Konstantinos is the Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Economics and former course leader for International Business Management MSc at the Guildhall School of Business and Law.
Dr Konstantinos Pitsakis
Konstantinos holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance, an MSc in Marketing and Communication and an MPhil in Management. He received his PhD from Cass Business School, City University of London in 2010. He has published in world-class scientific journals in the fields of industrial economics, strategic management, entrepreneurship and the diffusion of innovations. For 15 years, he has worked as an academic & director at Cass Business School, Tilburg University, Kingston University London and the Russian Presidential Academy. He is also a Fellow of the British Higher Education Academy and a former Research Fellow at the Center for Innovation Research in the Netherlands. Prior to academia, he worked as Research Manager at the Financial Times and as Business Intelligence Manager at Winmark Ltd, both in London. He has worked as a consultant directly or indirectly for companies like Ricco, Heineken, Merck, General Electric, Sysdoc, the Forest Stewardship Council and others.
Konstantinos has acted as Course Director for our International Business Management MSc programs for a number of years. He has taught strategy, economics, innovation and sustainability in the UK, as well as in top universities in France, Germany and Russia for MBA, exec-MBA and postgraduate students with great success.
He currently teaches on the Doctor of Business Administration program.
Konstantinos's research lies in the intersection of industrial economics and strategy. He primarily investigates the diffusion of innovations by looking at the historical emergence of UK academic spinoff firms.
One of his projects features analysis into the importance of innovation characteristics (for examaple complexity and patentability) on the rate of innovation adoption by societies. He also works on the population and community ecology paradigms of industrial economics to examine the carrying capacity of industries and how clusters of companies compete or cooperate within sectors.
What's more, Konstantinos has also published on competitive dynamics and how organizations use joint ventures and outsourcing agreements or imitate each other, in order to overcome market uncertainty. He has looked at the social construction of new markets, that is, how legitimacy, reputation and status are constructed and how these properties add value to organizations such as universities and their spinoffs.
Konstantinos has futher research projets that ook at how firms regulate their work and standardize their practices by joining industrial associations.
Finally, he is interested in the diffusion of sustainability certificates as well as product development strategies post mergers and acquisitions.
- Gotsopoulos A. and Pitsakis, K. (2024) “United we Stand? Organizational Groups and Spinoff Mortality in the Context of Academic Entrepreneurship”. Journal of Business Venturing, 39(1): in-press (ABS 4*) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106360
- Pitsakis, K and Goessling, T. (2022) “When do Technology Transfer Offices enter into association? Evidence from U.K. universities”. In: Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings; Vol. 2022, No1. ISSN: 2151-6561
- Pitsakis, K, Goessling T. and Vink R. (2022). “Beyond compliance: An event history analysis of Forest Stewardship Council accreditation”. In: Albæk M and Andersen TJ (Eds) Strategic Responses for a Sustainable Future: New Research in International Management, p.147–174, Emerald Publishing, DOI: 10.1108/978-1-80071-929-320214007
- Pitsakis K. and Giachetti, C. (2020). “Information-based imitation of university commercialization strategies: The role of Technology Transfer Office autonomy, age and membership into an association”. Strategic Organization, 18(4), p.573-616 (ABS 3*) https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1476127019850098
- Pitsakis K., Souitaris V. and Nicolaou N. (2015). “The peripheral halo effect: Do academic spinoffs influence universities’ research income?” Journal of Management Studies, 52(3), p.321-353 (ABS 4*) https://doi/10.1111/joms.12119
- Pitsakis K., Biniari M. and Kuin T. (2012). “Resisting change: organizational decoupling through an identity construction perspective”. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(6), p.835-852 (ABS 2*) http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534811211280591
- Pitsakis K. and Souitaris V. (2009). “Spinoff diffusion”. In: Zacharakis et al (Eds.) Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research. Vol. 29, Issue 20, Chapter XX, p.701-714, MA: Babson College, ISBN: 0-910897-30-1
- Pitsakis K. and Souitaris V. (2007). “The effects of spinoffs on the universities that create them”. In: Zacharakis et al (Eds.) Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research. Vol. 27, Issue 22, Chapter XXII, p.741-755, MA: Babson College, ISBN: 0-910897-28-X
- “A Longitudinal Spinoff Database for the Economics of Technology Transfer” (£5,000)
- “Intelligent Investment: machine learning & automation in a UK academic spinoffs industry to predict spinoff growth” (£3,280)
- “FSC certification in the Western European manufacturing industries” (€15,000)
Journal Reviewer
- Journal of Management Studies
- Organization Studies
- Journal of Cleaner Production
- Long Range Planning
- Technovation
Professional Memberships
- Higher Education Academy
- Academy of Management
- European Academy of Management
- European Group of Organization Studies