Bio

Chuck Eesley is a Professor and W. M. Keck Foundation Faculty Scholar in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, where he studies and designs systems that enable high-quality entrepreneurship and innovation under uncertainty — including in emerging technologies, fragile institutional environments, and sustainability transitions. He is Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and a faculty affiliate at the Stanford Center for AI Safety.

His research focuses on how artificial intelligence, institutional design, education systems, and policy environments shape not just the quantity of entrepreneurship, but whether new ventures lead to durable economic and social outcomes. Recent work examines how AI-driven platforms influence opportunity access, entrepreneurial performance, and information integrity, as well as how organizations and governments can design innovation systems that perform under institutional constraint.

Eesley collaborates extensively with engineers, policymakers, development organizations, and practitioners to translate research into scalable programs, investment models, and policy frameworks. His fieldwork spans Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and the United States, including ongoing work on refugee entrepreneurship and frontier-market innovation systems.

His work has received awards from the Kauffman Foundation, the Schulze Foundation, and the Technical University of Munich and has been published in Nature, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and other leading outlets. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Stanford King Center on Global Development and advisory boards spanning innovation policy, entrepreneurship, and global development.

A former entrepreneur and investor, Eesley advises startups, investors, governments, and development institutions on innovation strategy, organizational design, and scaling under uncertainty. He earned his PhD from MIT Sloan and a BS in neuroscience from Duke University.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Steering Committee, King Center for Global Development (2024 - Present)
  • Director (International), Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) (2024 - Present)
  • Research Committee, STR Division. Academy of Management (2022 - 2024)
  • Chair, Pathways to Research and Opportunity Committee (2020 - 2023)
  • Organizer, Social Science & Technology Seminar (SIEPR) (2009 - 2018)
  • Research Committee, TIM Division Academy of Management (2015 - Present)
  • Lead Steering Committee, West Coast Research Symposium Doctoral Consortium (2011 - 2016)
  • Advisory Board, United States Department of State - Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST Network) (2014 - Present)

Honors & Awards

  • Social Impact Labs Design Fellowship, Stanford Social Impact Labs (2024)
  • Stanford Teagle Fellow in Liberal Education, Stanford University (2022)
  • Third Annual IACMR-RRBM Responsible Research in Management Award, IACMR-RRBM (2020)
  • Institute for Advanced Studies Visiting Fellowship, Technical University of Munich (2019)
  • Finalist, Best OMT Published Paper, Academy of Management (2018)
  • TUM Research Excellence Award, Technical University of Munich (2018)
  • Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment (2017-2019)
  • Undergraduate Teaching Award, MS&E (2017)
  • Richard Schulze Inaugural Distinguished Professorship Award, Richard Schulze Foundation (2015)
  • Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Center for International Development (SCID) (2014-present)
  • Kauffman-Nesta Research Grant winner - Randomized Controlled Trials in Entrepreneurship, Kauffman-NESTA (2014)
  • Batten Institute Fellow, University of Virginia (UVA) Darden School of Business (2012)
  • Research Fund for International Young Scientists, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (2012)
  • Lillie Award, Stanford University (2011, 2012)
  • Technology and Innovation Management, IEEE International (2011)
  • Best Dissertation Award Winner (Business Policy and Strategy Division), Academy of Management (2010)
  • Dissertation Fellowship Award, Kauffman Foundation (2007)
  • Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management (2005, 2006, 2010, 2012)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Advisory Board, Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) (2024 - Present)
  • Steering Committee Member, King Center for Global Development (2024 - Present)
  • Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Center for AI Safety (2024 - Present)
  • Advisor, Stanford's Master's of Science in Clinical Informatics and Management Program (2021 - Present)
  • Academic Director, ITRI-Stanford Platform. Industrial Technology Research Institute in collaboration with the Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan (2013 - Present)
  • Review Board Member, National Science Foundation. Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier. Grant Review Panel. Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities. (2020 - 2020)
  • Member, Strategic Management Society (2010 - Present)
  • Advisory Committee, Chile’s Ministry of the Economy (Production Development Corporation - CORFO). Startup Chile global accelerator program (2012 - 2017)
  • Editorial Review Board, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (2021 - Present)
  • Editorial Board, Strategic Management Journal (2015 - Present)
  • Member, Academy of Management (2005 - Present)

Professional Education

  • PhD, MIT, Sloan School of Management (2009)
  • BS, Duke University, Biological Basis of Behavior (2002)

Contact

  • Academic
    University - Faculty Department: Management Science and Engineering Position: Professor

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 4026
  • Profile:
    Chuck Eesley is a Professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.
  • Other Names:
    Chuck Eesley
  • ORCID:
    https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2348-1583

Links

Research Interests

  • Economics and Education
  • Higher Education
  • Leadership and Organization
  • Poverty and Inequality
  • Research Methods
  • Technology and Education

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

My research examines how institutional environments shape entrepreneurial outcomes. I have introduced foundational concepts including institutional barriers to entry and growth, institutional inconsistency, and the role of platforms as private regulators of ventures. I have also pioneered studies of how digital platforms and, more recently, AI systems influence entrepreneurship — reshaping trust, consumer behavior, and the governance of economic activity.

