Entrepreneurship and Innovation Today

Call For Papers McGill-Cornell Conference on Institutions and Entrepreneurship June 24-26, 2008. Montreal, Canada

Call For Papers McGill-Cornell Conference on Institutions and Entrepreneurship June 24-26, 2008.  Montreal, Canada

This second annual conference is intended to further the institutional approach to entrepreneurial studies.  An institutional approach to entrepreneurship shifts attention away from the personal traits and backgrounds of individual entrepreneurs, and towards how institutions shape entrepreneurial opportunities and actions; how entrepreneurs navigate their cognitive, normative, and regulatory environments; and how actors modify and build institutions to support new types of organizations.

Sessions will be organized around these broad themes:

- the creation of new institutional structures to facilitate the development of new kinds of organizations;

- the use of symbols to legitimate novel organizations;

- the role of norms, values, and traditions in facilitating (or impeding) entrepreneurship;

- deinstitutionalization of an established practice as a form of entrepreneurial opportunity;

- the creation of standards and conventions to support new types of economic activities;

- the role of social movements in disrupting and constructing institutions and new kinds organizations;

- the effect of state institutions on entrepreneurial processes and outcomes.

Our desire is for this conference to be highly interactive, so we are limiting participation to a small number of (approx.  25 or so) paper presentations.  To promote interaction between senior and junior scholars, half of these slots will be reserved for papers submitted by more junior scholars.  Papers will be accepted based on a competitive submission process.  A small number of leading scholars will facilitate the paper sessions; these include W. Richard Scott, Howard Aldrich, and Pamela Tolbert, among others.

The conference is sponsored by the McGill Centre for Strategy Studies in Organization, and Entrepreneurship @ Cornell.  We will cover onsite accommodations for 2 nights for presenters (one room per accepted paper).  A select group of papers will be invited for publication in a special issue of Research in the Sociology of Work focused on the topic of institutions and entrepreneurship.

Please send a full paper to Hermann Juergens ([email protected]) by February 29th, 2008.  In a covering email, please indicate which theme from those above best describes your paper.  Decisions will be made by March 31st, 2008.

We look forward to seeing you in Montreal!

Robert J. David Wesley D. Sine Desautels Faculty of Management J. Thomas Clarke Professor of Entrepreneurship McGill University Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University

Gaining competitiveness through trust

Gaining competitiveness through trust: the experience of Russia

Author: Andrei Kuznetsov, Olga Kuznetsova

Address: Lancashire Business School, University of Central Lancashire, Greenbank Building, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK.  ' Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Aytoun Building, Aytoun St., Manchester M1 3GH, UK

Journal: European J. of International Management 2008 - Vol.  2, No.1 pp.  22 - 38

Abstract:

This paper seeks to reveal the potential of the concept of national competitiveness as a practical analytical tool.  The paper offers suggestions on how research on national competitiveness can contribute to setting targets for socio-economic agenda in transition economies with special focus on Russia.  We start by stressing the importance of the institutional context as an element of national competitiveness and then concentrate on generalised trust.  We analyse the situation with generalised trust in modern Russia and suggest that the development of corporate social responsibility is the most credible remedy for the deficiency of trust and, eventually, to competitiveness, in the short term.  Keywords: national competitiveness; social trust; institutions; corporate social responsibility;

CSR; Russia; transition economies.  DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2008.016926

http://www.inderscience.com/search/index.php?action=record&rec_id=16926&prevQuery=&ps=10&m=or

Are middle managers innovation bottlenecks? Yes!!

According to McKinsey Quarterly; yes

"Some people are passionate about innovation, while others shy away from new ideas. McKinsey research finds that, in some organizations, managers who are most frequently sought out for advice on new concepts often have the most negative attitudes towards innovation—partly because they have difficulty balancing new ideas with current priorities.

One way around these bottlenecks is to intentionally create networks of managers charged with encouraging new ideas. This kind of decentralized team can identify promising new concepts and prioritize them so that they receive the attention they deserve."

Working Paper> Global Takeoff of New Products: Culture's Consequences, Wealth of Nations, or Vanishing Differences?

Working Paper> Global Takeoff of New Products: Culture's Consequences, Wealth of Nations, or Vanishing Differences? by Deepa Chandrasekaran and Gerard J. Tellis, 2007 [07-121]

Analyzes how and why new product takeoff varies across products and countries based on examination of 16 new products across 31 countries (430 categories).

Abstract
In increasingly global markets with intensifying competition, companies need to know how new products will diffuse across countries and where they should first introduce those products. Previous studies have used the metric of time-to-takeoff as a way to compare and analyze the innovativeness of nations. But those studies have excluded some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies. There is also disagreement about what drives product takeoff—culture or wealth—and which countries can be the best launch pads for new products.

The authors attempt to answer four questions: First, how does time-to-takeoff for new products vary across the developed and developing economies of Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa? Second, what drives the variation in time-to-takeoff across countries? Third, are the differences in time-to-takeoff constant or do they vary? Fourth, is time-to-takeoff converging or diverging across countries?

In their study of 16 new products across 31 countries (430 categories), the authors analyze how and why takeoff varies across products and countries. They test the effect of 12 hypothesized drivers of takeoff using a parametric hazard model. They find that the average time-to-­takeoff varies substantially between developed and developing countries, between fun and work products, across cultural clusters, and over time. On this metric of time-to-takeoff, Japan is the most innovative country, followed by the Nordic countries, the U.S., and some countries of midwestern Europe. The authors find that both culture and wealth drive takeoff, along with product class, product vintage, and prior takeoffs. Most important, time-to-takeoff is shortening and takeoff is converging across countries.

