Robert Eberhart

Associate Professor of Management
Global Business Research Scholar

• PhD, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering
  
• MA, University of Michigan, Economics
  
• BA, Michigan State University, Finance

Robert N. Eberhart, PhD, is an associate professor of management and international business at the University of San Diego's Knauss School of Business, where he studies how entrepreneurship shapes society. He also serves as the inaugural International Business Research Scholar. He earned his PhD in Management Science from Stanford University. His academic publications span topics such as new theoretical constructs on how institutional change has complex effects on new firms, and how a new ideology of entrepreneurship broadly affects society. His publications have appeared in Organization Science, the Strategic Management Journal, Strategy Science, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Journal of Management Inquiry and others.

His research has won awards for the Responsible Research in Business and Management (2020), Organizations and Management Division Best Theory Paper (2017), Outstanding Scholar Award at SCU (2017), Best Paper Award at the Western Academy of Management (2016), Best Paper Proceeding of the 2012 Academy of Management, among others.

He serves on the editorial boards of Organization Science and the Strategic Management Journal. He is a visiting faculty at Oxford University, where he explores space entrepreneurship. He served as the Vice Chairperson of the U.S. Dept. of State and METI’s Japan-US Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council.

Publications

Eberhart, Robert N., Renee Rottner, and Michael Lounsbury. The Valorization of Employment: How Communities and Founders Shape New Venture Outcomes." Journal of Business Venturing 41, no. 3 (2026): 106585.

Eberhart, R. (2025). Benjamin C. Waterhouse. One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America. Administrative Science Quarterly, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392251350113

Eberhart, R., Folta, T., Hehenberger, L., Jennings, J. E., Jennings, P. D., Schulze, W., & Weiss, T. (2025). Entrepreneurialism, inequality, and society: Organizational and policy implications. Academy of Management Perspectives, 00(00), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2025.0134

Weiss, T., Eberhart, R., Lounsbury, M., Nelson, A., Rindova, V., Meyer, J., Bromley, P., Atkins, R., Ruebottom, T., Jennings, J., Jennings, D., Toubiana, M., Shantz, A. S., Khorasani, N., Wadhwani, D., Tucker, H., Kirsch, D., Goldfarb, B., Aldrich, H., & Aldrich, D. (2023). The Social Effects of Entrepreneurship on Society and Some Potential Remedies: Four Provocations. Journal of Management Inquiry, 0(0).

Eberhart, Robert N., Stephen Barley, and Andrew Nelson (2022) "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose:  Entrepreneurialism and the changing nature of employment relations." Entrepreneurialism and society: New theoretical perspectives. Vol. 81. Emerald Publishing Limited. 13-41.

Eberhart, Robert N., and Armanios, Daniel E. (2021) Certification relics: Entrepreneurship amidst discontinued certifications." Organization Science 33.2: 746-765.

Eberhart, Robert N., Eesley, Charles.E. (2018) The Dark Side of Institutional Intermediaries: Junior stock exchanges and entrepreneurship, Strategic Management Journal 2018;1– 23

Eesley, C. E., Eberhart R., Cheng, J., Skousen, B. (2018) Institutions and Types of Entrepreneurship: Interactive Influence of Regulatory and Non-regulatory Institutions Strategy Science 3(2),

Eberhart, Robert N., Charles E. Eesley, and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, (2017) Failure Is an Option: Institutional Change, Entrepreneurial Risk, and New Firm Growth, Organization Science 28.1: 93-112.

Eberhart, R, (2012) Corporate Governance Systems and Firm Value: Empirical Evidence from Japan’s Natural Experiment, Journal of Asia Business Studies,Vol. 6 (2)

Areas of Expertise

Awards

Selected Publications

• Eberhart, R. (2023) Testing the envelope: the unanticipated effects of regulations on entrepreneurship, Edward Elgar Publishing, 57-69.
• Eberhart, R., Hoetker, G. (2012) Japanese Firms’ Innovation Strategies in the Twenty-First Century: An Institutional View, Springer New York, 199-221.
• Eberhart, R. (2025) Benjamin C. Waterhouse. One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America WaterhouseBenjamin C.One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America. W. W. Norton, 2024. 304 pp. $29.99, hardcover., Administrative Science Quarterly, 70(4).
• Eberhart, R., Folta, T., Hehenberger, L., Jennings, J., Jennings, P., Schulze, W., Weiss, T. (2025) Entrepreneurialism, Inequality, and Society: Organizational and Policy Implications, Academy of Management Perspectives.
• Weiss, T., Eberhart, R., Lounsbury, M., Nelson, A., Rindova, V., Meyer, J., Bromley, P., Atkins, R., Ruebottom, T., Jennings, J., Jennings, D., Toubiana, M., Shantz, A., Khorasani, N., Wadhwani, D., Tucker, H., Kirsch, D., Goldfarb, B., Aldrich, H., Aldrich, D. (2025) The Social Effects of Entrepreneurship on Society and Some Potential Remedies: Four Provocation, Journal of Management Inquiry, 32(4), 251-277.

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