Five themes organize the work:
(A) Institutional change and the quality of entrepreneurship. Using comparative settings across China, Japan, South Korea, Chile, and the U.S., I show that institutional reforms influence not only the quantity of new ventures but also who becomes an entrepreneur, which firms scale, and which ones survive. Recent projects extend this agenda to export controls and VC reallocation in China's semiconductor sector, IRA-induced allocation shifts in U.S. cleantech VC, and NEV subsidy design in China.

(B) Platforms and algorithms as institutions. My work with Wesley Koo (Strategic Management Journal, 2021; Organization Science, 2025) documents how platform search-ranking algorithms function as private governance systems with unintended distributional consequences. Digital inclusion, we find, is not digital empowerment: rural sellers on a major Chinese e-commerce platform experienced a 24% performance drop after the introduction of ML-based personalized ranking because they lacked the offline informational infrastructure to interpret algorithmic signals.

(C) AI, misinformation, and the digital public sphere. A recent study (Ahmad, Sen, Brynjolfsson & Eesley, Nature, 2024) combines large-scale observational analysis of 1,276 misinformation sites, 42,595 advertisers, and 9.5 million advertising instances with a field experiment and a survey experiment. The work documents pervasive inadvertent financing of misinformation through programmatic advertising systems, substantial consumer backlash once buyers are informed, and a striking managerial awareness gap. Our work suggests novel policy mechanisms to address AI-driven misinformation.

(D) AI as a new institutional actor in entrepreneurship. A growing body of my current work examines how generative AI and agentic AI systems are reshaping the opportunity set for new ventures — altering the economics of information search, early-stage prototyping, and mentorship. This includes ongoing projects on AI-mediated cognition in resource-constrained settings (including refugee entrepreneurs in Uganda), and on how AI agents change the underlying model of value creation and competitive advantage for technology ventures.

(E) Methodological rigor, including AI as a research tool. I have been among the early users of randomized controlled trials and rigorous causal identification in entrepreneurship research. "Social Influence in Entrepreneurial Career Choice" (Research Policy, 2017) was among the first RCTs examining how mentorship shapes entrepreneurial career decisions. My current RCT in Uganda — recognized with a Stanford Impact Labs Fellowship — uses AI-mediated mentoring both as an intervention and as a methodological scalpel to decompose information transfer from cognitive reframing in entrepreneurial mentoring. Across projects, I apply difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, and RCT designs, and increasingly use LLM-based methods to classify investment deals, analyze interview and text data, and scale qualitative analysis.

In summary, my research advances understanding of how institutions, policies, digital platforms, and AI systems shape entrepreneurship — contributing both to academic knowledge and to actionable insights for policymakers and industry leaders. I am committed to extending this agenda as global challenges — migration, algorithmic governance, misinformation, and the rapid diffusion of AI — reshape the institutional landscape for entrepreneurship.

Projects

2025-26 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • CROSSROADS-Designing Institutions for Applied Impact: Lessons from Engineering for Organizational Research ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Eesley, C., Gerber, E. 2025; 36 (5)

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2025.21020

    View details for Web of Science ID 001587686600010

  • UNIVERSITY EDUCATION REFORM AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Management and Organization Review Eesley, C., Tian, X., Yang, D., Lee, Y. S. 2025: 1-31

    View details for DOI 10.1017/mor.2025.14

  • Take Me Home, Country Roads: Return Migration and Platform-Enabled Entrepreneurship Organization Science Koo, W., Eesley, C. 2025; 36 (3)

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2021.16002

  • Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash. Nature Ahmad, W., Sen, A., Eesley, C., Brynjolfsson, E. 2024; 630 (8015): 123-131

    Abstract

    The financial motivation to earn advertising revenue has been widely conjectured to be pivotal for the production of online misinformation1-4. Research aimed at mitigating misinformation has so far focused on interventions at the user level5-8, with little emphasis on how the supply of misinformation can itself be countered. Here we show how online misinformation is largely financed by advertising, examine how financing misinformation affects the companies involved, and outline interventions for reducing the financing of misinformation. First, we find that advertising on websites that publish misinformation is pervasive for companies across several industries and is amplified by digital advertising platforms that algorithmically distribute advertising across the web. Using an information-provision experiment9, we find that companies that advertise on websites that publish misinformation can face substantial backlash from their consumers. To examine why misinformation continues to be monetized despite the potential backlash for the advertisers involved, we survey decision-makers at companies. We find that most decision-makers are unaware that their companies' advertising appears on misinformation websites but have a strong preference to avoid doing so. Moreover, those who are unaware and uncertain about their company's role in financing misinformation increase their demand for a platform-based solution to reduce monetizing misinformation when informed about how platforms amplify advertising placement on misinformation websites. We identify low-cost, scalable information-based interventions to reduce the financial incentive to misinform and counter the supply of misinformation online.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-024-07404-1

