Rate My Professor James Lang

James Lang served as Strickler Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurial Studies in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, contributing to the Business & Economics faculty. He earned a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University in 1963 on an ROTC scholarship, an M.B.A. from Northeastern University, and a Ph.D. in business from the University of Massachusetts. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Lang began his academic career as a professor of business at the University of Kentucky in 1976 and joined Virginia Tech in 1990, where he made significant contributions to teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels in entrepreneurial leadership and strategic management.

Lang co-founded and served as the inaugural director of the Business Leadership Center from 1999 to 2009, developing a structured leadership curriculum open to students from all majors outside the Corps of Cadets or management-restricted courses, which culminated in the Business Leadership minor attracting up to 50 majors at its peak. He also held positions as acting department head of the Department of Management, department head of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and director of graduate studies for management. His research interests included managerial decision making, corporate mergers, board of director interlocking, small business issues, and entrepreneurship. He published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Marketing Research, Omega, Journal of Management, and Journal of Small Business Management. Lang passionately mentored numerous faculty members and doctoral students, including chairing the search committee that hired Devi Gnyawali in 1997. Upon retirement in 2011, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors conferred emeritus status, and he continued contributions through the Lang-Daubert Fund supporting first-generation students in management. James Robert Lang passed away on August 1, 2023.