Magnus Klofsten

Magnus Klofsten is a full professor and the founding director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at Linköping University in Sweden. Magnus Klofsten obtained his PhD from Linköping University in 1992, with a dissertation titled "Early Development Processes in Technology-Based Firms." In 1996, he was appointed as an associate professor, and since 2002, he has held the position of full professor in innovation and entrepreneurship. Currently, he serves as the Head of the Industrial Management Division at the same university. Magnus is widely recognized as an international scholar for his research in the fields of young and emerging firms, entrepreneurial intentions, academic entrepreneurship, and the facilitation of entrepreneurial processes. He is a pioneer in the realm of teaching and training entrepreneurship.
Since launching his first entrepreneurship course in 1993, Magnus has taught nearly 5,000 undergraduate students in the field of entrepreneurship. Since 2006, he has been leading the "CDIO-entrepreneurship" course, which annually attracts over 200 students. Furthermore, his PhD course, "Entrepreneurship in Theory & Practice," has attracted over 200 PhD students since its start. The entrepreneurship training programs developed by him have led to the establishment of more than 500 businesses stemming from academic institutions, many of which have grown into multimillion-Euro enterprises today.
Over the course of his career, he has been involved in founding or co-founding several research organizations. He has secured funding from various sources, both independently and in collaboration with others. In addition, he has obtained research grants from prominent institutions, including the Swedish Research Council, Formas, The Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity, VINNOVA, and the Lundberg Foundation. 
His early scientific contributions led to the development of a model known as the "Business Platform" which is an entrepreneurship theory that identifies key factors characterizing technology-based firms during their initial stages. This model encompasses eight dynamic cornerstones, each varying in levels of significance: idea, product, market, organization, competence, driving forces, customers, and other collaborative relationships. These cornerstones play a crucial role in shaping the early growth and development processes of such firms. The Business Platform Model has proven to be particularly valuable in practical applications, particularly within the realm of entrepreneurship training in Sweden and Europe. It can be considered as a precursor to other business training models, including the widely recognized Business Canvas.
Over the past few decades, Magnus has shifted his focus towards various aspects of the entrepreneurial academia and the surrounding ecosystem. One of the influential works is the paper titled "Comparing Academic Entrepreneurship in Europe – The Case of Sweden and Ireland" (Klofsten & Jones-Evans, 2000), which is one of the first articles defining the constructs of academic entrepreneurship. Another highly cited paper explores the topic of knowledge-based regional development (Etzkowits & Klofsten, 2005), where an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem is longitudinally studied over a period of 30 years. This research provides valuable insights into the dynamic nature of ecosystems and the intricate relationships within such systems.
Magnus has contributed to other recognized and recent papers related to the entrepreneurial university. Most significant are the ones by Guerrero, et al. (2016) and Klofsten, et al. (2019). The latter is ranked in the top 1% of the academic field of Social Sciences, based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year.
In recent times, Klofsten has displayed a specific inclination towards investigating the significance of intrapreneurial academics. These individuals are recognized as playing a pivotal intermediary role in generating novel initiatives and establishing organizations within their respective domains. They are instrumental in nurturing the growth of entrepreneurial ecosystems (Klofsten, Brem, Guerrero, & Urbano, 2023).
Category:1959 births
Category:Swedish people
Category:Linköping University alumni
Category:Professors
Category:Directors