AOM PDW Recalibrating entrepreneurship research: Embracing decolonization, pluralism and the everydayness of entrepreneurial activity
Are you interested in entrepreneurship, but frustrated by the push to conform to tropes of Silicon Valley style new venture creation? Do you find existing approaches to entrepreneurship research and practice limiting? Are you interested in alternative forms of entrepreneurship in non-traditional contexts such as poverty, social enterprise, family, social movements, science, arts, politics, or anything else funky, quirky, and out of the standard mold?
Then come join this AOM PDW to discuss the plurality of entrepreneurship and how we can create a richer and more inclusive research tradition and set of practices on entrepreneurship.
Logistics:
Friday August 04, 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM
Hynes Convention Center, Room 207
Official Description
There is a major disconnect between theory and phenomenon in the study of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the study of diversity (Welter, Baker, Audretsch, & Gartmer, 2017), yet the body of knowledge developed over the past decades has been built primarily by studying start-ups with elite characteristics such as high tech, high growth, venture capital investment, or reaching IPO status. The reality is that most entrepreneurship is not so glitzy (Munoz & Kimmitt, 2018). The highest rates of new venture activity are in the global south (GEM, 2020) and even in the United States, most start-ups are relatively mundane (Aldrich & Ruef, 2018). At the same time, other forms of organizing are being infused with entrepreneurial activity including non-profits, social enterprises, and social movements. The aim of the PDW is to consider this important gap between theory and phenomenon – seeking to move towards recalibrating what we study and how we study it in entrepreneurship research. This effort is important because a theory-phenomenon disconnect exists across management domains where strategy scholars over-examine the precious few large public corporations and HR scholars concentrate on white-collar jobs. The scholarly conversations we aim to provoke about the wider significance and consequences of entrepreneurship build on the strong foundation of prior research that has investigated entrepreneurship and poverty (e.g., Kimmitt, Munoz, & Newbery, 2020), gender and emancipation (e.g., Rindova, Barry, & Ketchen, 2009), diversity (e.g., Verduijn & Essers, 2013), and decolonizing management research (e.g., Muzio, 2022; Banerjee, 2022).
PDW Format
The proposed PDW will engage participants in interactive round table discussions about three important topics (1) embracing decolonization, (2) embracing pluralism, and (3) embracing context and everydayness. Two co-organizers will first introduce the PDW by commenting on the motivation and necessity for a PDW on recalibrating entrepreneurship research. This will be followed by three interactive round table discussions in which one co-organiser will launch the topic, provoke debate, and moderate the discussion. The round tables will be held in parallel. The PDW will conclude with the return to the full group to hear feedback from each round table, a full group Q and A of key issues, and deliberation of the next steps required to ensure that the insights from the PDW shape entrepreneurship research conducted by scholars from ENT and other Academy of Management Divisions. The PDW will run for 90 minutes
Introduction: Recalibrating entrepreneurship research: Embracing decolonization, pluralism and the everydayness of entrepreneurial activity (15 Minutes)
Robert Nason & Helen Haugh
Interactive Round Table #1: Recalibrating entrepreneurship research by embracing decolonization (45 minutes)
Moderator on decolonizing entrepreneurship research (Giacomo Ciambotti) (15 minutes)
Round table discussion (30 Minutes)
Interactive Round Table #2: Recalibrating entrepreneurship research by embracing entrepreneurial pluralism (45 minutes)
Moderator on entrepreneurial pluralism (Pablo Munoz) (15 minutes)
Round table discussion (30 Minutes)
Interactive Round Table #3: Recalibrating entrepreneurship research by embracing context and everydayness (45 minutes)
Moderator on entrepreneurial context and everydayness (15 minutes)
Round table discussion (30 Minutes)
Conclusion: Plenary and next steps in recalibrating entrepreneurship research (30 Minutes)
Moderator: Helen Haugh
Roundtable report back and generation of research agenda (30 minutes)
Organizers
Helen Haugh, University of Cambridge, UK
Pablo Muñoz, Durham University, UK
Robert Nason, McGill University, Canada
Friederike Welter, University of Siegen, Germany
Giacomo Ciambotti, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy