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 (2021-2022):
SIG Chair, Luca Gnan (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy) luca.gnan@uniroma2.it
SIG Programme Chair, Diego Matricano (Università degli Studi della Campania, Italy) diego.matricano@unicampania.it
Past Chair, Marzena Starnawska (University of Warsaw, Poland) mstarnawska( at )wz.uw.edu.pl
Past Chair, Matthias Raith (Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany) raith@ovgu.de
Past Chair, Massimiliano M. Pellegrini (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy) dr.massimiliano.pellegrini@gmail.com
Past Chair, Lucrezia Songini (Eastern Piedmont University, Italy) lucrezia.songini@uniupo.it
Past Chair and Entrepreneurship SIG Founder, Hans Lundberg (Linnaeus University, Sweden) hans.lundberg@lnu.se
Communication Officers
Marzena Starnawska (University of Warsaw, Poland) mstarnawska(at)wz.uw.edu.pl,
Giulia Flamini (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy), giulia.flamini@uniroma2.it,
Damiano Petrolo(University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy damiano.petrolo@uniroma2.it,
Alex Alterskye (University of Lincoln, UK) alex@alterskye.karoo.co.uk,
Jennet Achyldurdyyeva (National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan Region) jennet6688@yahoo.com
GT03_00 Entrepreneurship General Track
The SIG Entrepreneurship General Track aims 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. This general track is intended to capture new and emerging research areas within as well as classical areas of study of entrepreneurship. In line with our mission – methodological, theoretical and empirical pluralism in entrepreneurship research – we welcome contributions from all areas related to entrepreneurship that are not explicitly covered by the other tracks sponsored by the SIG.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Lucrezia Songini, University of Eastern Piedmont, lucrezia.songini@uniupo.it
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SIG STANDING TRACKS
ST03_01/ST06_01/ST13_01 – Business Model – Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Venturing
(co-sponsored by Entrepreneurship SIG-03, Innovation SIG-06 and Strategic Management SIG-13)
Business Model – Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Venturing
The business model topic attracts continued interest in business research and practice (Massa et al., 2017; Foss & Saebi, 2017, Zott, Baden-Fuller and Mangematin; 2015: Spieth et al., 2014). However, despite ongoing research efforts to understand the business model and its role in firm performance, scholars face persistent questions about constituent components, sequences and contingencies for the process of business model innovation, impacting strategic intents of the firm to develop new value-creating and value-capturing activities.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Patrick Spieth , University of Kassel, spieth@uni-kassel.de
ST03_03 – Entrepreneurial Decision Making and Behaviour
The creation, success and longevity of SMEs are deeply linked with the effectiveness of internal and external decision-making processes. When entrepreneurs make decisions, they are especially influenced by their emotions, passions, values, beliefs, and cognition. These aspects are significant to understand since they impact the development and life of the venture. There is great potential to improve scholarly understanding of these mechanisms in entrepreneurial decision-making, such as trust, rationality, intuition, conflicts, and spirituality. To explore these and other promising research gaps, the track welcomes novel research approaches and innovative methods in entrepreneurial behaviour and decision-making, that are conceptual or empirical.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Andrea Caputo, Associate Professor, University of Trento & University of Lincoln andrea.caputo@unitn.it
ST03_04 – Entrepreneurial Finance
Entrepreneurial companies are the backbone of economic development. Yet, these firms suffer from a lack of internal finance, which limits their growth and survival. Hence, the availability of external finance is a key element in entrepreneurial ecosystems. The recent shift towards digital technologies, together with the changes brought by COVID-19 pandemic, has accelerated the development of new types of entrepreneurial finance, such crowdfunding platforms, mini-bonds, bitcoins, ICOs, etc., or what is called the Fintech industry. It is crucial to understand how these new forms of financing influence the development of entrepreneurial firms and interact with traditional financial players.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Anita Quas , University of Milan, anita.quas@unimi.it
ST03_05 – Entrepreneurship, Regions & Regional Development
The main power of regional contexts is their ability to incubate high level of entrepreneurial activities, greater engagement with the global networks of production, employment, , academia and entrepreneurs, to increase quality of the society and the economy. The following topics will be considered: To what extent does forced migration and refugee status impact on regional development in similar and/or different ways to other types of migration? How does innovation and entrepreneurial behaviours evolve and diffuse over hierarchical social networks in private and public organizations? What are the effects of regionalism? This does not happen without universities that should update knowledge, modernise study programmes, and harmonise their research activities with the needs of industry and the private business sector. There is a key role of universities under the new challenges caused by Corona crises, and under the “new realities”, from the perspective of academic entrepreneurship, joint R&D and stronger industry cooperation and entrepreneurial education. We also would like to open a discussion about current concepts, risks, actions and proper approach toward an entrepreneurial university and university context, and presents some criticism.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Marina Dabic , Nottingham Trent University and University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, mdabic@net.efzg.hr