    View details for PubMedID 38840014

    View details for PubMedCentralID 6377495

  • Born into chaos: How founding conditions shape whether ventures survive or thrive when experiencing environmental change STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP JOURNAL Motley, D., Eesley, C. E., Koo, W. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1002/sej.1461

    View details for Web of Science ID 000959465000001

  • In Institutions We Trust? Trust in Government and the Allocation of Entrepreneurial Intentions ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Eesley, C., Lee, Y. 2022: 1-25

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2022.1583

    View details for Web of Science ID 000804382700001

  • Entrepreneurial strategies during institutional changes: Evidence from China's economic transition STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP JOURNAL Wu, Y., Eesley, C. E., Yang, D. 2021

    View details for DOI 10.1002/sej.1399

    View details for Web of Science ID 000679932000001

  • How Do Institutional Carriers Alleviate Normative and Cognitive Barriers to Regulatory Change? ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Armanios, D., Eesley, E. 2021

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2021.1434

    View details for Web of Science ID 000709015500001

  • Understanding the motivations for open-source hardware entrepreneurship Design Science Li, Z., Seering, W., Yang, M., Eesley, C. 2021; 7 (e19)

    View details for DOI 10.1017/dsj.2021.15

  • Regional Migration, Entrepreneurship and University Alumni Regional Studies Wu, Y., Eesley, C. 2021

    View details for DOI 10.1080/00343404.2021.1934432

  • Do university entrepreneurship programs promote entrepreneurship? STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL Eesley, C. E., Lee, Y. 2020

    View details for DOI 10.1002/smj.3246

    View details for Web of Science ID 000583243800001

  • FOR STARTUPS, ADAPTABILITY AND MENTOR NETWORK DIVERSITY CAN BE PIVOTAL: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENT ON A MOOC PLATFORM MIS QUARTERLY Eesley, C., Wu, L. 2020; 44 (2): 661–97

    View details for DOI 10.25300/MISQ/2020/15138

    View details for Web of Science ID 000537784700006

  • Entrepreneurship in dynamic environments: A comparison between the U.S. and China. Quarterly Journal of Management (管理学季刊） Wu, Y., Eesley, C. E., Eisenhardt, K. E. 2020; 5 (2): 1-17
  • Connected, But Still Lagging: Rural Sellers During Platform Change. Strategic Management Journal. Koo, W., Eesley, C. 2020

    View details for DOI 10.1002/smj.3259

  • The dark side of institutional intermediaries: Junior stock exchanges and entrepreneurship STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL Eberhart, R. N., Eesley, C. E. 2018; 39 (10): 2643–65

    View details for DOI 10.1002/smj.2934

    View details for Web of Science ID 000444803800003

  • The persistence of entrepreneurship and innovative immigrants RESEARCH POLICY Lee, Y., Eesley, C. 2018; 47 (6): 1032–44

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.respol.2018.03.007

    View details for Web of Science ID 000434001600003

  • Institutions and Entrenreneurial Activity: The Interactive Influence of Misaligned Formal and Informal Institutions STRATEGY SCIENCE Eesley, C. E., Eberhart, R. N., Skousen, B. R., Cheng, J. L. C. 2018; 3 (2): 393–407

    View details for DOI 10.1287/stsc.2018.0060

    View details for Web of Science ID 000445070600003

  • Brain drain, circulation, and linkage: Sequence analysis of Korean nationals graduating from Stanford University. Strategic, Policy and Social Innovation for a Post-Industrial Korea Choi, J., Eesley, C. Routledge. 2018: 115–131
  • A comparative analysis of Asian versus Asian American entrepreneurship: Evidence from Stanford University alumni Strategic, Policy and Social Innovation for a Post-Industrial Korea Lee, Y., Eesley, C. Routledge. 2018: 132–146
  • Impact: Stanford University's Economic Impact via Innovation and Entrepreneurship FOUNDATIONS AND TRENDS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP Eesley, C. E., Miller, W. F. 2018; 14 (2): 130–278

    View details for DOI 10.1561/0300000074

    View details for Web of Science ID 000431012600001

  • Social influence in career choice: Evidence from a randomized field experiment on entrepreneurial mentorship RESEARCH POLICY Eesley, C., Wang, Y. 2017; 46 (3): 636-650

