The purpose of the SIG Entrepreneurship is to develop an ongoing and constructive dialogue among entrepreneurship scholars to conduct research that is relevant for entrepreneurship theory and practice in the contemporary world. The SIG Entrepreneurship aims at promoting research and networking interests in individual and collaborative forms of entrepreneurship by providing a wide-ranging, engaged and internationally focused forum to discuss and develop research and practice in the field. We put a distinct focus on the key European feature – ‘context matters’ – why we try in all activities to promote and stimulate what ‘European’ might mean in any given context and any approach of entrepreneurship research.
SIG OFFICERS:
Massimiliano M. Pellegrini (University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Chair
Matthias Raith (Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Programme Chair
Marzena Starnawska (Gdansk University of Technology, Poland) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Programme Chair-Elect
Lucrezia Songini (Eastern Piedmont University, Italy) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Past Chair
Hans Lundberg (Linnaeus University, Sweden) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Past Chair
Luca Gnan (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Past Chair
Marzena Starnawska (Gdansk University of Technology, Poland) Alex Alterskye (University of Lincoln, UK), Giulia Flamini (University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy, Jennet Achyldurdyyeva (National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan) Communications Officers
GT 03_00 Entrepreneurship General Track
The Entrepreneurship SIG supports an ongoing and constructive dialogue among entrepreneurship scholars to conduct research for entrepreneurship theory and practice. This general track features new and emerging research areas as well as classical areas of study in entrepreneurship. In line with our mission – methodological, theoretical and empirical pluralism in entrepreneurship research – we welcome contributions from all areas of entrepreneurship that are not explicitly covered by the other tracks sponsored by the SIG.
The General Track includes a sub track on “Entrepreneurial Processes,” referring to the creation and exploitation of opportunities and a sub-track on the “Sharing Economy,” referring to interactions among peers without the intermediation of central hubs.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SIG STANDING TRACKS
ST 03_01 Social Entrepreneurship and Societal Changes
There has been an undeniable “social turn” in businesses and markets that are increasingly absorbing ideas about sustainability, stakeholders’ interests and social enterprise models. This track calls for papers investigating the impact of social and environmental concerns in the strategies of new ventures or existing ones, and in the formation of social enterprises and other forms of social movements in business. On the other hand, we welcome as well papers that investigate the reverse relation i.e. the influence of entrepreneurial activities on institutional, environmental and societal contexts.
ST 03_03 Entrepreneurial Finance
Entrepreneurial companies are the backbone of economic development. Since these firms often lack internal finance, the availability of external finance is crucial for their growth and survival. With traditional financiers of entrepreneurial companies (banks, venture capitalists, or private equity investors) recovering from the financial crisis, novel financial instruments and business accelerators have emerged such as incubators, proof-of-concept centers, or crowdfunding platforms. Considering their importance, it is crucial to understand how these instruments influence the development of entrepreneurial businesses. How do they affect the relationship between finance and growth? To which extent can they substitute for traditional sources of finance? Should entrepreneurs favor a particular source of financing over another?
ST 03_04 Entrepreneurial decision making and behaviour
There is a general agreement that the creation, success, longevity, and survival of SMEs are deeply linked to the effectiveness of decision-making processes. Entrepreneurial decisions are affected both internally, at the individual level of the entrepreneur’s cognition, emotions, and ambition, as well as externally, due to the continuous negotiation with different stakeholders. The impact of these decisions’ characteristics and their relation to those of other actors is a fundamental topic to be investigated by entrepreneurship scholars. For this reason, the track welcomes novel research approaches that are conceptual or empirical.
ST 03_05 / ST 06_02 / ST 13_09 Business Model Innovation (BMI) (co-sponsored by Entrepreneurship SIG-03, Innovation SIG-06 and Strategic Management SIG-13)
The phenomenon of business model innovation is of holistic nature, difficult to delimit, and its theorising is contingent on the business model concept (Foss and Saebi, 2016). Yet, despite the overall substantive research effort undertaken to understand the business model (Massa, Tucci and Afuah, 2017), resultant literature still fails to agree on a common interpretation of the concept. The ambivalent nature of the business model poses, in consequence, a substantive challenge for developing a theory on business model innovation (Spieth, Schneckenberg and Ricart, 2014). However, theory development on emerging phenomena involves prolonged periods of logical inconsistency and contradiction, and which relies on abstracting from various sources of evidence captured in actual business practice (Weick, 1995: 389). Likewise, the business model topic attracts continued interest in business research and practice (Demil et al., 2015) In sum, business model innovation attracts a continued interest in both business research and practice, and it offers a wide range of avenues for further investigations on its various dimensions.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SIG TRACKS
T 03_06 Cultural Entrepreneurship - Innovative Issues in Arts Business and Cultural & Creative Industries (CCI)
This track focuses on research and innovative management practices in the arts business and cultural & creative industries (CCI). The arts sector and creative arts industries are growing in Europe and in other western countries. They have become one of the most important and innovative economic sectors, in which cultural entrepreneurs perceive opportunities and create organizations. Therefore, a scientific focus on entrepreneurship, management and marketing in creative arts business seems necessary, e.g., personnel management or governance issues. In this context, the topics of key antecedents, effects and specifics of cultural entrepreneurship need to be explored from a theoretical perspective as well as in practice.
T 03_07 Entrepreneurship, Regions and Regional Development
Regional contexts incubate a high level of entrepreneurial activities, engagement with global networks of production, employment, first-class thinkers, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, and thereby increase the quality of society and the economy. The following broad set of the topics will be considered: To what extent does forced migration and refugee status have an impact on regional development as opposed to other types of migration? How does innovation and entrepreneurial behavior evolve and diffuse in hierarchical social networks in private and public organizations? What are the effects of knowledge and information spreading? How can regional entrepreneurship success be measured?
T 03_08 Growth Strategies & Internationalization for SMEs
SMEs growth strategies have been recently marked by increasing levels of internationalization. This evolution is not limited to exports or international outsourcing: it is indeed a brand new way of doing business. Internationalization of SMEs is challenging existing knowledge. Management scholars are invited to provide new perspectives on international entrepreneurial strategies of SMEs, their challenges and evolving business models, their relation to countries of destination, timing and entry mode, managerial tools, organizational structure, quality of acquired knowledge, relationships with multinationals and institutions. Theoretical contributions, reflections, and empirical analyses are welcome, provided they focus on SMEs.
T 03_10 Managerialization and Professionalization in SMEs and family firm
This track welcomes empirical and conceptual contributions to the debate amongst SME and family firm scholars about the diffusion of formal managerial mechanisms, including strategic planning, managerial control systems, and human resource management systems. This may go together with the professionalization of the firm, i.e., the upgrading of human skills, knowledge and experience and the diligent application of specialized knowledge in the firm’s management. A critical issue to ensure growth and sustainability is to understand the 'practice' of managerialization and professionalization, while, at the same time, we need to understand the underlying ‘science’ to help us explain why it happens.
