James Thompson

James Thompson is co-founder and director of the Wharton Social Entrepreneurship Program and coauthor of The Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook. He is an adjunct associate professor at the School of Social Policy and Practice of the University of Pennsylvania. His current areas of research focus are social innovation, future market growth, and investment under conditions of high uncertainty.

He teaches in Wharton Executive Education programs and works with management teams around the world to design and execute growth strategies that increase the value of their firms. In addition to academic interests, he has served on the executive board of a venture capital-funded technology company in Philadelphia, and currently invests in and advises startup firms in the U.S. Prior to joining the academic world, he was a divisional director of a public company, responsible for business unit turnarounds and new market development.

Thompson holds a PhD from The Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) and he has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management, Long Range Planning, Management Science, Organization Science, and the Research-Technology Management journal. He is a recipient of Best Paper Awards in both the U.S. Academy of Management and the American Marketing Association.