Chiara Spina

Chiara Spina is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD. Her research focuses on understanding how entrepreneurial firms leverage systematic decision-making and experimentation to innovate and grow. She examines the effect of emerging practices such as accelerators, hackathons and crowdfunding, often in collaboration with government entities and incubation hubs. Her research has been published in top-tier academic journals such as Management Science and has been featured in leading management publications including Harvard Business Review and Forbes, among others.

Chiara presently manages research projects funded by institutions such as the UK government (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), the Italian government (Ministry of Education, University and Research), the Strategy Research Foundation and the Innovation Growth Lab.

She is also Director of pre-acceleration programmes in Italy, the UK and India, where she has worked with more than 1,500 entrepreneurs. In her role, Chiara combines the latest management practices with research insights to help deliver cutting-edge training and mentorship programmes. She co-founded Strategy Insight Lab, a business support programme that has helped 250+ entrepreneurs adopt innovative practices that resulted in significant revenue growth.

In the last ten years, Chiara has worked with governments, as well as with multinationals in commodities, technology, and in the financial sector across Europe, Middle-East, Asia, and North America. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and Management (cum laude) from Bocconi University, and earned her BSc (cum laude) and MSc (cum laude) from the University of Milan.

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