CFP: Learning in Entrepreneurial Contexts (IEMJ)

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

IEMJ International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
Special Issue: Learning in Entrepreneurial Contexts
Deadline: 30th June, 2008

Guest Editors:
Professor Martina Menguzzato, Universitat de Valencia
Associate Professor María Ripollés, Universidad Jaume I

Issue 2, Volume 5 (2009) of the Journal will be a special edition devoted to the analysis of learning in entrepreneurial contexts. This special issue will include research both from a process as well as an outcome-based perspective and offers the chance to explore the relationship between learning and entrepreneurship, at an individual level and at an organizational or network level.

Organizational learning has received increasing attention in management literature over the last decade. Such interest has been justified by the importance endowed to knowledge in a business environment conditioned by ever-increasing globalization, as well as by socio-cultural, technological, political and economic diversity.  

While many writings describe the application of organizational learning philosophy within large firms, a limited number of studies have attempted to analyze learning in an entrepreneurial context. However, just as Minniti and Bygrave (2001, p. 7) pointed out, "entrepreneurship is a process of learning, and a theory of entrepreneurship requires a theory of learning". With regard to new firm creation, to identify, or act upon new business opportunities and exploit them economically requires a learning process on the part of the entrepreneur that does not end with the creation of a new firm.  

Despite the fact that, in the study of entrepreneurial learning, the figure of the entrepreneur is described as an exceptional learner, it should be borne in mind that learning is essentially a social process and entrepreneurs learn within the framework of their relationships with members of their organization and/or their social environment.

Therefore, the entrepreneur must jointly manage both the evolution of the firm and organizational learning, as the figurehead responsible for involving all the organization's members in the learning process.  

In addition, an idea has recently evolved that suggests that entrepreneurial networks can be conceived as "learning systems" in which social and economic interaction developed by its members contribute both to individual learning and environmental learning. It would thus be interesting to study how the characteristics of social and economic relationships maintained by the entrepreneur with different agents throughout the network can generate knowledge both for the entrepreneur and for the system.            

The following list of topics may help researchers to focus their work for this call for papers, but the special issue is not limited to these topics: 

* Entrepreneurial learning at individual and group level;
* Opportunity discovery and enactment as processes of learning;
* Opportunity exploitation as a process of learning;
* The learning asymmetries in entrepreneurial contexts;
* The measurement of entrepreneurial learning processes and outcomes;
* The relationship between learning and knowledge in entrepreneurial contexts;
* The relationship between learning, growth and performance in entrepreneurial contexts;
* Entrepreneurial networks as motivators for entrepreneurial learning;
* The learning process of entrepreneurial networks;
* The role of entrepreneurial networks in the learning process of global start-ups;
* The role or organizational memory in the process of entrepreneurial learning;
* .........

Researchers interested in publishing in this special issue should indicate their intention by sending an abstract (or preferably the full paper) to Professor Martina Menguzzato, martina.menguzzato at uv.es (and a copy to Maria Ripollés, mripolle at emp.uji.es), by 30th June, 2008. The full paper is due no later than 30st September 2008. Please clearly identify your submission in the email subject line, IEMJ Learning in Entrepreneurial Contexts Special Issue. Abstracts should provide a short introduction to the topic, an outline of the research methodology and a summary of the findings. No preference will be given to articles adopting any particular research paradigm. All papers will go through the regular double-blind review process, and must follow the IEMJ style guidelines. The special issue will be published in June, 2009.

Source: http://www.uv.es/iemj/SpecialIssue5-2.htm