ENTREPRENEURSHIP, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY: CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND PROSPECTS IN THE CIS REGION
CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite submissions to Nazarbayev University’s International Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology. This conference will take place on October 15, 2022, at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business (NUGSB), Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The primary objective of this conference is to provide a platform for scholars, policymakers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship to discuss theoretical advances, critical issues, policy opportunities and challenges related to the conception, practice and implementation of entrepreneurship in the CIS region.
Entrepreneurship, the discovery, creation and pursuit of opportunities to create future goods, services, markets and organizations (Sarasvathy, 2001; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000), has become a thriving domain of scholarship. It enjoys broad popular and enthusiastic policy support since it is thought to drive innovation, employment and economic advancement (Kaffka & Krueger, 2018; Shane, 2009). This is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in emerging countries where liberalization and stimulation of private enterprise have been key motors of economic growth in the last two decades (Hoskisson et al., 2000). Understandably, the large high-growth emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRICs) and Turkey, have dominated much scholarly attention in the field (e.g., Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Hoskisson et al., 2000; Luo & Tung, 2007; Meyer & Peng, 2016). The smaller post-Soviet transition economies have receives less attention. Yet, these smaller economies remain a fascinating context in which to study entrepreneurship. For instance, CIS countries are arenas where entrepreneurs may experience tensions arising from varying degrees of economic liberalization and encouragement of private enterprise.
Since Schumpeter’s (1943) heroic conception of the entrepreneur, scholars have accepted that while technological innovation by autonomous, dispersed agents may create wealth and improve overall welfare it risks disruption of the privileges of economic incumbents or entrenched elites (Baumol, 1990). In transition economies, where (formerly) state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are still closely tied to governments (Hoskisson et al., 2000), the state still exerts significant control over economic output (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2013, p. 66), and private property rights inchoate, an uneasy paternalism may exist between the state and entrepreneurs. On one hand, the state may channel resources to entrepreneurs in order to stimulate the creation of new ventures. In Kazakhstan, for instance, the government as part of its long-term development agenda to develop a thriving base of entrepreneurs provides funds to support entrepreneurial training and the creation of technology incubators (Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2020). On the other hand, the state attempts to stipulate entrepreneurial outcomes such as the number of businesses started by entrepreneurs who graduate from its sponsored programs (Saiymova et al., 2019).
The above tension between encouraging “bottom up” innovation and “top down” coordination is but one reason the transition economies of the CIS present opportunities and challenges in studying entrepreneurial action. Addressing this tension is also vital for policymakers and practitioners interested in building a viable entrepreneurial ecosystem (EES). Thus, we welcome conference submissions addressing entrepreneurial challenges in the post-Soviet countries using broad theoretical lenses such as opportunity discovery and creation, decision making, innovation and creativity, resource acquisition, social networking, entrepreneurial intention, institutional theory. Submissions may address but are not limited to, the following fields:
1. Family business and entrepreneurship in the CIS region
2. Female entrepreneurship
3. Entrepreneurial learning and education
4. Entrepreneurship among historically marginalized groups, such as disabled individuals and communities, and refugees
5. Social entrepreneurship
6. Technology entrepreneurship, the pursuit of business opportunities that encompass significant technological innovation
7. Entrepreneurship networking within formal settings such as technology incubators and informal settings such as within families
8. Entrepreneurship and technology incubation
9. Business model innovation
10. Institutional and policy entrepreneurship
We welcome submissions drawing on new theories, debates and ideas in all relevant fields of entrepreneurship, technology and innovation.
Submit your extended abstracts
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