Professor Boris Urban is currently a professor at the Wits Business School and was the inaugural Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of the Witwatersrand (2009-2016). He has more than 30 years of academic and professional experience where he has practiced, taught and researched organisational behaviour, strategy and entrepreneurship. His primary research agenda is to deepen understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour within a unified explanatory structure at the individual, organisational and societal levels.
Prof Urban is a National Research Foundation (NRF) rated (2009- 2027) and a highly cited researcher according to the WoS journal rankings. Based on more than 120 articles in academic journals his work is noticeably recognised in the field (h-index = 33; i-index = 85). He has published in journals such as the Journal of Technology Transfer, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, and International Journal of HRM.
He has been awarded several honours, which include the Juta and Sasol prize for academic honours, the MANEX award for Best Researcher at Wits Business School (WBS) (2012-2016), Top Researcher/Most Productive awards at University of the Witwatersrand CLM Faculty (2013-2019), and the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RAKE 2014) award from the United Kingdom based Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He serves on several editorial boards, including the South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences (SAJEMS), Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (SAJESBM) and the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship (Oxford, United Kingdom).
Prof Urban is the editor and co-author of a series of books and chapters on entrepreneurship published by Oxford University Press and Springer. Entrepreneurship Theory in Practice is in its 3rd edition and used as a prescribed textbook at several universities. He has presented papers at national and international conferences, including the Academy of Management and won best paper awards. He has published numerous award-winning case studies (Emerald Cases) used in classrooms globally. His academic citizenship credentials have been earned in various capacities, such as Acting WBS Director (2009), Research Director (2013), and National Research Foundation (NRF) Specialist Committee member (2014-2018). He is the recipient of research grant funding from the Economic and Social Research Council/National Research Foundation (NRF)/Newton Fund.
