Faculty & Staff

Steven Casper, PhD

Steven Casper, who joined KGI in July 2003, is a leading expert on the 'business of science' and has studied the success and failure of bioscience hubs around the world. He is widely published in the fields of economic sociology, international business, and public policy and is the author of a book on the development of the science-based industry in Europe (Creating Silicon Valley in Europe: Public Policy Towards New Technology Industries, Oxford University Press, 2007).

Dr. Casper has been selected as an academic year fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies and a summer fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University. Dr. Casper received his PhD in government from Cornell University. He joined KGI from the University of Cambridge, where he was a university lecturer in innovation and entrepreneurship at the Judge Institute of Management Studies. He was previously employed as a senior research fellow at the Social Science Center in Berlin.

  1. With Joel West. “University Innovation and the Emergence of Four California Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.” Academy of Management Perspectives. 38. (2024): 453-472.
  2. With Marcela Miozzo, and Cornelia Storz. "Digital Creatives and Digital Engineers: Entrepreneurial Firms, Institutional Context, and the Organization of Innovation." Socio-Economic Review 22.1 (2024): 107-139.
  3. With Marcela Miozzo, and Cornelia Storz. "The Emergence of an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: The Interplay Between Early Entrepreneurial Activity and Public Policy in the Korean Online Gaming Industry." Industry and Innovation 31.3 (2024): 280-310.
  4. "The Spill-over Theory Reversed: The Impact of Regional Economies on the Commercialization of University Science." Research Policy 42.8 (2013): 1313-1324.
  5. Creating Silicon Valley in Europe: Public Policy Towards New Technology Industries, Oxford University Press, 2007.
  6. "How Do Technology Clusters Emerge and Become Sustainable?: Social Network Formation and Inter-firm Mobility within the San Diego Biotechnology Cluster." Research Policy 36.4 (2007): 438-455.
  7. With Fiona Murray. "Careers and Clusters: Analyzing the Career Network Dynamic of Biotechnology Clusters." Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 22.1-2 (2005): 51-74.
  8. With Richard Whitley. "Managing Competences in Entrepreneurial Technology Firms: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Germany, Sweden and the UK." Research Policy 33.1 (2004): 89-106.

Steven Casper is a leading expert on the 'business of science' and has studied the success and failure of bioscience hubs around the world. He is widely published in the fields of economic sociology, international business, and public policy and is the author of a book on the development of the science-based industry in Europe (Creating Silicon Valley in Europe: Public Policy Towards New Technology Industries, Oxford University Press, 2007).

Dr. Casper has been selected as a Fullbright Research Scholar to Canada, an academic year fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies, and a summer fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the English Social Research Council, and several other foundations.

Dr. Casper’s current research focuses on cross-national comparisons of the emergence of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. He is also conducting research on non-market technology development in global health, exploring the orchestration of networks involving non-profits, pharmaceutical companies, and universities to create new medicines for malaria and other neglected diseases.