Eric Liguori, PhD

Dr. Eric Liguori is a Jim Moran Professor and Associate Dean of the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship at Florida State University. He currently serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Small Business Management, Chair of AACSB’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Affinity Group, Senior Editor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Cogent Business and Management, and Executive Editor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. Liguori's work has been featured in media outlets including USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes.com, and BuzzFeed, and has been cited in policy documents put out by OECD, the European Union, Asian Development Bank, and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, to name just a few.

Liguori’s expertise in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is sought after by leading Fortune 100 companies and governments alike. Liguori worked with Hewlett-Packard to help launch HP’s Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs, which to date has provided over 2.5 million courses in eight languages, to more than 1.3 million learners, spanning over 200 countries around the globe. In 2023 he served as a subject matter expert for Amazon.com, helping develop the curriculum behind Amazon’s Small Business Academy. At a global level, Liguori has worked with leading organizations and agencies including the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the U.S. Department of State, the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation, and the Saudi Ministry of Education. In 2023 he was called “a true trailblazer in entrepreneurship education” by the U.S. Consul General to Dubai.

Liguori is a Past President of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the largest academic organization dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship education through bold teaching, scholarship, and practice. In 2021 he was inducted as a Justin G. Longenecker Fellow, USASBE's highest honor, for his “outstanding contribution to the development, furtherance and benefit of small and medium businesses.” And, in 2023, he was named USASBE's Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year, making him one of only a select few to ever receive two of USASBE's Lifetime Achievement Awards.

He is an active angel investor, primarily in CPG and e-commerce companies, with three such companies currently in his portfolio. From 2017-2024 he served on the Investment Screening Committee of RIVF, a $25M private equity fund. He’s a Cohort 14 graduate of Venture Capital University, a joint initiative of UC Berkeley, the National Venture Capital Association, and Venture Forward.

Liguori holds a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship from Louisiana State University, an MBA from the University of South Florida, and a B.S. in Human Resource Management from Florida State University.

Selected research

Dr. Liguori has co-authored more than 70 journal articles, 7 books, 27 book chapters, and over 100 conference presentations and proceedings. Select publications include:

Santos, S.C., Liguori, E.W., and Garvey, E. “How digitalization reinvented entrepreneurial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, in press.

Wilson, G.A., Case, T., Dobni, C.B., and Liguori, E.W. “The limitations of open innovation: Exploring the curvilinear relationship with performance.” Management Decision, in press.

Wilson, G.A. and Liguori, E.W. “Market orientation, failure learning orientation, and financial performance.” Journal of Small Business Management, 2023, 61(6), 3027-3045.

Levy, M. and Liguori, E.W. “Algorithms and venture investment decisions: Better, fairer, or biased?” Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 2023, 30(2), 419-422.

Solomon, S.J., Bendickson, J., Liguori, E.W., and Marvel, M. “The effects of social policy on entrepreneurship in developed nations.” Small Business Economics, 2022, 58, 1596-1607.

Ogundana, O.M., Simba, A., Dana, L.P., and Liguori, E.W. “Women entrepreneurship in developing economies: A gender-based growth model.” Journal of Small Business Management, 2021, 59(1), 42-72.

Liguori, E.W. and Winkler, C. “From offline to online: Challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship education following the COVID-19 pandemic.” Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 2020, 3(4), 346-351.

Webb, J., Holmes, R.M., Pryor, C., and Liguori, E.W. “Top executive goal orientations' effects on environmental scanning and performance: Differences between founders and non-founders.” Journal of Management, 2019, 45(5), 1958-1986.

Liguori, E.W., Bendickson, J.S., Solomon, S., and McDowell, W. “Development of a multi-dimensional measure for assessing entrepreneurial ecosystems.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 2019, 31(1-2), 7-21.

A full listing of Dr. Liguori’s publications are available at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aks_aQUAAAAJ&hl=en.  

Select Honors and Awards

• AACSB Innovations that Inspire Award (2024)
• United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year (2023)
• New Jersey Bright Idea Award for Research Impact (2023)
• ROI-NJ Higher Education Influencer Honoree (2022)
• International Council for Small Business Global Excellence Award for ‘Revolutionizing Entrepreneurship Education’ (2022)
• AACSB Innovations that Inspire Award (2022)
• Best Paper in Women Entrepreneurship, 66th ICSB World Congress (2022)
• Named a Justin G. Longenecker Fellow of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (2021)
• AACSB Innovations that Inspire Award (2019)
• New Jersey Technology Council Innovator to Watch (2018)
• USASBE “Ray Smilor Volunteer of the Year Award” (2017)
• USASBE Distinguished Service Award (2017)