Luke Pittaway, Ph.D., B.A.

Dr. Luke Pittaway is Associate Dean in the College of Business and O’Bleness Professor of Entrepreneurship. He is an expert on entrepreneurial behavior, networking, entrepreneurial failure, business growth and corporate venturing, Pittaway’s research focuses on entrepreneurship education and learning. In 2018 he was awarded USASBE's Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year.

That research is beneficial to his students as it informs the design and development of the classes he teaches in various ways.

“First, it allows me to be aware of state-of-the-art thinking about entrepreneurship education, which I can then employ in course design and assessment practice,” he says. “Second, it allows me to consider and develop new innovative methods of teaching and learning and also allows me to consider how we draw on knowledge about entrepreneurial learning to influence approaches so that we can somehow mirror or simulate this type of learning in the classroom.”

Pittaway is not only making an impact in the classroom, but is also working outside the classroom to provide opportunities for students through the Center for Entrepreneurship. The Center has expanded opportunities for entrepreneurship education by implementing major and certificate programs, which are available to all students on campus. It has also increased extracurricular options by including open events and establishing new clubs, such as the social entrepreneurship club, Enactus.

An academic entrepreneur, Pittaway helped found and lead three centers for entrepreneurial research and education – the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development at Lancaster University (UK), the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development at the University of Sheffield (UK) and Georgia Southern University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Learning and Leadership.

Prior to OHIO, Pittaway served as the William A. Freeman Distinguished Chair in Free Enterprise and the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning and Leadership at Georgia Southern University, managing entrepreneurship programs. He also served on the faculty at Lancaster University, considered one of the top five business schools in the United Kingdom. While there, he completed a funded research project for Economic and Social Research Council’s Advanced Institute for Management. As a research coordinator, Pittaway successfully expanded the Business Development Unit into a research-led institute.

A former Research and Education Fellow with the United Kingdom’s National Council on Graduate Entrepreneurship and Advanced Institute of Management Research Scholar, Pittaway sits on a number of editorial boards, including the International Small Business Journal.  Dr. Pittaway collaborates with the UPS Stores Annual Small Business survey, providing expert advice and interpretation of data for the media.