José Paulo Afonso Esperança

José Paulo Afonso Esperança is a Full Professor of Finance at ISCTE Business School, ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon. He previously served as Pro-Rector for International Relations and Entrepreneurship (2010-2013), Dean of ISCTE Business School, and Vice-President of FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology). He co-founded Building Global Innovators (BGI), a MIT Portugal technology transfer accelerator, and chaired AUDAX-ISCTE, an entrepreneurship center focused on family business.

His educational background includes:

• Agregação (2003) from ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
• PhD in Economics (1993) from the European University Institute, Florence
• Licenciatura in Organization and Business Management (1980) from ISCTE-IUL

Professor Esperança's research centers on entrepreneurship and small business financing, corporate governance, and language commonality in international business. His work bridges theoretical frameworks with empirical analyses of emerging economies, examining financial inclusion mechanisms, SME credit constraints, and linguistic influences on foreign direct investment. He has published extensively in top-tier journals including Annals of Operations Research and Journal of Business Finance and Accounting.

His publication trends reveal increasing focus on financial technology applications, behavioral aspects of lending, and Lusophone economic integration. Recent work analyzes prosocial crowdlending dynamics and socio-technical credit evaluation frameworks, reflecting interdisciplinary approaches to financial inclusion challenges.

Key recognitions include:

• Best IBS Case for the FAE-MOVVO Competition: Location-Based Big Data Marketing (2015)
• Best IBS Case for the FAE-Science 4You Competition (2014)

He secured significant research funding as Principal Investigator for the project 'Corporate Governance in Medium Income Countries: The Case of Portugal' (2007-2011). His leadership extends to entrepreneurship initiatives through AUDAX-ISCTE and BGI, where he developed technology transfer frameworks. Since 2014, he has served as National Delegate for the H2020 SME Instrument at FCT, advising on European innovation funding.

Professor Esperança maintains active involvement in Lusophone economic networks through the New Atlas of the Portuguese Language project and CPADA (Portuguese Federation of Environmental Associations), where he serves on the board.