Emily Cox Pahnke is an Associate Professor of Management and Organization at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Her research, at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, and finance, focuses on understanding the resources that make ventures successful; specifically, the effects of entrepreneurs’ identification and acquisition of resources on venture founding, innovation, and IPOs. To study these questions, she uses novel, hand-collected longitudinal datasets and conducts extensive interviews and fieldwork to aid in interpreting the quantitative results. Professor Pahnke’s research contributes by highlighting the boundary conditions under which resources that are typically considered beneficial to ventures—such as venture capital, well-connected partners, or star employees—can be less helpful, or even harmful. Her research has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, and Strategic Management Journal. 

Professors Pahnke's research has been funded by the receipt of a Schulze Entrepreneurship Professorship and by the Kauffman Foundation and the National Science Foundation.  She was the recipient of the Emerging Scholar Award from the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management, the Industry Study Association’s Best Dissertation Award and was a finalist for the Technology and Innovation Management division of the Academy of Management’s Best Dissertation Award. Professor Pahnke holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering and a M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University, and M.B.A (Finance) and B.S. (Botany) degrees from Brigham Young University.