Dr Tom Vanacker

Tom Vanacker is Distinguished Research Professor in Entrepreneurship at University of Exeter Business School, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurial Finance at Ghent University and Research Fellow at Vlerick Business School. He received his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Ghent University. He was also visiting scholar at the Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota), the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and Rutgers University, visiting professor at University of Bergamo and Politecnico di Milano and visiting lecturer at ESMT Berlin.

His research is focused on entrepreneurial finance. More specifically, he explores how entrepreneurs mobilize and deploy resources, especially financial, and how these resources impact venture development. His research has been published in management, entrepreneurship, and finance academic journals including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing and Journal of Banking & Finance. He serves on the editorial boards of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, Corporate Governance: An International Review, and Venture Capital.

He has received several awards including the 2014 Karen Legge prize for outstanding contribution by an early career researcher to the Journal of Management Studies, the 2014 outstanding reviewer award from Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, the 2015 Ph.D. tutor award for outstanding supervision of Ph.D. students from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Ghent University, and the 2019 ACERE conference best quantitative paper award, the 2023 Journal of Business Venturing best reviewer award, and the 2024 publication of the year award by B Academics.