I am an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo.

My research interests relate to understanding corporate innovation, entrepreneurship, and resilience in large established firms.

I graduated with a PhD from Purdue University’s Institute for Innovation Science, where I worked with industry partners to better understand the tension between managing risk and growth of large complex enterprises.

My dissertation was awarded a grant by The National Science Foundation.

Read my latest co-authored artcile on Scaling Up Transformational Innovations published in the Nov-Dec 2024 issue of the Harvard Business Review

Research Areas

  • Enterprise Resilience
  • Innovation Strategy
  • Corporate Entrepreneurship
  • Innovation Scale-up

Interests

  • Artificial Intelligence in Complex Organzations
  • Early-stage Venture Capital
  • Teaching Entrepreneurship

Education

  • PhD, 2021

    Purdue University, USA

  • MS in Civil Engineering, 2016

    Purdue University, USA

  • BE in Civil Engineering, 2012

    Manipal University, India

  • High School, 2008

    Essar International, India

Doctoral Committee

Recent News

All news»

  • June 2025: Working with Cal Poly undergraduate students on a Summer Research Project is fun.. Smart kids!

  • June 2025: Presented new research at the Industry Studies Association annual meet at MIT

  • May 2025: Joined the Editorial Board of Research-Technology Management.

  • April 2025: Offering a new course on “Entrepreneurial Strategy” at Cal Poly!

  • November 2024: New publication alert: Scaling Up Transformational Innovations in the Harvard Business Review.

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Defining a typology of exploratory innovations in large-incumbent firms

A research seminar talk delivered to faculty and students at Stevens Business School on defining a typology of explorations in large incumbent firms.

A Comprehensive Typology of Complex SC Risk Networks using a Data Driven Approach

A talk on comprehensive supply chain risks and resiliency.

Recent Publications

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Scaling Up Transformational Innovations

For large companies operating in mature sectors—such as Procter & Gamble in consumer goods, Apple in consumer electronics, and Adobe in cloud software—driving growth is a perennial challenge. Growth through acquisition is always an option, but many companies quickly find that the costs outweigh the benefits.

Building megaproject resilience with stakeholders: The roles of citizenship behavior and critical transition mechanisms

Unexpected events test megaproject resilience; Stakeholders are assets that can be utilized to impart project resilience; Research on the contribution of stakeholder behaviors to megaproject resilience is scarce; Studies indicate that stakeholders’ citizenship behaviors can aid megaproject resilience; Citizenship behaviors affect project resilience only when there is adequate momentum

Recent Posts

Simple Rules for Innovation Strategy

How a specific set of questions helps contrast disruptive, modular, and enabling innovations

My first experience teaching first-year undergrads

Teaching someone can teach you more.

Enterprises are Complex Systems

The complex adaptive systems view of enterprises provides a new view for building enterprise resilience.

Purpose-Context: A framework to systematize the front-end for repeatable Innovation

Automated tools augment structured thinking in the divergent-convergent thought process towards Innovation Science. Innovation, a ubiquitous term in today’s world, so frequently uttered that it raises caution before use, lest one be accused of being labeled a buzz word presser.

A Typology of Enterprise Risks

Enterprises are subject to several risks. This typology helps understand them more clearly.

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