Richard A. Hunt

Research and Teaching Interests

Dr. Hunt’s research addresses questions at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship and innovation, with a special focus on knowledge problems and AI/ML/DL -- particularly the causes and consequences of human-machine co-evolution and the sources of heterogeneity in strategic governance, decisions, actions, and outcomes. In multi-disciplinary fashion, my work offers a meso-level perspective that aims to make micro perspectives more intelligible and macro perspectives more veridical in order to generate research that is provocative and useful to both scholars and practitioners.

Education

• Ph.D. University of Colorado – Boulder
• M.B.A. Stanford University
• M.T.S. Harvard University
• B.A. Rice University

Selected Publications

Simpson, J.J.,  Hunt, R.A. , Townsend, D.M., Rady, J., Rady, E., Asgari, E. & Beal, D. (2026). Making Words Count: Computational Linguistics in Management Research. Journal of Management. In Press.

Yang, M., Hunt R.A., Lee, F., & Lu, Y. (2026). The Digital Visibility-Belonging Paradox: Digital Cohesion and Control in Contemporary Organizational Management. Human Resource Management. In Press.

Chalmers, D., Hunt, R.A., Pachidi, S., Potocnik, K. & Townsend, D.M.  (2026). The Acceleration of Artificial Intelligence: Rethinking Organization and Work in an Era of Rapid Technological Change. Journal of Management Studies. 63(2), 285-314.

*Rady, J., Townsend, D.M., & Hunt, R.A. (2026) From Algorithmic Hallucinations to Alien Minds: Addressing the Ideator’s Dilemma in Gen AI Ideation through Entrepreneurial Work. Journal of Business Venturing. 41(1): 106550

Lewis, T., Hunt, R.A., Townsend, D.M. & Murphy, M. (2026) Black Entrepreneurship: A Multilevel Process Model of Constrained Agency Across the Business Venturing Lifecycle. Journal of Business Venturing, 41(1): 106547.

Hunt, R.A., Townsend, D.M., Simpson, J.J., *Nugent, R., & Stallkamp, M., *Bozdag, E.  (2025). Digital Battlegrounds: The Power Dynamics and Governance of Contemporary Platforms. Academy of Management Annals, 19(1), 265-297.

Townsend, D.M., Hunt, R.A, *Rady, J. *Manocha, P. & *Jin, J-Y. (2025). Are the Futures Computable? Knightian Uncertainty and Artificial Intelligence.  Academy of Management Review. 50(2): 415-440

*Rady, J., Townsend, D.M., Hunt, R.A. & Simpson, J.J. (2025). The Expectations Game: The Contingent Value of Hype as a Rhetorical Strategy in Early-Stage Resource Mobilization Processes among AI Startups.  Journal of Business Venturing, 40(4):106499

Yan, J., Willams, D. & Hunt, R.A. (2025) Real Options Reasoning Perspective on Entrepreneurs’ Decision-Making Over Time. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587251371133

Clark, D.R. & Hunt, R.A. (2024). The Challenge and Opportunity of a Quantum Mechanics Metaphor in Organization and Management Research.  Academy of Management Review. 50(3): 632-636

Townsend, D.M., Hunt, R.A, *Rady, J., *Manocha, P. & *Jin, J-Y. (2024). Do Androids Dream of Entrepreneurial Possibilities?  Academy of Management Review. 50(3): 474-476

Townsend, D.M., Hunt, R.A. & *Rady, J. (2024) Chance, Probability, & Uncertainty at the Edge of Human Reasoning: What is Knightian Uncertainty? Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 18(3): 451-474

Bort, J., Wiklund, J. Lerner, D. Crawford, C. & Hunt, R.A. (2023). The Strategic Advantage of Impulsivity in Entrepreneurial Action: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. 48(2):547-580

Hunt, R.A., Lerner, D.A., Johnson, S. Badal, S.& Freeman, M. (2022).  Cracks in the Wall: Entrepreneurial Action Theory and the Weakening Presumption of Intended Rationality. Journal of Business Venturing.37(3): 106190

Stallkamp, M., Hunt, R.A. & Schotter, A. (2022). Scaling, Fast and Slow:  The Internationalization of Digital Ventures. Journal of Business Research. 146, 95-106.

van Lent, W., Hunt, R.A. & Lerner, R.A. (2021) Back to Which Future? Recalibrating the Time-Calibrated Narratives of Entrepreneurial Action.   Academy of Management Review. 49(2):435-440

Asgari, E. , Hunt, R.A., Townsend, D.M. Lerner, D.A., Hayward, M.L.A. & Kiefer, K. (2021) Red Giants or Black Holes? The Antecedent Conditions and Multi-Level Impacts of Star Performers. Academy of Management Annals. 15(1): 223-265. 

Hunt, R.A., *Song, Y., Townsend, D.M. & Stallkamp, M. (2021) Internationalization of Entrepreneurial Firms: Leveraging Real Options Reasoning through Affordable Loss Logics. Journal of Business Research. 133:194-207.

