Faculty and staff

Dr. Jon Thomas is the Director of the Esposito Family Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (EFCIE) at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). He also holds the BC Regional Innovation Chair in Canada-India Partnership Development at UFV and is an Associate Professor, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, at the UFV School of Business. In his role as the BC Regional Innovation Chair, he is engaged in building research partnerships between Canada and the world, with a major focus on India. He believes that high-impact teaching and research can be fostered through collaborations that transcend disciplinary and organizational boundaries.

Jon has provided innovation and entrepreneurship mentoring to students, post-doctoral fellows, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs for nearly two decades. His innovation and entrepreneurship research has garnered several awards including the National Doctoral Fellowship (India) and the Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship (Canada). His interdisciplinary research has been published in leading academic journals like Nature Nanotechnology, Technovation, Journal of Engineering & Technology Management, Scientometrics, and the Journal of Cleaner Production, among others.

He is regularly invited to speak on innovation and entrepreneurship topics and is keenly interested in the pre-formation and early post-formation stages of venture emergence, particularly from university settings.

Courses recently taught at UFV:

• BUS 492: Directed Studies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Conference Presentations & Research Seminars

• Endowing University spin-offs pre-formation: Entrepreneurial capabilities for scientist-entrepreneurs, ISPIM Connects Ottawa Conference, Ottawa, Canada, Apr. 2019.
• The Drivers of Value Migration in the US Pharmaceutical Industry (1976-2010), DRUID17 Convention, New York, USA, Jun. 2017.
• The Role of Star Scientists in Science-based University Spin-off Emergence, 15^th Annual West Coast Research Symposium, Edmonton, Canada, Sept. 2017.
• The Role of Star Scientists in University Spin-off Emergence
  • 6^th Beedie Innovation Conference, Vancouver, Canada, Sept. 2016
  • 16^th International Schumpeter Society Conference, Montreal, Canada, Jul. 2016 
• Biomedical Innovation: Commercialization Strategies for Scientist-Entrepreneurs”, Academy of Management Conference, Vancouver, Canada, Aug. 2015
• Patenting and Commercialization Strategy of a Star-Scientist: MIT’s Robert Langer
  • 1^st SFU Postdoctoral Research Day, Burnaby, Canada, May 2015
  • Centre for Drug Research and Development, Vancouver, Canada, May 2015
  • 5^th Beedie Innovation Conference, Vancouver, Canada, Jan. 2015
• Radical Innovation in the Emerging Nanobiotechnology Industry, Centre for Drug Research and Development, Vancouver, Canada, Jun. 2014
• Global Bio-Nano Firms: Exploiting the Confluence of Technologies,  4^th Beedie Innovation Conference, Vancouver, Canada, Mar. 2013
• Technological Innovation in the Indian Biotechnology Industry, 2nd IPR Researchers’ Confluence, I.I.T. Bombay, India, Feb. 2011 (Best Paper Award)
• A Study of Technological Innovations in Firms in India, 5th Globelics Academy, University of Tampere, Finland, Jun. 2008

Google Scholar Profile

Publications

1. Thomas, V. J., Bliemel, M., Shippam, C., & Maine, E. (2020). Endowing university spin-offs pre-formation: Entrepreneurial capabilities for scientist-entrepreneurs. Technovation, 96-97. doi:10.1016/j.technovation.2020.102153
2. Thomas, V. J., Maine, E. (2019). Market entry strategies for electric vehicle start-ups in the automotive industry - Lessons from Tesla Motors. Journal of Cleaner Production, 235: 653-663.
3. Thomas, V. J., Maine, E. (2019). Impact of regional systems of innovation on the formation of university spin-offs by biomedical star scientists. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 37(2): 271-287.
4. Maine, E., Thomas, V. J. (2017). Raising financing through strategic timing. Nature Nanotechnology, 12(2): 93–98.
5. Maine, E., Thomas, V. J., Utterback, J. (2014). Radical innovation from the confluence of technologies: Innovation management strategies for the emerging nanobiotechnology industry. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 32(April-June 2014): 1–25.
6. Maine, E., Thomas, V. J., Bliemel, M., Murira, A., Utterback, J. (2014). The Emergence of the Nanobiotechnology Industry. Nature Nanotechnology, 9(1): 2–5.
7. Thomas, V. J., Sharma, S., Jain, S. K. (2011). Using Patents and Publications to Assess R&D Efficiency in the States of the USA. World Patent Information, 33(1): 4–10.
8. Sharma,S., Thomas, V. J. (2008). Inter-country R&D Efficiency Analysis: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis. Scientometrics, 76(3): 483–501.

Conference Proceedings

1. Thomas, V. J., Bliemel, M., Shippam-Brett, C., Maine, E. (2016). The Role of Star Scientists in University Spin-off Emergence, R&D Management Conference 2016, July 3-6, 2016. Cambridge, UK.
2. Thomas, V. J., Jain, S. K., Sharma, S. (2009). Analyzing R&D Efficiency in Asia and the OECD: An Application of the Malmquist Productivity Index, IEEE Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy (ACSIP 2009), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.
3. Thomas, V. J., Jain, S. K., Sharma, S. (2008), R&D Efficiency in the USA: An Application of DEA, GLOGIFT 2008, June 14-16, 2008, Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, USA.

Reports

1. Thomas, V.J. (2016) Review of Healthcare Best Practices in Supporting Technological Innovation. (Commissioned by Innovation Boulevard and the Office of the Assistant Deputy Minister of Health, Government of British Columbia).