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Education

BS Computer Science - The Academic College of Tel-Aviv 1998
MBA Strategic Management - The Darden Business School, UVA 2002
Ph.D. Strategic Management - University of Maryland 2009

Areas of Expertise

Entrepreneurship/Small Business Administration

Business Planning

New Venture Performance and Survival

Social Networking

Strategic Mangagement

Cognition and Strategy

Determinants of Firm Performance

Specialties

Attention-based View

Business Angels and VC Firms

Interfirm Signaling

Private Equity Investments

Selected Works

Articles

Kirsch, David , Goldfarb, Brent and Gera, Azi . "Form or Substance: The Role of Business Plans in Venture Capital Decision Making" STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 30.5 (May 2009):487-515

Presentations

Gera, Azi and Tribbitt, Mark . The Impact of the Structure of the Board of Directors on Nascent Firm Performance SMS Annual International Conference : Rome, Italy, Sep 2010

Gera, Azi . The Complex Structure of Signals and the Influence of Receivers’ Variance on Signal Interpretation Academy of Management Annual Meeting : Montreal, Canada, Aug 2010

Gera, Azi . Targeted Signals: How Do Venture Capital Firms and Angel Investors Differ in Signal Interpretation Israel Strategy Conference : Jerusalem, Israel, Dec 2009

Gera, Azi . Targeted Signals: How Do Venture Capital Firms and Angel Investors Differ in Signal Interpretation Strategic Management Society Annual Meeting : Washington, DC Oct 2009

Gera, Azi , Goldfarb, Brent and Kirsch, David . Competition for VC Attention: When, How and Why Do Social Referrals Matter? Academy of Management Annual Meeting : Chicago, IL Aug 2009

Kirsch, David , Goldfarb, Brent and Gera, Azi . Form or Substance: The Role of Business Plans in Venture Capital Decision Making Academy of Management Annual Meeting : Anehiem, CA Aug 2008

Gera, Azi . Venture Capital Opportunity Selection: Modeling the Venture Capital Funding Process Israel Strategy Conference : Jerusalem, Israel, Dec 2007

Professional Experience

Intelligence Officer, Israeli Air Force Feb 1987-May 1994

Programmer, Enigma Information Systems May 1996-Dec 1997

Implementation Team Leader, Amdocs Apr 1998-Jul 2000

Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting May 2001-Aug 2001

Research Assistant, The Darden Business School, UVA Charlottesville, VA Jan 2003-Jul 2004

Research Assistant, Robert H Smith School of Business, UMD College Park, MD Sep 2004-Jun 2009