Hunt, R.A., Townsend, D.M. Korsgaard, S. & *Naar, A.  (2021). Urban Farmers and Cowboy Coders: Re-Imagining Rural Venturing in the 21st Century. Academy of Management Perspectives. 35(4). https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0157

Chen, J.J., Cui, C. Hunt, R.A.  & Li, L.  (2020). External Enablement of New Venture Creation: An Exploratory, Query-Driven Assessment of China's High-Speed Rail Expansion. Journal of Business Venturing. 36(6).  

Hunt, R.A., Lerner, D. & Townsend, D. (2019). Parental Endowments versus Business Acumen: Assessing the Fate of Low-Tech, Service-Sector Spinouts. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 13(4) 478-506.

Townsend, D.M. & Hunt, R.A. (2019). Entrepreneurial Action, Creativity, and Judgment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Business Venturing Insights. 11, e00126.

Hunt, R.A., Townsend, D.M.  *Asgari, E. & Lerner, D.A. (2019). Bringing It All Back Home: Corporate Venturing and Renewal through Spin-Ins. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 43(6): 1166-1193.

Hunt, R.A. & Hayward, M.L.A. (2018). Value Creation through Employer Loans: Evidence of Informal Lending to Employees at Small, Labor-Intensive Firms. Organization Science. 29(2): 284–303.

Townsend, D.M. , Hunt, R.A., McMullen, J. & Sarasvathy, S. (2018). “Uncertainty, Knowledge Problems, and Entrepreneurial Action”. Academy of Management Annals. 12(2):1-29.

Lerner, D.A., Hunt, R.A.  & Dimov, D. (2018). Action! Moving Beyond the Intendedly-Rational Logics of Entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing. 33(1): 52-69.   

Lerner, D.A. Hunt, R.A., & Verheul, I. (2018). Dueling Banjos: Harmony and Discord between ADHD and Entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Perspectives. 32(2): 266-286. 

Hunt, R.A. & Kiefer, K. (2017) The Entrepreneurship Industry: Influences of the Goods and Services Marketed to Entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business Management. 55(S1): 231-255

Hunt, R.A. & Fund, B.R. (2016) Intergenerational Fairness and the Crowding Out Effects of Well-Intended Environmental Policy.  Journal of Management Studies, 53(5): 878-910.

Hunt, R.A. (2015) Contagion Entrepreneurship: Institutional Support, Strategic Incoherence and the Social Costs of Over-Entry. Journal of Small Business Management. 53(10): 5 - 29.

Positions Held

2026 - Present:  Full Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Department of Management, Virginia Tech; Dorothy Hottel Digges Professor of Entrepreneurship

2020 – 2026: Associate Professor [with tenure], Department of Management, Virginia Tech

2020 – Present: Associate Editor - Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

2020 – Present: Editorial Board Member - Academy of Management Review

2019 – Present: Editorial Board Member - Journal of Business Venturing

2018 – 2024: Director of Doctoral Studies in Management

2018 - Present: Director of Research, Apex Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

2014 - 2020: Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Virginia Tech

Selected Honors and Awards

• EIX Schulze Publication Award for Outstanding Research Insight (2026)
• DePaul Univ. ENT Div Best Social Entrepreneurship Paper Award -- AoM Meetings in Copenhagen (2025)
• Virginia Tech Engaged Research Award Winner [University wide recognition for societally beneficial research]      (2025)
• Babson College Center for International Study – Best Paper Award (2025)
• Career Advising Award – Virginia Tech (2025)
• Tariq Farid Franchise Institute Best Paper Award – BCERC (2024) 
• Holtzman Prize for Faculty Research Excellence – Virginia Tech (2024)
• Graduate Mentor of the Year – Virginia Tech (2023)
• Outstanding Graduate Program Director - Pamplin College of Business (2023)
• USASBE Model Entrepreneurship Program Award Winner – Virginia Tech (2022) 
• Holtzman Prize for Faculty Research Excellence – Virginia Tech (2022)
• Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice Best Conceptual Paper Award– ENT Division, AoM (2021)
• Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers - Award Co-Winner (with Texas A&M) for Exceptional Contributions in Entrepreneurship Research (2020)
• Emerald Group Literati Award for Outstanding Article on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (2019) 
• Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice Best Conceptual Paper Award– ENT Division, AoM Boston (2019)
• Health Care Management Best Theory-to-Practice Paper Award– HCM Division, AoM Boston (2019)
• Best Paper Prize – Sustainability, Ethics & Entrepreneurship Conference (2018)
• Virginia Tech, Academy of Teaching Excellence - Outstanding Educator Prize (2017)
• Pamplin College of Business - Outstanding Teaching Award – Virginia Tech (2017)
• Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice Best Conceptual Paper Award– ENT Division, AoM Atlanta (2017)
• BCERC/Journal of Small Business Management Best Paper Award on Public Policy (2015)
• NFIB Outstanding Dissertation Award Winner – (ENT Division) Academy of Management (2014)
• Strategic Management Society Best Ph.D. Paper Prize - Prague (2012)
• Sumantra Ghoshal Research and Practice Award (BPS Division) AoM – Boston (2012)