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Aaron Chatterji

Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor
Fuqua School of Business
A217 Fuqua School of Business, 90120, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Aaron Chatterji, Ph.D. is the Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He previously served as a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) where he worked on a wide range of policies relating to entrepreneurship, innovation, infrastructure and economic growth.

Chatterji’s research and teaching investigate some of the most important forces shaping our global economy and society: entrepreneurship, innovation, and the expanding social mission of business. He was awarded an inaugural Junior Faculty Fellowship from the Kauffman Foundation to recognize his work as a leading scholar in entrepreneurship. He also received the Rising Star award from the Aspen Institute for his work on business and public policy.

His research has been published in leading academic journals and been cited by CNN and The Economist. He has authored several op-ed pieces, including in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, appeared on national TV and radio, and was recently profiled in The Financial Times and Fortune. Chatterji has also testified as an expert witness at the House Committee on Small Business and the U.S. Department of State and served as a Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

In his local community, Chatterji serves as a board member for Durham Communities in Schools, an education-focused non-profit. He also advises technology start-up companies on innovation and strategy.

Chatterji is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and previously worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He received his Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in Economics from Cornell University.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor · 2020 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Professor of Business Administration · 2018 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy · 2018 - Present Sanford School of Public Policy
Core Faculty in Innovation & Entrepreneurship · 2018 - Present Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship, University Initiatives & Academic Support Units

In the News


Published March 4, 2025
Duke Partners With OpenAI, Other Universities To Find Best Uses For AI in Research
Published April 4, 2024
Making the Leap from Billions to Trillions in Private Climate Investment
Published February 29, 2024
Boosting Investment in Climate Solutions

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Recent Publications


The entrepreneurial process: Evidence from a nationally representative survey

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · January 1, 2023 Research Summary: Scholars have traditionally characterized the variation in firm performance as determined by conditions after entry, where the entry decision is a one-shot binary choice determined by cost–benefit analysis. However, recent theoretical wor ... Full text Cite

Experimentation and Start-up Performance: Evidence from A/B Testing

Journal Article Management Science · September 1, 2022 Recent scholarship argues that experimentation should be the organizing principle for entrepreneurial strategy. Experimentation leads to organizational learning, which drives improvements in firm performance. We investigate this proposition by exploiting t ... Full text Cite

Categorical competition in the wake of crisis: Banks vs. credit unions

Journal Article Organization Science · July 1, 2021 We connect two distinct streams of research on categories to study the role of within-category typicality in the context of legitimacy shocks. We argue that, following a legitimacy shock, member organizations of the tainted, focal category suffer equally, ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


IUCRC Planning Grant Duke University: Center for Innovation in Risk-analysis for Climate Adaptation and Decision-making (CIRCAD)

ResearchParticipating Faculty Member · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2024 - 2025

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation · 2018 - 2022

Regional Entrepreneurship and Firm Dynamics

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation · 2016 - 2018

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Education, Training & Certifications


University of California, Berkeley · 2006 Ph.D.