Sharon F. Matusik is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado. She earned her Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Washington, and her undergraduate degrees (Economics and English) from Colby College. Prior to joining academia, she worked in the management consulting field.
Her current research focuses on entrepreneurial and venture capital firms and on innovation and knowledge sharing in established firms. For example, she had looked at topics such as how markets value innovation activities of firms, what accounts for variation in profitability levels of entrepreneurial firms, and how the diversification of a venture capital firm (i.e., the different industries it invests in) affects the performance of the venture capital firm. She is also interested in how innovation and entrepreneurship affect economic development, with research studies examining topics such as what drives the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems in developing economies, and what influences whether the value from innovations that originate in developing economies stay in the home country or is appropriated outside of that country. Her work has been published in the top academic journals in the field of management, such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, and Academy of Management Review and is widely cited.
Professor Matusik's teaching interests are in the area of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship and she has taught extensively at the MBA, Ph.D., and executive level. She has also taught in a range of custom executive education programs for firms such as Royal Dutch Shell, POSCO (the world’s third largest steel manufacturer) and Marathon Oil. In addition, she spent a semester as a Visiting Professor at Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) in Santiago, Chile; UDD is ranked number one in Entrepreneurship in Latin America.
Her service contributions have been many--both to the University of Colorado and Boulder community as well as to the academic field of management. Within the Boulder community, she has served in two major leadership roles. She served as the Academic Director of our Deming Center for Entrepreneurship for three years. During this time, undergraduate enrollments in entrepreneurship classes increased to 834 students in our classes, up from just over 500 and entrepreneurship continues to be a primary interest for our incoming MBAs, with 47% of incoming students stating this as one of their primary interest areas. The teaching quality at all levels has also been consistently excellent. The research accomplishments of the entrepreneurship faculty and doctoral students have also been incredibly impressive. They garnered 8 internationally recognized best paper awards or nominations in the past year as well as one major national teaching award nominations during this time period. In addition, she co-organized two academic research conferences over her three years, both of which were extremely well received and attracted scholars from around the globe, including a Nobel Laureate. These accomplishments furthered the reputation of the Leeds School as an international thought leader in the field of entrepreneurship.
Her other major administrative role was a three-year term as Director of our doctoral program in Strategic, Organizational, and Entrepreneurial Studies. During this time period, PhD student applications grew in terms of both quality and quality and student achievements from those co-horts increased.
In addition to these positions, she has served on countless committees in the areas of recruiting committees, promotion, research, and teaching. She is also a resource for the business community locally and internationally, speaking to audiences on topics related to innovation, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and women’s leadership.
Professor Matusik also has played an important role in serving her profession. She served as the Knowledge and Innovation group Chairperson for the Strategic Management Society, served on the editorial board of three of the most prestigious editorial boards in her field, and has been a resource to many in her field through her participation as a mentor and speaker in numerous professional development activities, and a reviewer for many journals, award designations, and conferences.
She has also served on the Board of Directors of two organizations and spends her free time trying to keep up with her 9 and 12-year-old daughters and husband on the ski slopes.