CALL: Global Conference on Economic Geography 2018 (GCEG 2018)

[Mailing list supporting PhD-students researching entrepreneurship]

From: Rodrigo Basco [mailto:bascorodrigo at gmail.com] 


Special Track
SMEs, Family Firms, and Economic Geography


Chair - Lech Suwala
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Technische Universität zu Berlin
mailto:lech.suwala at geo.hu-berlin.de

Co-Chair - Rodrigo Basco
American University of Sharjah
Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business mailto:bascorodrigo at gmail.com

In the face of big business, big data and big transitions, there are still small and medium enterprises (SMEs), many of them family firms which provide the economic backbone and continuity in most economies. SMEs and family firms comprise diverse types of businesses from traditional Japanese century-old dynasties, America’s family farms, Germany’s Mittelstand to novel Shanghai and Silicon Valley’ elites. Simultaneously, they are geographically uneven phenomena with regard to their distribution, impact on, and interplay with the local, regional, and national level that require more academic attention in the field of economic geography. We invite Economic Geographers and scholars from adjacent disciplines such as Regional Economics, Management, Organization Studies, and International Business with interest in spatialities of SMEs and families firms – in particular spaces (locations, places, landscapes) and scales (from local to global) to submit their research. Our rationale is to initiate a profound debate – independent of the methodological approach (qualitative or quantitative) – on SMEs and/or family businesses from a spatial context to shed light on past and current SME and/or family firm peculiarities and trajectories from around the world.

Conceptual, empirical and methodological papers might address, but are not limited to:
• Conceptual and theoretical debates about the nature of SME/Family firms.
• Evolution and trajectories of SME/ Family firms.
• Contribution and impact of SME/ Family firms on the economy.
• SME/ Family firm specific issues (succession, governance, reputation, professionnalisation etc.) in a spatial context.

To submit your abstract/paper, please visit the GCEG 2018 website [https://www.gceg2018.com/home.html]; the call for abstracts will be open from November 15, 2017 - March 15, 2018. For any other inquiries, feel free to contact us Lech Suwala (mailto:lech.suwala at geo.hu-berlin.de) and/or Rodrigo Basco (mailto:bascorodrigo at gmail.com).


Rodrigo Basco, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business American University of Sharjah

Last post: Call for papers: “Contextualizing Family Firms in the Arab World” [https://familyfirmblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/contextualizing-family-firms-in-the-arab-world/]
Facebook: Family Business Chair - American University of Sharjah [https://www.facebook.com/Mgtfamilybusiness/]