Page West, Ph.D.

Emeritus Professor, Strategy & Entrepreneurship

Dr. West joined the Wake Forest University faculty in 1995. He has taught undergraduate and graduate Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship, International Entrepreneurship, Capitalism and Free Markets, and Shakespeare on Management. His experience includes teaching internationally in London (UK), Venice (IT) and Vienna (Austria), and he had held a visiting position at École de Management in Bordeaux (FR). He has won awards for innovative teaching three times, and has twice won an award for the most influential undergraduate business professor as determined by alumni.

His research focuses on strategy in new ventures and on business conduct in free markets. He has published articles in Academy of Management Learning and Education, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Technology Transfer, Management Research Review, Simulation and Gaming, and Strategic Direction. He has also co-edited books on the 2008 financial crisis, and on entrepreneurship education. The 6th edition of his textbook Strategic Management (Riderwood Publishing, 2020) has just been introduced. Since 2019 his text has been the leading digital strategy textbook on the world’s leading digital textbook hosting platform.

In addition to his teaching and research Dr. West started up the Wake Forest university-wide entrepreneurship program, which is now the largest minor in the college. He also founded the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism. In support of these efforts he raised over $4 million for Wake Forest University.

He earned his B. A. in Economics at Hamilton College, MBA at The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, and Ph.D. in Strategic Management at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Prior to earning his Ph.D. he held positions in marketing and new business development for 17 years at consumer packaged goods companies including General Mills and Celestial Seasonings, and consulted with Westinghouse and other technology companies. He also started up his own food manufacturing company, raised venture capital, and expanded the business to a national level.