Hello! I'm Ciro, an Assistant Professor of Data Entrepreneurship at Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS), Tilburg University. I am part of the Data Entrepreneurship Unit, led by Alexander Vossen. I am also a member of the Editorial Review Board of Industry and Innovation, from which I received the Best Reviewer Award 2024 in recognition of my service.

My research

My research is at the crossroad of entrepreneurship and data science. I study how entrepreneurs succeed, focusing on key stages of startup development, from securing early funding to forming strategic alliances. I employ a range of methodologies, particularly Natural Language Processing (NLP). Prior to joining JADS, I conducted my Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD research at the University of Amsterdam, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. I held visiting scholar positions at Charles River Laboratories (2021) and the House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics (2022). In 2023, I was awarded a research grant by the European Academy of Management to investigate how exaggeration, detected through NLP, influences venture financing. Between 2023 and 2024, I also collaborated with the Informatics Institute of the University of Amsterdam. My work has been presented at leading management and entrepreneurship conferences, including Academy of Management (AOM) and Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), and published in Small Business Economics and PeerJ Computer Science.

My teaching

I am currently teaching the master’s course Data Entrepreneurship in Action at JADS, which focuses on AI-driven startup founding. For more information about the courses I have taught in the past, you can visit here.

My supervision

I've successfully mentored 35 master's and bachelor's students to completion. Many of these students have engaged in thesis projects in collaboration with both the university and corporate partners, often leading to employment opportunities within the companies involved. Some of my students have also earned significant recognition, including a master's student who was named a top three finalist for the ASF Thesis Prize (€1500) in 2024. Furthermore, two of my master's students were finalists for the George Molenkamp Sustainability Thesis Award (€1000) in both 2022 and 2023, sponsored by KPMG and the University of Amsterdam. For more details on the theses, you can visit here.

My background

I earned my PhD in Economics and Business from the University of Amsterdam. My doctoral thesis, entitled “Emerging Fields: Their Strategic Implications and Identification”, was supervised by Nachoem Wijnberg, Balazs Szatmari, and Jonathan Sitruk. I also hold a master’s degree in Economics, Finance, and International Integration, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Economics, both from the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Pavia. My master’s thesis, entitled “Empirical Testing of the One-Factor Capital Asset Pricing Model and Arbitrage Pricing Theory: Evidence from the Italian Stock Market”, was supervised by Enrico Cotta Ramusino. During my studies, I worked as a private tutor in Mathematics and Physics, an academic tutor, a student guidance counsellor, and an assistant in the university’s administrative office. I also gained professional experience through an internship in public administration.