Huang Engineering Center,
Stanford University

eberhart@stanford.edu
(650) 315-8603 (voice)

Research Interests
Comparative corporate governance in Asia and the US, theories of institutions, Japanese entrepreneurship and venture finance, Japanese corporate governance.

Robert Eberhart is the SPRIE Researcher at Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) where he leads the SPRIE-Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship. His research focuses on comparative corporate governance of growth companies with special emphasis on Japan and the role of Japanese institutions in fostering entrepreneurship. Eberhart's papers include topics such as corporate governance, entrepreneurship in Japan, and institutional ideas of innovation. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the International Society for New Institutional Economics, the board of advisors to Japan's Global Entrepreneurship Week, and an advisor to Japan's Board of Director's Training Institute. He serves as an academic advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce's Task Force on New Growth Strategies and is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer in various programs at Stanford and in Japan. He presents seminars to diverse institutions such as the Japan Venture Capital Association, the U.S. Embassy in Japan, Stanford's U.S.-Asia Technology Management Center, the Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurs Society at Stanford, the Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, giving academic presentations of his own research on Japanese corporate governance and entrepreneurship. Eberhart also lectures in classes on Japanese business and entrepreneurship at Stanford University and Berkeley.

Eberhart has received academic awards from the Academy of Management and the Fondation du Japon – France, as well awards from the National Aerospace Manufacturers Accreditation Program, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and is recognized for work on the University of California Berkeley's Space Sciences Lab where he designed and built interferometer components for an exo-planet detection system. Eberhart received a master's degree in economics from the University of Michigan after undergraduate studies in finance at Michigan State University. He is completing doctoral studies at Stanford University's Department of Management Science and Engineering and is a private pilot.

Recent Publications

• Failure is an Option: Institutional Reform, Bankruptcy, and New Firm Performance, Robert Eberhart, Charles Eesley, Kathleen Eisenhardy (2012)
• Corporate Governance Systems and Firm Value: Empirical Evidence from Japan’s Natural Experiment (Forthcoming in the Journal of Asian Business), Robert Eberhart
• Japanese Firms’ Innovation Strategies in the 21st Century, Robert Eberhart, Glenn Hoetker (Springer Publications 2011)