CV
Sam
First Name:
Tavassoli
Family Name:
Personal Number: 840318-5732
Address:
Östergatan 16, 21125 Malmö, Sweden
Mobile:
+61 (0) 415 123 576
Email:
[email protected]
http://staff.circle.lu.se/sam.tavassoli/
Home page:
http://ideas.repec.org/f/pta506.html
IDEAS page:
Google scholar page: http://scholar.google.se/citations?user=v3fAdXAAAAAJ&hl=en
Current Positions

Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, School of Management,
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia , October 2016 to present

Research Fellow in Innovation & Entrepreneurship Studies, Centre for Innovation, Research
and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University, Sweden, October
2016 to present
Previous Positions

Postdoctoral Researcher in Innovation & Entrepreneurship Studies, Centre for Innovation,
Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University, Sweden,
March 2015 to October 2016

Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Industrial Economics & Management, Department of
Industrial Economics, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, October 2014- January
2016
Educations
2010-2014
PhD: Industrial Economics (Major: Economics of Innovation & Entrepreneurship)
Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden
Thesis: Determinants and Effects of Innovation; Context matters
2013-2013
A visiting scholar in School of Public Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill, U.S.A
(6 months)
2007-2009
Master: Industrial Economics (Major: Innovation Management)
Linköping University, Sweden
Thesis: Exploring Critical Success Factors in Industrial Clustering; SMIL as illustrative case
2002-2006
Bachelor: Industrial Engineering
Mazandaran University of Science and Technology, Iran
Thesis: Exploring Factors Affecting Trust of Customers in Electronic Transactions in Private
Banks
1
List of scientific publications
A. Journal Publications
 Tavassoli, S.; Jienwatcharamongkhol, V. (forthcoming) Survival of Entrepreneurial Firms:
The Role of Agglomeration Externalities, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.
 Tavassoli S.; Bengtsson, L.; Karlsson C. (forthcoming) Strategic Entrepreneurship and
Knowledge Spillovers: Spatial and Aspatial Perspectives, International Entrepreneurship
and Management Journal, DOI: 10.1007/s11365-016-0405-8

Tavassoli S.; Karlsson C. (forthcoming) Innovation Strategies of Firms; What Strategies and
Why?, The Journal of Technology Transfer, DOI: 10.1007/s10961-015-9453-4

Tavassoli S.; Karlsson C. (2016) Innovation Strategies and Firm Performance; Simple or
Complex Strategies?, Economics of Innovation and New Technology 25(7), 631-650

Tavassoli S.; Karlsson C. (2015) Persistence of Various Types of Innovation Analyzed and
Explained, Research Policy 44(10), 1887-1901

Kianian B.; Tavassoli S.; Larsson C.; and Diegel O. (2015) The Adoption of Additive
Manufacturing Technology in Sweden, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing 2(4), 152158

Tavassoli, S. (2015) Innovation Determinants over Industry Life Cycle, Technological
Forecasting & Social Change 91, 18-32

Tavassoli, S.; Carbonara, N. (2014) The Role of Knowledge Variety and Intensity on the
Regional Innovation, Small Business Economics 43(2), 493-509

Tavassoli, S.; Tsagdis, D. (2014) Critical Success Factors and Cluster Evolution: A case study
of the Linköping ICT cluster lifecycle, Environment & Planning A 46(6), 1425-1444

Holgersson, T; Norman, T.; Tavassoli, S. (2014) In the quest for economic significance:
Assessing variable importance through mean value decomposition, Applied Economics Letter
21 (8), 545-549
B. Book Chapters (peer reviewed)
 Tavassoli, S.; Jienwatcharamongkhol, V. (2016) Survival of Knowledge Intensive Business
Service Firms: The Role of Agglomeration Externalities, In J. Ferreira, C. Fernandes, M. Raposo
and M. Dejardin, Knowledge Intensive Business Services and Regional Competitiveness, (p.158178) Routledge.

2
 Feldman, M. P.; Tavassoli, S. (2015) Where do New Industries Come from? In D.
Audretsch, A. Link, Oxford Handbook of Local Competitiveness, (p.125-141) Oxford University
Press.
 Tavassoli, S.; Kianian, B; Larsson, T. C. (2015) Manufacturing Renaissance: Return of
manufacturing to western countries. In C. Karlsson, U. Gråsjö, & S. Wixe, Innovation and
Entrepreneurship
in
the
Global
Economy:
Knowledge,
Technology
and
Internationalization, (p.261-280) Edward Elgar Publishing.
 Jienwatcharamongkhol, V.; Tavassoli, S. (2015) Closing the Gap: An Empirical Evidence on
Firm’s Innovation, Productivity and Export. In C. Karlsson, U. Gråsjö, & S. Wixe, Innovation
and Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy: Knowledge, Technology and Internationalization,
(p.281-309) Edward Elgar Publishing.
 Carbonara, N.; Tavassoli, S. (2013) The Role of Knowledge Heterogeneity on the Innovative
Capability of Industrial Districts. In C. Karlsson, B. Johansson, & R. Stough, Entrepreneurial
Knowledge, Technology and the Transformation of Regions, (p.144-166) Routledge.
C. Book Reviews
 Tavassoli S. (2012) Book review of “Emerging clusters: Theoretical, empirical and political
perspectives on the initial stage of cluster evolution – Edited by Dirk Fornahl, Sebastian Henn
and Max-Peter Menzel”, Papers in Regional Science, 91 (2), 475-477
D. Conferences Papers (selected)
 Tavassoli, S.; Jienwatcharamongkhol, V. (2015) Survival of Entrepreneurial Firms; The
Importance of Relatedness of Entrepreneurs to each other, Australian Centre for
Entrepreneurship Research Exchange (ACERE2016), Gold Coast, Australia, 2-6 February 2016