The implications are that market strategy should be tailored to the type of product. Fun products, such as CD players, cell phones, or digital cameras, have universal appeal and, hence, would benefit from a sprinkler strategy (simultaneously introducing the new product across countries). Work products, such as ­dishwashers, microwave ovens, and washing machines, are bound by a country’s culture and would call for a waterfall strategy (staggering the commercialization of new products across countries). Product managers could thus reduce risk and increase the odds of success. The study also has implications on which countries are best for launching or testing a new product first, depending on the managers’ requirements of innovative and large markets versus highly innovative but smaller markets.

Deepa Chandrasekaran is Assistant Professor in Marketing at LehighUniversity. Gerard J. Tellis is Director of the Center for Global Innovation, Neely Chair in American Enterprise, and Professor of Marketing at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

see http://www.msi.org/publications/publication.cfm?pub=1329#ViewOrder

CfP's First International Conference on Management and Economics: “Current Issues in Emerging Economies in Global Perspective” - (ICME 2008)

First International Conference on Management and Economics: “Current Issues in Emerging Economies in Global Perspective” - (ICME 2008)

Tirana, 28-29 March 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

Epoka University of Tirana in Albania, organizes First International Conference on Management and Economics: “Current Issues in Emerging Economies in Global Perspective”, which will take place on 28-29 March 2008 in Tirana, Albania.

The Conference Organising Committee invites academics, scholars and professionals to submit their papers for the Conference. Deadline for submission are shown below.

IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES:

Extended abstracts should be submitted by e-mail no later than February 28th, 2008, with a clear indication of the authors, affiliations and contacts in the separate page, to allow for the blind review process. Contact authors will be notified only upon acceptance of their extended abstract by March 7th, 2008.

CONFERENCE TOPICS
Long-term differences in economic growth in developing and transition economies.
Income distribution, inequality and poverty in developing and transition economies.
Integration and trade: the effects of regional trade agreements, openness, and trade liberalisation on growth in developing and transition economies.
The role of norms, institutions and social capital in transition and developing economies.
Human Resources Management issues in developing and transition economies.
Financial Dimensions of the transition.
Marketing issues.
Enterprise development and corporate management in developing and transition economies.
Entrepreneurship in transition economies.
Macroeconomic issues in developing and transition economies: monetary and exchange rate policies; debt and sovereignty; foreign aid and foreign direct investment.
The political economy of transition: social capital, political context and the ethnic/religious/cultural dimension of development.
Financing development of transition economies and globalisation.
Public administration issues in transition.
Historical and International Relations dimension of the transition (Special Issue)

The Conference will focus on the economic, political and social aspects of development of Countries in Transition, with particular emphasis on Albania and all the Balkan countries.

CONTACT INFORMATION 
Web: http://www.epokauniversity.com/en/Conference/conference.php
Abstracts and papers should be sent to: e-mail: [email protected]
Adress: Rr.Durresit, ish Shkolla Partise, Tirana, Albania.
Tel:          +355 4 232 086      
                +355 4 222 077      
Fax: +355 4 222 117

Opportunity Window #235 -Combining Overlapping Problem areas

From the Opportunity Clinic

Background, or why the Opportunity Clinic works.....

"Chance favors the prepared mind", so the saying goes, so it follows that if you had a repertoire of examples of different generic opportunity windows, you can use them as a templates for either 1) deliberately designing opportunity windows for your business or 2) as a checklist for scanning to spot unique opportunity scenarios when the circumstances present themselves."

.....Opportunity Window # 235-Combining Overlapping Problem areas or Problem Reciprocity

If you look hard enough or force fit random combinations, a seemingly unsolvable problem in one area can be "the solution" to an unrelated problem in a totally different area and visa-versa (reciprocity).

"A state prison in Nevada was dealing with the usual prison problems of gangs and violence inside the prison.  At the same time, the local Humane Society had a growing list of "unadoptable dogs" who, for a variety of temperament-oriented offenses, were themselves placed on Doggie Death Row.  So the prison warden and the Humane Society director got together and identified eight inmates, all lifers, who would each adopt a doomed dog for a period of rehabilitation.

Inmates have nothing if not time on their hands, and wayward dogs can take lot of retraining, so it turned out to be a great arrangement.

The dogs became highly socialized and adoptable-when their time was up one inmate said they had gotten "puppy parole"-and a second set of dogs replaced them in the slammer.  The unanticipated benefit of this program was a 40% drop off in violence at the prison.  Even the vast majority of the 700 inmates who did not personally receive a pet benefited, as everyone softened up and cuddled with the dogs.

Now there is prison reform."

Source The Next Big Thing

Can you think of other similar examples in business or where this led to a new business venture or new business model?

Share and please post them in the comments section below.

Update Feb 1, 2008 (from a LinkedIN Q&A )

"Hi Walter,

Sure I can.

For example, it's a reality that our population is getting older and older. Many elderly people feel lonely and that they are of any more use to the society.

On the other hand, in our society there are more and more people with psychological problems. They can call for free some SOS help phone lines, so they can have some help. The problem is that most of people that "work" at that SOS help phone lines, are volunteers, and there is a lack of volunteers.

If we give the proper "education" to those elderly people, that want so desperatly be of any use to the society, they can be the volunteers for those SOS help phone lines.

Can you imagine how the elderly people will feel so happy, by really helping who is in psychological pain? They can even prevent a young person from commiting suicide, etc.

Two problems, that together are the solution for each other.

Thanks and please let me know how I can help you.

Maria Spínola
Marketing Business Builder Champion"