The management department would like to highlight faculty member Pankaj Kumar.

Pankaj Kumar is an Assistant Professor of Management and teaches courses in strategic management within the management department. Dr. Kumar joined Pamplin in 2018 after completing his Ph.D. in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Dr. Kumar also holds an MBA in Finance and Economics and bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He has received the Virginia Tech Department of Management Faculty Research Excellence Award twice.

Dr. Kumar started his career at Larsen & Toubro working in the Engineering, Construction, and Contracts division as a senior engineer. He later went on to work as an associate for Bain-affiliate, Mesoamerica Investments, in Costa Rica, mostly advising clients from central and south American countries. Dr. Kumar never thought of becoming a professor, however, while in Costa Rica, Dr. Kumar was invited to teach international finance at ULACIT, where he discovered the joy of teaching in a classroom setting. Soon after, Dr. Kumar moved to the United States to complete his Ph.D.

Dr. Kumar’s favorite part about his job is conducting research, a love for which was instilled by his advisor Aks Zaheer, and teaching undergraduate students. Dr. Kumar enjoys helping students reach their full potential and preparing them for their future careers by focusing on teaching skills that students can utilize in real-world business settings. He says one of his biggest sources of happiness comes from hearing the success and happiness stories of his students in professional as well as personal lives. Dr. Kumar says the role of a good instructor does not end with the course but continues through a life-long relationship with students for bringing out the best in them.

Dr. Kumar is currently conducting research on alliance networks, crowdsourcing, and property rights, with innovation/creativity as the overarching theme across these studies. Broadly speaking, his work is focused on how interfirm relationships and networks help determine/improve firm performance. Also, he attempts to understand better crowdsourcing and its influence on creativity. Lastly, Dr. Kumar is researching the effects of property rights on innovation. Dr. Kumar has become fascinated more recently with utilized big Data and machine learning as a research tool. He says the inspiration for his research comes from his work experience, real world phenomenon and theory.

Dr. Kumar chose Virginia Tech because he wanted to work at a top research university while being able to teach undergraduate students. Outside of work, Dr. Kumar enjoys gardening and spending time with his two kids. Occasionally, he likes to visit the Duck Pond and Claytor Lake State Park. His favorite restaurants are Cabo Fish Taco and Bull & Bones.

Dr. Kumar’s advice to incoming Pamplin freshmen would be “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You are here to learn from your mistakes. Live life to the fullest and make lots of friends at Virginia Tech. VT is a platform for learning, but also a place for making lifelong memories.”