 Tavassoli, S.; Jienwatcharamongkhol, V. (2015) Survival of Entrepreneurial Firms; The
Role of Agglomeration Externalities, Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange
(ACERE2015), Adelaide, Australia, 2-6 February 2015

 Tavassoli, S.; Jienwatcharamongkhol, V. (2014) The Effect of Agglomeration Economies
th
on Productivity of Firms, 17 Uddevalla Symposium, Uddevalla , Sweden, 12-14 June 2014
 Kianian, B; Tavassoli, S.; Larsson, T. (2014) The Role of Additive Manufacturing
Technology in job creation: an exploratory case study of suppliers of Additive Manufacturing in
Sweden, 12th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Johor Bahru, Malaysia 22- 24
September 2014
 Tavassoli, S.; Carbonara, N. (2013) The Role of Knowledge Variety and Intensity for
Regional Innovative Capability - Swedish evidence, 52nd Congress of Western Regional
Science Association (WRSA), Santa Barbara, U.S.A, 24–27 February 2013
3
 Jienwatcharamongkhol, V.; Tavassoli, S. (2013) Closing the gap: Innovation, Productivity
nd
and Export: An Analysis using Swedish CIS data, 52 Congress of Western Regional Science
Association (WRSA), Santa Barbara, U.S.A, 24–27 February 2013
 Tavassoli, S. (2013) The Role of Product Innovation Output on Export Behavior of
Firms, 53rd Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Palermo, Italy,
27-31 August 2013
 Kianian, B; Larsson, T.; Tavassoli, S. (2013) Manufacturing Renaissance: Return of
manufacturing to western countries, International Conference on Sustainable Intelligent
Manufacturing (SIM2013), Lisbon, Portugal, 26- 29 June 2013
 Tavassoli, S.; Carbonara, N. (2012) The Role of Knowledge Variety and Intensity for
th
Regional Innovative Capability - Swedish evidence, 15 Uddevalla Symposium, Faro,
Portugal, 14-16 June 2012
 Tavassoli, S.; Jienwatcharamongkhol, V.; (2012) Closing the gap: Innovation, Productivity
nd
and Export: An Analysis using Swedish CIS data, 52 Congress of the European Regional
Science Association (ERSA), Bratislava, Slovakia, 21 - 25 August 2012
 Tavassoli,
S. (2011) Innovation Determinants
Uddevalla Symposium, Bergamo, Italy, 16-18 June 2011
over
Industry
Life
th
Cycle, 14
 Tavassoli, S.; Tsagdis, D (2010) Developing an Object Oriented Model of Critical Success
Factors for Clusters: The Linköping Information and Communication Technologies Cluster
Test-Case, 50th Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Jönköping,
Sweden, 2010

