The International Centre for Venture Expertise (the ICVE).

Professor Mitchell was instrumental in the founding and operation of The International Centre for Venture Expertise (the ICVE). The mission of the ICVE is to be the recognized leader in advancing expertise based entrepreneurship research, world-class curriculum design and delivery, and the creation of entrepreneurship technology and specialized programs, to improve the economic security and sustainability of venturing for entrepreneurs world-wide. The Centre strives to be a catalyst for renewed entrepreneurial spirit that emanates from Canada throughout the world, and furthers the goals of prosperity, humanity, and personal liberty in the global community. In its first five years of operation, the ICVE has had many research, teaching, and outreach accomplishments, and continues to inspire enthusiasm and commitment to its mission across a multitude of entrepreneurship stakeholders.

Dr. Ronald K. Mitchell is a Professor of Entrepreneurship, who holds the Jean Austin Bagley Regents Chair in Management in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. From July 2000 through May 2005, he held the Francis G. Winspear Chair in Public Policy and Business at the University of Victoria. Dr. Mitchell is also the recipient of the Faculty of Business Board of Advisors Distinguished Educator Award. In addition, during the period September 2001 through August 2004, he held a joint appointment as both a Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of Victoria (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) and also as a Professor in the Strategy and Public Policy Department of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University (Beijing, Peoples Republic of China). His academic career centers on three areas of research, teaching, and service: (1) better understanding the pathways to new value creation, (2) supporting the development of individual and organizational moral reasoning and ethical capacity, and (3) assisting with the effective engagement among actors within the global business community. Accordingly, he is a specialist in entrepreneurial cognition, global entrepreneurship, venture management, command to market system transition, stakeholder theory, and technology transfer systems; and he researches, consults, and lectures worldwide.

Dr. Mitchell earned his CPA in 1978 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1994. He won the Academy of Management's 1995 Heizer Award (see also "Heizer Dissertation Abstracts" below) for his entrepreneurship dissertation:The composition, classification, and creation of new venture formation expertise. His interests center on increasing economic well-being in society-both domestically and internationally-through the study of entrepreneurs, the further development of stakeholder theory, and the introduction and development of transaction systems theory.

Research:

As noted above, the research conducted by Dr. Mitchell is focused on the identification of strategies for increasing economic well-being in society—both domestically and internationally—through the study of entrepreneurs (domestically and within the cross-cultural setting), the further development of stakeholder theory, and the development of transaction systems theory. For example, he is interested in increasing global human value-creating capacity through the study and development of multiple theoretical perspectives that support entrepreneurship across multiple levels of analysis.

Specifically, this involves:

1. The application of entrepreneurial cognition and organization theory to the problems of value creation, especially to the enhancement of entrepreneurial expertise in individuals, through innovative methods (such as the development and implementation of entrepreneurial expert assistance methods and computer technology) to increase their sustainable competitive advantage;

2. The exploration of strategy-based frameworks for increasing value creation through improving the success of organizations; and

3. The application of stakeholder, organizational, and transaction systems theory to the governance of firms as it relates to the sustainable engagement by the firm of the primary actors in its industry environment, and to addressing critical governance issues at the economy and society levels of analysis.

His research has resulted in publications in the top journals of both management and entrepreneurship, and in other respected outlets. During the period 2002 - 2007 Dr. Mitchell serves as the lead editor for the Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice three-volume special issue series on information processing and entrepreneurial cognition. As an active entrepreneurship researcher, Dr. Mitchell has undertaken an ambitious research agenda (see "Current Research Projects" below) to investigate the entrepreneurial domain at multiple levels of analysis: the individual (entrepreneur), the firm (venture), and the economy (marketplace), including the systematic investigation of cross-level implications.

Teaching:

Dr. Mitchell is also the co-designer of the transaction cognition-based University of Victoria Entrepreneurship Program, which has won both the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division's "Innovation in Pedagogy Award 1999," and the US Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) "Model Undergraduate Program Award 2000." He also co-designed the UVic MBA 3-course module in Global Entrepreneurship, which the magazine "Canadian Business" has named Canada's #1 MBA Program in Entrepreneurship. Dr. Mitchell has introduced a Global Entrepreneurship course based on this award-winning model into the IMBA curriculum of Peking University, Beijing, PRC.

Professor Mitchell is also an exceptionally effective, committed, and philosophically-driven teacher. Because of his deep commitment to a student-centered teaching philosophy, (as detailed more fully in his Teaching Dossier ), Dr. Mitchell values: (1) each student as an individual with unique interests and capabilities; (2) comprehension, appreciation, and creative expression of human knowledge; (3) the encouragement and expectation of analytical, critical and strategic thought; (4) the acquisition of new knowledge and its subsequent dissemination to others (especially those who have traditionally had limitations on their access to this knowledge), (5) service to the set of students who passionately desire to possess the knowledge base and problem solving methods used by expert entrepreneurs, and (6) extended (life-long) learning: making knowledge relevant, and as practically applicable as possible in the career of each student.


http://www.ronaldmitchell.org/subindex.htm