CALL FOR PAPERS
Sessions
The deadline for submissions (i. Full papers, ii. Work-in-progress papers and iii. Good practice cases) is 1 June 2025.
Session 1 - Women Entrepreneurship in a Fast-Changing World
The role of women in entrepreneurship is receiving increasing academic attention as the business landscape evolves. Despite growing participation, women face significant barriers that hinder their business growth and success, including limited access to resources, networks, and funding. Social norms and gender-based obstacles, such as patriarchal structures and restricted mobility, exacerbate these challenges. The entrepreneurial ecosystem remains predominantly male-dominated, complicating the path for women. Thus, fostering more role models is essential to inspire future entrepreneurs. We encourage submissions that push theoretical and empirical boundaries, embrace creative methodologies, and foster interdisciplinary approaches, paving the way for an inclusive and diverse future research agenda in entrepreneurship.
Download detailed session description, Session 1
Session 2 - Marketing Challenges of Entrepreneurs in an Era of Paradigm Shifts
The session welcomes presentations and papers on marketing and today's challenges and trends. This could include consumer behaviour, green marketing, health management, sustainability and technological challenges or even artificial intelligence. The section welcomes all studies that relate directly or indirectly to the marketing challenges of the 21st century, including interdisciplinary approaches.
Download detailed session description, Session 2
Session 3 - Cultural and Regional Differences in Entrepreneurship Education Practices
Although national cultural differences can influence how students build and develop their entrepreneurially oriented (EO) attitudes (Engelen et al., 2014) and intentions to start ventures (Rajkovic et al., 2020) during entrepreneurship education, it is still unclear in current research which entrepreneurship education practices are most effective for different cultures, sub-cultures (e.g., professional cultures), and regions (Fayolle, 2013). This session calls for papers that explore cultural and regional differences in entrepreneurship education at multiple levels. Both empirical and conceptual papers with regional and/or cultural focuses are welcome. The session aims to provide an opportunity for entrepreneurship education researchers to share their instructional methods and learn best practices from others.
Download detailed session description, Session 3
Session 4 - Social Entrepreneurship
Sustainability and social entrepreneurship are increasingly important in a global context of issues such as climatic change with entrepreneurship addressing various challenges. With a view to this, we invite contributions focusing on Social entrepreneurship and Informal entrepreneurship.
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Session 5 – Sustainable Development of SMEs – Green Innovations
Innovation, entrepreneurship and the role of SMEs in sustainable development are essential in the global ecologic and social environment. However, the challenges of globalisation, technological development and environmental responsibility require new approaches from enterprises. Green innovation, encompassing environmentally friendly principles, sustainable technologies, and practices, is increasingly becoming a part of business strategies that fosters increasing efficiency and reduces negative externalities.
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Session 6 - New Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Education
The turbulent changes in the economic and technological environment in recent years have caused a shift in how entrepreneurship and its education can be interpreted and fostered to serve growth, innovation, and welfare purposes at a global level. The session will be built around daring, disruptive, or transformative actions, methodologies, curricula, and course introductions that cross the boundaries of traditional education.
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Session 7 - Resource Allocation – Resource Interactions from a Small Business Perspective
Every business needs resources to set up and enter the market. The enterprise owns some of these resources, while many are accessed and used through business relationships (Baraldi et al., 2012). When a firm enters a market, it usually joins an existing business network and becomes one of its actors (Håkansson et al., 2009). A critical factor in its success will be how it can connect to the existing business network and create value through resource interactions. Small businesses mostly lack resources to run everyday activities, especially when they plan to grow.
Download detailed session description, Session 7
Session 8 – Startup Evaluation Methods
This section aims to foster discussion on identifying the most appropriate methods for evaluating startup ideas and determining the critical factors in this process. Key questions include: What are the most significant factors for the evaluation of startup ideas? Are they the market opportunity and a unique value proposition, the feasibility demonstrated by an MVP and business model, the level of innovation, or the potential market impact, valuation, and scalability? Moreover, do these factors vary depending on the type of startup (e.g., student startups, corporate startups, academic startups, social startups, tech startups, or small business startups)?
Download detailed session description, Session 8
Session 9 - The Role of Universities in Entrepreneurship
The section invites submissions that explore the connections between universities and entrepreneurship. While this is not an exhaustive list, we encourage papers examining entrepreneurship education's impact on individual factors directly related to entrepreneurship, such as motivations, attitudes, intentions, and self-efficacy. We also welcome works that analyse students’ career aspirations and employability. Additionally, papers could investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship education, the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and other relevant factors outside the entrepreneurial context. Finally, topics may include the connections of entrepreneurship with sustainability, circular economy, futures literacy, DSG goals and other issues, if they are examined in the context of higher education.
Download detailed session description, Session 9
Session 10 - Student Entrepreneurship
In the 21st century we have expanded the definition of ’entrepreneurship’ to include how and why creative individuals (or teams) are capable of identifying opportunities, evaluating their viability, and then deciding to exploit them by converting those opportunities to products, services, businesses, and even new industries, while creating added value and wealth along the way, whereas others do not manage to do this. Many of us teach entrepreneurship in different forms, helping as mentors, or leading entrepreneurial programmes /projects. There are a number of common features, but also many unique best practices can be found in the network.
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Session 11 - Entrepreneurship in Family Businesses
Family businesses offer a unique perspective on entrepreneurship, a fascinating departure from the traditional approach to starting and running a business. Family businesses tend to have a long-term perspective, which can help them weather the ups and downs of the business cycle and invest in sustainable growth. They often share common values such as trust, respect and honesty, which can help build a strong and cohesive team. This track aims to stimulate discussion on current challenges of family businesses such as issues related to the transmission / succession of ownership, impacts on corporate governance, consequences of longer-term orientation on innovation activities and economic performance as well as the regional economic implications of mergers & acquisitions.
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12 - Entrepreneurship in Times of Disruption
In the era of the polycrisis, entrepreneurs face a transforming landscape where ongoing challenges like wars, hyper-inflation and climate change demand new strategies. Traditional crisis management no longer suffices as crises become recurrent and complex. This track invites papers that explore how entrepreneurship thrives in this new reality by identifying innovative business models, alliances, and adaptation strategies.
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13 - GenAI and the Future of Small Business: Opportunities and Challenges
Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping business landscapes by enhancing decision-making processes, enabling personalized customer interactions, and fostering innovation in marketing and sales (Kshetri et al., 2024; McKinsey, 2024). This session explores the transformative potential of GenAI in business contexts, emphasizing its implications for collaboration, innovation, and strategy. It seeks to foster a deeper understanding of how businesses can integrate GenAI to improve operational efficiency and create value while navigating the behavioral and organizational challenges that come with it. Special focus will be placed on the dynamics of human-AI collaboration, including how managers leverage AI in decision-making and customer-facing roles (Kunz & Wirtz, 2024).
Download detailed session description, Session 13