Inquiry a report on the financial and welfare impacts of the pandemic on Scottish businesses, individuals and communities.
He has written and taught practical entrepreneurial matters for over 25 years for entrepreneurs, postgraduate and entrepreneurship students. His most recent textbook is Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.
His research interests are focused on the start-up, scale-up, planning and financing of entrepreneurial businesses. Prior research has focused on learning among serial entrepreneurs, how birth order affects the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity, what role testosterone plays in entrepreneurship, and if business planning helps entrepreneurs to create a viable new business. His research also covers youth and graduate entrepreneurship, the role of entrepreneurship in regional economic development, small business finance and entrepreneurship policy.
He has held visiting positions at the economic consultancy ZEW in Germany, at Mannheim University Swinburne University and the University of Vienna. He has worked as a policy advisor to the New Zealand government and worked at the SME research centre for one of the major UK banks. He is a consulting editor for the International Small Business Journal.
His work has appeared in a variety of national and international media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, local and national BBC radio and various local and national newspapers.
Professor Greene is happy to consider PhD candidates. However, applicants need to have a strong background in econometrics as he only takes students who exclusively focus on a quantitative approach to small business and entrepreneurship in developed economies.
Research Interests
- Start-ups, Growth and Closure
- Role of entrepreneurship, Economic Development
- Entrepreneurship Policy
- Youth and Graduate Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurial Finance