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.respol.2017.01.010

    View details for Web of Science ID 000395613400010

  • Failure Is an Option: Institutional Change, Entrepreneurial Risk, and New Firm Growth ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Eberhart, R. N., Eesley, C. E., Eisenhardt, K. M. 2017; 28 (1): 93-112

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2017.1110

    View details for Web of Science ID 000395830000006

  • THROUGH THE MUD OR IN THE BOARDROOM: EXAMINING ACTIVIST TYPES AND THEIR STRATEGIES IN TARGETING FIRMS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL Eesley, C., DeCelles, K. A., Lenox, M. 2016; 37 (12): 2425-2440

    View details for DOI 10.1002/smj.2458

    View details for Web of Science ID 000388290800003

  • Institutional Barriers to Growth: Entrepreneurship, Human Capital and Institutional Change ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Eesley, C. 2016; 27 (5): 1290-1306

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2016.1077

    View details for Web of Science ID 000391220200013

  • Does Institutional Change in Universities Influence High-Tech Entrepreneurship? Evidence from China's Project 985 ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Eesley, C., Li, J. B., Yang, D. 2016; 27 (2): 446-461

    View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2015.1038

    View details for Web of Science ID 000375654300013

  • How entrepreneurs leverage institutional intermediaries in emerging economies to acquire public resources Strategic Management Journal Armanios, D., Eesley, C., Li, J., Eisenhardt, K. 2016
  • Understanding Entrepreneurial Process and Performance: A Cross-National Comparison of Alumni Entrepreneurship Between MIT and Tsinghua University Asian Journal for Innovation and Policy Eesley, C., Yang, D., Roberts, E., Li, T. 2016; 5 (2): 146-184
  • THE CONTINGENT EFFECTS OF TOP MANAGEMENT TEAMS ON VENTURE PERFORMANCE: ALIGNING FOUNDING TEAM COMPOSITION WITH INNOVATION STRATEGY AND COMMERCIALIZATION ENVIRONMENT STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL Eesley, C. E., Hsu, D. H., Roberts, E. B. 2014; 35 (12): 1798-1817

    View details for DOI 10.1002/smj.2183

    View details for Web of Science ID 000344327400005

  • Entrepreneurship Education Comes of Age on Campus: The Challenges and Rewards of Bringing Entrepreneurship to Higher Education Torrance, W. E., Rauch, J., Aulet, W., Blum, L., Burke, B., D'Ambrosio, T., Eesley, C. E. 2013
  • Are You Experienced or Are You Talented?: When Does Innate Talent versus Experience Explain Entrepreneurial Performance? STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP JOURNAL Eesley, C. E., Roberts, E. B. 2012; 6 (3): 207-219

    View details for DOI 10.1002/sej.1141

    View details for Web of Science ID 000308646300002

  • Review of: Winds of Change: The Environmental Movement and the Global Development of the Wind Energy Industry Administrative Science Quarterly Eesley, C., E., Hannah, D., P. 2012; 57: 359-362
  • Neurocognitive Impairments Essentials of Schizophrenia Keefe, R., Eesley, C. E. American Psychiatric Publishing. Washington, DC, 2012.. 2012
  • Bringing Ideas to Life IEEE International Recent Advances in Technology and Innovation Management Eesley, C. E., Hsu, D., Roberts, E. B. Wily Publications. 2012: 40–60
  • Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT - An Updated Report Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship Roberts, E., B., Eesley, C., E. 2011; 7 (1-2): 1-149
  • Private Environmental Activism and the Selection and Response of Firm Targets. Journal of Economics Management and Strategy Lenox, M., Eesley, C., E. 2009; 18 (1): 45-73
  • Neurocognition in Schizophrenia Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry Keefe, R., Eesley, C. E. edited by Sadock, B., Sadock, V. A., Ruiz, P. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins. 2009
  • Entrepreneurs from technology-based universities: Evidence from MIT Research Policy Hsu, D. H., Roberts, E. B., Eesley, C. E. 2007; 5 (36): 768-788
  • Implementing a Public Subsidy for Vaccines Pharmaceutical Innovation: Incentives, Competition, and Cost-Benefit Analysis in International Perspective Sloan, F. A., Eesley, C. E. edited by Sloan, F. A. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007: 107–126
  • Governments as Insurers in Professional and Hospital Liability Insurance Markets Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System--New Century, Different Issues Sloan, F. A., Eesley, C. E. edited by Sage, W. M. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006: 291–317
  • Firm Responses to Secondary Stakeholder Action Strategic Management Journal Eesley, C. E. 2006; 27 (8): 765-782

    View details for DOI 10.1002/smj.536

  • Defining a cognitive function decrement in schizophrenia Biological psychiatry Keefe, R. S., Eesley, C. E., Poe, M. P. 2005; 6 (57): 688-691
  • Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT Roberts, Edward, B., Eesley, Charles, E.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2348-1583