HOME_old
Dear IECER friends, dear researchers
We are currently in crisis mode. Besides our own personal challenges, we are experiencing that the economy is already facing massive problems. Among the entrepreneurs and small businesses, the "Everyday Entrepreneurs" are hit particularly hard. Those are the ones that do not have the backing of financial reserves from venture capital or a scalable digital business model. They are stationary businesses that depend on walk-in customers, solo entrepreneurs, necessity entrepreneurs and small firms that finance themselves through bootstrapping and are unable to bridge the gap for long.
However, every crisis also offers new opportunities. New business ideas emerge, many entrepreneurs see new business opportunities and simply try out new things. Similarly, new opportunities also arise for us researchers. We now have the chance to broaden our research perspective and examine how our research can generate value for those involved in entrepreneurship. Perhaps now is the time to ask new, thought-provoking research questions.
The Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research is a European project. The borders are now closed in many European countries and we are tied to our homes. However like viruses, ideas also have no border. This too can be infectious, but in a positive sense.
Therefore, we would like to open the Call for Papers for the IECER conference and hope that we can contribute to the emergence of new ideas, to foster existing European and cross-border contacts and to make new ones.
We do not know yet whether it will be possible to hold the conference in Portugal in October. It will take place there in any case, whether in autumn 2020 or autumn 2021.
We hope that the Tracks will inspire new ideas for papers, help reconnect with each other and encourage an exchange with the Track Chairs. We will decide by mid-May when the next IECER conference will take place. That way, we will either have time until June to submit papers or research-in-progress papers or to discuss the ideas elsewhere.
Please subscribe to our newsletter
to stay informed.
Stay healthy and take care!
Kerstin Wagner,
on behalf of the IECER Committee
LOST IN TRANSITION? Entrepreneurs Navigating Technological and Societal Change
The 2020 Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research (13-16 October 2020) deals with the overall topic:
“Lost in Transition? How Entrepreneurs Navigate Technological and Societal Change”
We live in the midst of a deep technological and societal transition. The digital transformation brings so many changes associated with digital technologies and their integration into all aspects of human life and society. It fundamentally changes how organizations operate and create value to their customers. These changes go hand in hand with new big societal challenges of our time.
How can entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship help navigate these fundamental challenges of today?
In this year’s edition of the conference, we seek to bring together researchers from multiple disciplines, backgrounds and countries, to discuss how entrepreneurship can help address the big technological and societal challenges of our time and make the transition to a sustainable and also more equitable digital economy.
Entrepreneurship research has blossomed into a very broad field of research of the past two decades. We hope to reflect this diversity in this years’ conference. To operationalize the theme of the conference we ask all presenters to briefly reflect on how their research subject relates to the overall theme in their abstract and introduction.
We invite researchers to submit abstracts and papers for presentation in one of the tracks that will be chaired by eminent scholars in the field. The conference is hosted by the University of Beira Interior (UBI) in Portugal and will take place in Fundão.
The call for papers will be published Mid-March.
We look forward to seeing you in Fundão!
The IECER conference board
Sign up for our newsletter!
ABOUT THE IECER CONFERENCE
The Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research IECER is an annual international conference on entrepreneurship topics attracting scholars and delegates from academia, business and government officials from around the world. Founded in 2003 by Jürgen Schmude (University of Munich) and Michael Dowling (University of Regensburg), the mission of IECER is to advance interdisciplinary entrepreneurship research in Europe. In ten years, Michael Dowling and Jürgen Schmude have established the conference as one of the leading conferences on interdisciplinary entrepreneurship research in Europe, providing researchers from a variety of disciplines the opportunity to discuss their latest research advancements. Conceived as a high quality forum of entrepreneurship debate, the conference is held every year at different locations across Europe (Amsterdam, Brescia, Chur, Innsbruck, Montpellier, Munich, Lisbon, Siegen, Utrecht) in the past years.
After the 10th anniversary of the IECER, the academic coordination was handed over to Frank Lasch (Montpellier Business School) and Kerstin Wagner (FH Graubünden). In October 2020, the 18th edition of the IECER will take place at University of Beira Interior in Portugal.
