Lakshmi Balachandra

Education

PhD in Management, Boston College
MS in Management, Boston College
MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management
BA in Environmental Studies/Economics, University of Chicago

Research and Teaching Interests

Professor Balachandra’s primary research interests are in the area of early-stage entrepreneurship with particular emphasis on an entrepreneur's individual ability (improvisation and negotiation skills), angel and venture capital funding, women's entrepreneurship, and the role of the entrepreneur's pitch. She has taught MBA and undergraduate courses in leadership, negotiation, and entrepreneurship.

Awards and Honors

2011-2012 Women and Public Policy Fellowship, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

2011 Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation ($20,000)

2010 Kauffman Foundation Grant, Entrepreneurship Doctoral Consortium, Academy of Management, Montreal, Canada ($1,000)

2010-2011 Graduate Research Fellowship, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School

Residence year at Harvard University, Dissertation Completion Fellowship ($20,000)

2009 Next Generation Research Grant, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School for research on the role of food/eating on negotiation outcomes and trust development ($2,500)

2009 Kauffman Foundation Grant, Doctoral Consortium, West Coast Research Symposium on Technology Entrepreneurship (University of Washington, Seattle, WA) ($250, travel)

2008 Academy of Management’s Barry Armandi Award, Best Student Paper in Management Education Research The improvisational leader: A model for the ability to improvise and lead ($500)

2008 Kauffman Foundation Grant, Doctoral Consortium, Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (UNC, Kenan-Flagler Business School, Chapel Hill, NC) (travel)

Selected Presentations

Briggs, T. & Balachandra, L. (2010). Pitch perfect: Affective content versus style in entrepreneur presentations. West Coast Research Symposium, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.

Balachandra, L. (2010). Pizza enlarges the pie: The role of eating environments on negotiation outcomes and trust. Academy of Management, Montreal, Canada.

Balachandra, L. & Briggs, T. (2010). Passionate pleas or precise pitches? Affective content versus style in entrepreneur presentations. Academy of Management, Montreal, Canada.

Briggs T. & Balachandra, L. (2010). Fair play: An analysis of sex and gender differences in the presentation of early-stage business ideas. DIANA International Conference on Women’s Entrepreneurship Research, Banff, Canada.

Balachandra, L. (2010). Pizza enlarges the pie: The role of eating environments on negotiation outcomes and trust. EIASM 5th Workshop on Trust Within and Between Organizations, Madrid, Spain.

Balachandra, L. (2009). Responding to the unexpected: Improvisation as event-based strategizing. European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Barcelona, Spain.

Balachandra, L. & Briggs, T. (2009). The secrets of success: The role of idea sharing in early-stage entrepreneurship. Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Wellesley, MA.

Balachandra, L. (2008). The improvisational leader: A model for the ability to improvise and to lead. Academy of Management, Anaheim, CA. Awarded Barry Armandi Award for Best Student Paper

Balachandra, L. (2007). Trust networks: Social networks, trust development, and the strategic decision-making process. EIASM 4th Workshop on Trust Within and Between Organizations, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Balachandra, L. (2007). Friend or Foe: The role of rhetoric in creating initial trust in temporary relationships. Academy of Management, Philadelphia, PA.

Industry and Academic Experience

Professor Balachandra has taught at MIT Sloan, Harvard Extension School, Boston College, Babson College, and the Rady School at UCSD prior to joining the CBA faculty this year . Through her research, teaching, and consulting, Professor Balachandra has worked with a variety of companies including: Genzyme, Goldman Sachs, Novartis, Shell, and the CIA. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a venture capitalist, started a network for women in venture capital and was an entrepreneur.

Recent Press

Harvard Magazine, “The Psyche on Automatic” July 2011

The Times of London, “It’s a funny old business” March 3, 2005

CNN, “Why using improvisation to teach business skills is no joke” February 18, 2010

Inc. Magazine, “It’s official: MBAs are a bunch of clowns” February 1, 2005

Businessweek, “Zen and the art of ethics” November 17, 2004

The Boston Phoenix, “Off the beaten path” August 6, 2004

Mailing Address

Lakshmi Balachandra
219 Hayden Hall
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5000