Dr. Timothy Hor
Details
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College: School of Management
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Department: Management
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Campus: City Campus Australia
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timothy.hor@rmit.edu.au
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ORCID:
0000-0003-4272-5379
Open to
- Industry Projects
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
About
I bring over 30 years of experience spanning entrepreneurship, innovation, and academia, with a mission to bridge theory and practice in ways that empower future business leaders. My journey began in the early 1990s as a lecturer at the National University of Singapore and evolved through leadership roles in the digital economy—including scaling iProperty.com into Southeast Asia’s largest online property platform and founding Asia’s first rich thin-client software start-up.
Returning to academia in 2020, I completed a Ph.D. at Queensland University of Technology focused on venture funding in digital entrepreneurship, using Design Science Research to develop actionable tools that help founders move beyond seed-stage capital. My work integrates deep entrepreneurial insight with scholarly rigour—particularly in areas such as venture strategy, innovation capability, and founder readiness.
Prior to joining RMIT, I taught entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Newcastle, where I co-founded the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Academy and led the Design Science Lab. My teaching philosophy is grounded in authentic, generative, and reflective learning, often integrating AI tools to equip students and founders for the future of work.
At RMIT, I contribute to the MBA and Executive MBA programs, bringing a practitioner-scholar lens to leadership development, innovation strategy, and entrepreneurship education. I design learning experiences that are human-first, AI-aware, and impact-driven, blending generative AI, strategic reflection, and real-world casework to equip executives and emerging leaders with the skills to thrive in complexity.
I believe that business is more than a transaction—it’s a relationship. And in a time of disruption and uncertainty, we need leaders who act with love, courage, and purpose. Love in business means building trust, inspiring loyalty, and designing organisations that are not just successful—but meaningful and regenerative.
Research fields
- 350704 Entrepreneurship
- 390303 Higher education
- 390103 Economics, business and management curriculum and pedagogy
UN sustainable development goals
- 4 Quality Education
- 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Academic positions
- Lecturer
- University of Newcastle Australia
- Newcastle Business School
- Newcastle, Australia
- 10 Feb 2024 – 27 Jun 2025
- Sessional Academic
- Queensland University of Technology
- School of Management
- Brisbane, Australia
- 1 Feb 2023 – 1 Dec 2023
Teaching interests
I have designed and delivered entrepreneurship, innovation, and data-analytics courses across undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive programs. At the University of Newcastle I coordinated core subjects in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship major, including INOV3003 Venture Funding (capital‐raising strategy and financial modelling), INOV3002 Traction & Growth (AARRR metrics, Customer Factory Model), INOV2003 Data-Driven Business Models, and INOV2001 Maker Space—re-engineered to emphasise no-code prototyping on platforms like Replit. I also led intensive Angel-Investment and Pitch-Preparation workshops, embedding my RaiiSE™ Capital-Raising Canvas and Growth Strategy Toolkit as signature learning artefacts.
Moving into RMIT’s MBA/eMBA portfolio, I now convene Design Thinking for Business, where executives apply design-science logic to live industry briefs while exploring AI-first collaboration tools. I am also teaching Technology Futures. Across all units my teaching philosophy centres on authentic, reflective, and technology-enhanced learning: students iterate weekly, document and critique their Generative-AI interactions, and engage with industry mentors in studio-style workshops. This approach has produced high engagement scores, practitioner-ready project outcomes, and a scalable blueprint—captured in a Human Centric, AI-first Teaching Framework—for integrating ethical, human-centric AI into business education.
Research interests
At RMIT I position my teaching and research squarely within the University’s “Knowledge with Action” strategy, which calls on researchers to translate ideas into outcomes that improve industry, society and the environment. The philosophy fits naturally with my Design Science Research approach: every study begins with a clearly framed problem from practice, progresses through the co-creation of an artefact (e.g., the RaiiSE™ Capital-Raising Canvas, NuYou AI-first teaching framework, or Acorns-to-Oak-Trees ecosystem model), and ends with rigorous mixed-method evaluation in live settings. By treating artefact design and theory building as two sides of the same coin, I can publish in leading journals while delivering tools that founders, educators and clinicians can deploy immediately—precisely the kind of impact RMIT’s strategy envisions.
My projects align with several of the University’s “enabling impact platforms,” especially Global Business Innovation, Information Systems, and Biomedical & Health Innovation. Current collaborations range from an MRFF-funded study that employs generative-AI scribes to cut cognitive load in hospitals to exploratory work integrating genomics-rich nutrition data into electronic health records. For academic colleagues, I offer an open, reproducible DSR methodology and access to industry testbeds; for external partners, I provide evidence-based toolkits, interdisciplinary talent, and a steadfast commitment to ethical, inclusive AI—turning RMIT’s Knowledge with Action mantra into measurable results.