Tavassoli, S. (2010) A Comparative Investigation of Firms’ Innovative behaviors
During Different Stages of the Cluster Life-Cycle (Cover study for PhD dissertation), 50th
Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Jönköping, Sweden, 2010
E. Working Papers (published online in Electronic series)
 Tavassoli, Sam & Karlsson, Charlie, 2015. "Firms’ Innovation Strategies Analyzed and
Explained," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 396, Royal
Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
 Tavassoli, S. (2013) The Role of Product Innovation Output on Export Behavior of Firms,
CIRCLE Electronic Working Papers 2013/38, Lund University
4
Referee task in the following journals:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Research Policy
Small Business Economics
Technological Forecasting & Social Change
Journal of Technology Transfer
Economics of Innovation and New Technology
Regional Studies
Annals of Regional Science
Papers in Regional Science
International Review of Economics & Finance
Journal of Product Innovation Management
Invited talks:
o Innovation Surveys and Innovation Policy Workshop, 8th March 2015, Iranian vicepresidency of Science & Technology, Tehran, Iran
o Annual Research Showcase, 20th October 2015, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
o National University of Rwanda, April-May 2013
o Polish clusters and cluster policy Conference, 31th January 2012, Olsztyn, Poland
Supervision of thesis:
o Supervision of 13 master theses in Entrepreneurship & Innovation at BTH, during VT
2011 to VT 2014. The students were:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Michael Thorzen
Magnus Karlsson
Misato Kogure
Rakesh Pallati
Elza Stepanyan
Anitha Shoo
Teresa Walsh
Alaguraja.S.P
Ezeoma Kingsley Onyeka
Stefan Karlsson
Erkin Gunay
Ekaterina Pashina
Abdul-Basit Wunnam
o Supervision of 3 MBA theses, at BTH, 2 of them in VT 2010 and one in HT 2014:
14. Driton Bina
15. Saqib Mehmood & Moli Zhang
16. Jones Alami & Chinedu Ngene
o Supervision of one PhD thesis, at BTH, October 2014-present
17. Eleonore Huang Vogel
5
Nomination & Awards:
o Nominated for the best PhD student poster in Sweden in 2013 in the first Scandinavian
conference of Industrial Engineering and Management, held in LTH, Lund University 2829 Nov 2013
o Nominated for the best PhD student poster in Sweden in 2011 in the national conference
of Industrial Economics, held in BTH, Karlskrona 10-11 Nov 2011
Additional research related activities:
o Board member of CIRCLE, Lund University, January 2016-present
o Member of Local Organizing Committee for 2016 Eu-SPRI Conference, Lund University
o Research coordinator of Centre for Innovation & Technology Research (CITR) in
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden (2012-2014)
Participations in Conferences & Workshops (selected)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
12th ACERE conference, Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research, Gold Coast, Australia, 2nd
-6th February 2016
11th ACERE conference, Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research, Adelaide, Australia, 2nd 6th February 2015
20th DRUID conference, Rome, 15th -17th June 2015
13th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 16th-18th
September, 2015
17th Uddevalla Symposium, Uddevalla, Sweden, 2014
52nd Congress of Western Regional Science Association (WRSA), Santa Barbara, U.S, 2013
53rd Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Palermo, Italy, 2013
1st Scandinavian conference of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lund University, 2013
52nd Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Bratislava, Slovakia, 2012
51st Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Barcelona, Spain, 2011
14th Uddevalla Symposium, Bergamo, Italy, 2011
DIMETIC Doctoral European Summer School, Maastricht University, Netherland, 2011
The Economic and Management of Innovation and Technology workshop, BTH, Sweden, 2011
International PhD workshop on Economic Geography, Utrecht University, Netherland, 2010
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Theory workshop, Roskilde University, Denmark, 2010
Pedagogical/Teaching Merits

I have been trained in the higher education pedagogy course at BTH (please see my transcript
of records in PhD level).

Below table shows my teaching experiences in bachelor and master levels1. All courses are
tough in English.
1
In all of my courses, I have been teaching as an assistant, because I have been a PhD student. An exception is the
course in National University of Rwanda, in which I was the course responsible.
6
Courses
Institution
Period
Level
Breadth of
teaching
Campus/Online
Supervisor of
MBA theses
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
VT 2010
Master
Online
supervision
Online
Supervisor of
theses in
entrepreneurship
& innovation
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
VT 2011
VT 2012
VT 2014
Master
Campus
supervision
Campus
Research
Methods
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
VT 2010
VT 2013
Master
Lectures,
computer labs
Campus
Management &
Economic of
innovation
National
University of
Rwanda
VT 2013
Master
Lectures,
seminars
Campus
Management &
Economic of
innovation
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
VT 2013
VT 2014
HT 2014
Master
Lectures,
seminars
Campus
Management of
IT &
Technology
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
VT 2014
Bachelor
Lectures
Campus
Managerial
Economics
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
VT 2014
Master
Lectures,
seminars
Campus
Managerial
Economics
Blekinge
Institute of
Technology
HT 2014
VT 2015
Master
Online
communication
with students
Online
Languages
English: Fluent (both speaking and writing), Persian: Native, Swedish: Moderate
Skills







Both quantitative and qualitative research methods
Statistical analysis software, e.g. STATA, SPSS, R
Qualitative analysis software, e.g. Atlas
SQL server (working with large dataset, e.g. MONA in Statistic Sweden)
Mapping programs, e.g. GeoDa, ArcGIS
Teaching in bachelor and master level
Working in multi-cultural groups
7
Committee members for PhD defense

Prof. Koen Frenken, Professor in Economics of Innovation and Technological Change at Utrecht
University, Netherlands, as the faculty opponent

Prof. Johan Klaesson, Professor in the Department of Economics, Finance, Statistics at Jönköping
International Business School, Sweden, as a member of the examination committee

Dr. Kristina Nyström, Associate Professor of Economics at the Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm, Sweden, as a member of the examination committee

Dr. Ossi Pesämaa, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, Management and Organization at
Hanken School of Economics, Vaasa, Finland, as a member of the examination committee
References
Name
Relation
Email
Mobile
Prof. Charlie
Karlsson
Main Supervisor of
my PhD thesis
[email protected]
+46 (0) 705 820677
Prof. Maryann
Feldman
Hosted me while I
was a visiting
scholar in USA
[email protected]
+1 919 357 4043
+1 919 962 0674
Prof. Martin
Andersson
Supervisor of my
PhD thesis
[email protected]
+46 (0) 733 673867
8