ST03_06 – Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship
There has been an undeniable “sustainability turn” in business and in the market that is increasingly absorbing ideas about social and environmental change, stakeholders’ involvement and social/sustainable enterprise. 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/sustainable enterprises and other forms of social movements in business to meet the grand challenges facing societies all over the world. We also welcome papers that investigate the reverse relation i.e., the influence of entrepreneurial activities on institutional, environmental and societal contexts.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 2: Zero hunger, Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 13: Climate action, Goal 14: Life below water, Goal 15: Life on land, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Marzena Starnawska , University of Warsaw, mstarnawska ( at ) wz.uw.edu.pl
ST03_10 – Entrepreneurial Processes
The entrepreneurial process is a combination of both planned and emergent actions. Predetermined actions can be supplanted by rash decisions, and personal inclinations may need to be adjusted to fit with social expectations. Accordingly, scholars consider entrepreneurial processes as black boxes or opaque bundles that need to be unpacked. These scholars are particularly interested in better understanding how elements interact in various stages of the process. This track is designed to contribute to the investigation of entrepreneurial processes by filling in the above gap and encouraging scholars to unpack the black box.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Diego Matricano , Department of Management, Università degli Studi della Campania , diego.matricano@unicampania.it
ST03_13 – 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.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Lara Penco , University of Genoa, lara.penco@economia.unige.it
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SIG TRACKS
T03_14 Circular entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial ventures addressing environmental and societal grand challenges
The current economic system, based on the “take-make-dispose” paradigm, is no longer sustainable. Since the 1970s, the demand for resources has exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity, thus causing what is known as an ecological overshoot. Circular entrepreneurs find market solutions to environmental issues by creating ecological and social value. This track calls for papers investigating circular entrepreneurship as a concrete response to the dramatic environmental situation. We welcome studies that investigate the circular entrepreneurship phenomenon, with special attention to circular start-ups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The track is planning to run both competitive and development paper sessions.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 13: Climate action
Antonella Zucchella, University of Pavia antonella.zucchella@unipv.it
T03_15 Entrepreneurial education, academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial university
Universities should update their knowledge, modernise their study programmes, and harmonise their research activities with the needs of industry and the private business sector, but they also need their feedback and support. This call highlights the key role of universities under the new challenges caused by Corona crises, and under the “new realities”, from the perspective of academic entrepreneurship, joint R&D and stronger industry cooperation and entrepreneurial education. We would like to open a discussion about current concepts, risks, actions and proper approach toward an entrepreneurial university, and presents some criticism as well as supporting opinions.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Marina Dabic , Nottingham Trent University and University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, marina.dabic@ntu.ac.uk
T03_16 Entrepreneurial marketing
Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) stands for marketing of startups/small firms growing through entrepreneurship (Bjerke and Hultman, 2002). Nevertheless, there is no consensus on the effective dimensions in promoting firm performance (Gameti et al., 2021). Morrish and Jones (2019) suggest there is limited research which explains how successful entrepreneurial activity can make a significant difference between business survival/failure or how EM might aid the process of firm recovery from crises such as COVID-19. The track seeks for contributions able to generate new insights on the basic assumptions of EM, its dimensions and measurements, and its impact on sustainable firm performance.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Lisa Thomas, Dr, AUDENCIA BUSINESS SCHOOL lisa.thomas@audencia.com
T03_17 Entrepreneurial facets: female and migrant entrepreneurs
Female and migrant entrepreneurship do represent, to date, important facets of entrepreneurship, worth developing as they play a key role for the development of inclusive societies. Their investigation and their understanding are pivotal in order to foster the socio-economic development and the well-being of countries, as well as to reduce inequalities. For what concerns research related to female entrepreneurship, the last decades have experienced an outpouring of research on the topic. Interestingly, to date, some pioneering scholars are contributing to moving ahead the field by reframing the established research questions, by proposing possible new research directions, by employing new empirical methods and theoretical approaches or by investigating new contexts. The same has happened referring to migrant entrepreneurship, which is, as much as female entrepreneurship, under additional pressure due to the Covid-19 restrictions’ consequences. In this context, migrant entrepreneurship changes its face considerably and challenges the field of entrepreneurship when operating in digital and territorial spaces – and linking between the two spheres.
