Research Associate

Before joining the SSE-Riga as an assistant professor of marketing and entrepreneurship in 2006, Jurgita Baltrušaitytė-Axelson received her Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.  Her dissertation entitled “The Opportunity Recognition Process, New Venture Start-Up Motivators and Outcomes: The Real Options Approach” has been awarded the highly competitive Ewing Marion Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship.  At SSE Riga, Dr. Baltrušaitytė-Axelson  teaches principles of marketing and consumer behavior.  She is also conducting research at the Stockholm School of Economics’ Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Creation in Stockholm, Sweden, where she resides. 

Dr. Baltrušaitytė-Axelson was previously a full-time faculty at the Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, USA, where she taught principles of marketing, sales management, and e-commerce.  She has also taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Iowa.   

Since 2003, Dr. Baltrušaitytė-Axelson has been associated with the International Center of Knowledge Economy and Knowledge Management at the Vilnius University, Lithuania, where she teaches graduate-level consumer behavior and global marketing courses at the distance learning program and supervises master’s thesis.   

Dr. Baltrušaitytė-Axelson’s research lies within the field of entrepreneurship, mostly focusing on the process of opportunity recognition, firm creation and exit, real options, and the American Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) and has been presented at numerous conferences in the United States and Europe.   

Dr. Baltrušaitytė-Axelson has worked in a number of different capacities for organizations such as the Chicago Stock Exchange, First Union Securities, a large import/distribution company and a newspaper in Lithuania. 

Expertise

Entrepreneurship
Opportunity Recognitio
New Venture Start-Up Motivators & Outcomes
Real Options

Education

Ph.D. in Business Administration (marketing & entrepreneurship), University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, 2006.
M.B.A. in finance and marketing, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, 2001.
M.A. in English literature, University of Wisconisn-Eau Claire, USA, 1998.
B.A. (Honors) in English literature, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA, 1996.

Selected Peer Reviewed Academic Publication

Hills, G. E., R. Singh, G. T. Lumpkin, and J. Baltrusaityte  (2004).  “Opportunity Recognition: New Findings and Alternative Search Processes,” Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research. Babson College, Wellesley, MA, USA.

Selected Peer Reviewed Academic Presentations

 “A Real Options Model of Step-Wise Entry into Entrepreneurship” (with Karl Wennberg).  Accepted for presentation at the Copenhagen Conference on Strategic Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, December 2005. 

“The Effects of Team Composition on the Opportunity Recognition Process” (lead author, with Howard Aldrich). Presented at Babson College - Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BKERC), Babson College, USA, June 2005. 

“The Opportunity Recognition Processes and the Termination of the New Venture Start-Up Effort: Examination of the PSED Data” (lead author, with Zoltan J. Acs and Gerald E. Hills).  Presented at BKERC, Babson College, USA, June 2005. 

“The Representation of Female Entrepreneurs in Lithuanian Media during 1989 to 2004” (with Edita Mikšytė).  Presented at the 13th World Lithuanian Science and Culture Symposium, Vilnius, Lithuania, June-July 2005.

 “Opportunity Recognition: Examining how Search Formality and Search Processes Relate to the Reasons for Pursuing Entrepreneurship and Impact Firm Founding” (with Gerald E. Hills, Robert Singh, and Tom Lumpkin). Presented at the PSED Symposium, Clemson University, South Carolina, USA, November 2004. 

“Opportunity Recognition: New Findings and Alternative Search Processes” (with Gerald E. Hills, Robert Singh, and Tom Lumpkin).  Presented at BKERC, Hunter Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2004.  

“An Exploratory Study of Entrepreneurial Network Marketing Services Companies” (lead author, with Gerald E. Hills and David J. Hansen).  Presented at the 17^th Annual UIC Research Symposium on Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Chicago, USA, August 2003. 

“The Digital Divide Within the European Union” (with Vaidotas Lukosius).  Presented at the 12^th Annual World Lithuanian Science and Culture Symposium, Lemont, USA, May 2003. 

“The Opportunity Recognition Process and the Pursuit/Success of Multiple Opportunities” (with Gerald E. Hills, Rodney C. Shrader, and Elif Izberk-Bilgin).   Presented at BKERC, University of Colorado-Boulder, USA, June 2002. 

Othet info

E-mail gyte@rocketmail.com