Christian Lechner is Full Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Department of Business and Management at Luiss University. Before joining Luiss, he held faculty positions at the Free university of Bolzano and Toulouse Business School in France.

He earned a bachelor and master degree in Business Administration from the LMU University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich), an MBA from the University of Georgia, USA and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Regensburg.

At the Free University of Bolzano he had launched and directed the PHD in Economics and Management and held responsibilities for the development of Technology Transfer, the Research Cluster in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

His research interests center around drivers of entrepreneurship and growth, entrepreneurial teams, heuristics, outliers and the interface between organizational design and performance. His research has been has been published in journals such as Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and International Small Business Journal. He is Consulting Editor and Editorial Board Member International Small Business Journal.

He has been actively involved in developing entrepreneurship activities in the institutions previously served. Christian Lechner has launched and directed Master Programs in Entrepreneurship, the Incubator of Toulouse Business School, developed innovative financing instruments together with public administration (matching funds for business angel, young founders’ grants, …), served investment boards and acted as startup advisor in several firms.