This track, thereby, aims to encourage the adoption of new perspectives in the study of female and migrant entrepreneurship, able to demolish or confirm the established knowledge, as well as to investigate new issues, by addressing the individual-, group-, and family- dimensions, also in consideration to digital and territorial spaces.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities
Michela Mari, Tor Vergata University, michela.mari@uniroma2.it
Beata Glinka, University of Warsaw, b.glinka@uw.edu.pl
T03_18 Firm resilience: the role of entrepreneurs, family and business
Several studies agree that SMEs and FBs are more flexible and resilient than larger companies or non-family businesses. The reasons can be found in informal mechanisms adopted in these organizational forms to coordinate and control people; in shared values and the presence of elements such as social capital and familiness; in long-term orientation; in the commitment of the entrepreneur and the family owner, as well as the employees, to the firm. Through this proposal, we aim at investigating the role of the entrepreneur, the family and the business in developing resilient strategies of growth, innovation and long-term survival.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Damiano Petrolo , University of Rome Tor Vergata – Hasselt University, damiano.petrolo@uniroma2.it
T03_19 Informal entrepreneurship
Informal enterprises, enterprises “that are unregistered but derive income from the production of legal goods and services” (Nichter & Goldmark, 2009, p. 1455), are ubiquitous phenomenon. They account from 10% of GDP in mature economies (Schneider, 2002) to 50% of economic activity in developing countries (La Porta & Shleifer, 2014). In spite of this, however, much remains to be learned about the causes and effects of informality (Amin & Islam, 2015; Bruton et al. 2012). The aim of this track is thus, to contribute towards this debate and encouraging scholars to develop new insights, theories, and empirical evidences.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Bisrat Misganaw , NEOMA Business School, bisrat.misganaw@neoma-bs.fr
T03_20 Life Design – Integrating Design Thinking, Positive Psychology and Behavioral Economics
Life Design has the objective to support humans using the innovation method design thinking with positive psychology helping individuals to design a meaningful future. By applying the notion of prototyping and iterating to careers, side-hustles, and entrepreneurial activity, it aims to foster pro-active behavior and to legitimize experimenting in society for a better person-occupation fit leading to more psychological capital, reduced stress, and improved mental health and well-being. Given the inter-disciplinarity of the subject and strong relation between academics and practitioners, we encourage submissions from a diverse range of perspectives such as design thinking, psychology, entrepreneurship, educational science, and others.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities
Sebastian Kernbach , University of St. Gallen, African Doctoral Academy, Stanford University, sebastian.kernbach@unisg.ch
T03_21 Migrant Entrepreneurship – Current trends and future outlook
Migrant entrepreneurship is an important phenomenon for the development of inclusive societies. It is core to sustainable development challenges such as the lack of decent work and reduction of inequalities. Furthermore, ME is under additional pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions, and physical distancing. Simultaneously, ME is influenced by, and influences, the development of technology. In this context, ME changes its face considerably and challenges the field of entrepreneurship. This track hence encourages new perspectives and methods as well as novel research approaches to this field by addressing different dimensions in consideration to digital and territorial spaces.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities
Beata Glinka , University of Warsaw, b.glinka@uw.edu.pl
T03_22 Setting the ground for public sector entrepreneurship: current perspectives and avenues for the future
Public sector entrepreneurship involves an attempt to overcome the institutional and organizational barriers preventing public sector entities from reframing their value creation process in a perspective of increased proactiveness and responsiveness. The proposed topic intends to shed light on the factors which foster public sector entrepreneurship and enable it to enhance the public sector organizations’ ability to cope with the evolving expectations of the community. The contours of public sector entrepreneurship will be delimited and its distinctive traits emphasized. Attention will be paid to the determinants of public sector entrepreneurship success and viability.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Rocco Palumbo , University Rome “Tor Vergata”, rocco.palumbo@uniroma2.it
T03_23 Solo Self-Employment: Different aspects and challenges
This track calls for papers on the self-employed without employees, an under-researched area in the field of self-employment, that describes a heterogeneous category of self-employment that range from successful high-earning freelancers to precarious, contingent workers, with little job security and low income. As well as research on the characteristics and well-being of these workers, we are also interested in the factors that motivate entry into this mode of employment as well as transitioning out of solo self-employment into self-employment with employees. Contributions on how solo self-employment is affected by the Covid-19 pandemic are also highly welcomed.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Martha O’Hagan-Luff , Trinity College Dublin, ohaganm@tcd.ie
T03_24 The Sharing Economy: The Transformation of Entrepreneurship, Hierarchy, Ownership, Work and Sustainability
The sharing economy insolently grows even during the lockdowns to transform the challenges of venturing, sustainability, and inclusiveness by circulating under-utilized assets and replacing possession by disposition. By doing so, it improves both economic efficiency and ecological proficiency to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The track addresses:
- the transformative types of entrepreneurships
- business models of collaborative platforms
- venturing by calling on public contributions
- Social implications of shifting from ownership model to utility fulfilment
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Djamchid Assadi , Burgundy School of Business BSB, France, djamchid.assadi@bsb-education.com, djamchid.assadi@bsb-education.com