Research Mission
The Arthur M. Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership should support research that directly benefits entrepreneurs. Issues such as venture capital, corporate venturing, family business, and small business management should be included in the research agenda.
Spiro Professor 
Chad Navis is the Arthur M. Spiro Professor of Entrepreneurship.
Formerly with the University of Wisconsin, Chad was an assistant professor in Management and Human Resources at the Wisconsin School of Business. As a principal in the Initiative for Studies in Transformational Entrepreneurship (INSITE), he serves as faculty director of the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition, faculty liaison for the Qualcomm Wireless Challenge, and a faculty member of the Entrepreneurship Residential Learning Community (ERLC). He additionally oversaw the Ph.D. Minors in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Innovation.
His research draws primarily on identity and institutional theories to examine the role of market (category) structure, market evolutionary context, and institutional norms and expectations in understanding how and to what effect: 1) entrepreneurs pursue and give meaning to their new ventures, and 2) managers respond to external threats to their firms and industries. These interests integrate multiple levels of analysis to inform the role of micro-level cognitive processes and macro-level cultural influences in business entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship.
Navis earned consecutive IDEA "thought leader" awards for his research (for best-published entrepreneurship papers in 2010 and 2011) and is a regular presenter at academic conferences. His industry experience includes presently advising two start-up ventures and previous roles as a planning and control analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and as a senior business analyst with American Management Systems, now CGI Group.
He joined the Wisconsin School of Business in 2009 after completing his Ph.D. from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. He earned an MBA from the University of Georgia and a B.S. in Industrial Management from Clemson University.
