Track organizers
Key topics: Entrepreneurship, Wellbeing; Diversity; Gender; Minorities
General Summary and Added Value of the Track
Entrepreneurship is an important driver of economic activity, change, and wellbeing. Globally, there are worldwide ambitions to “promote wellbeing for all at all ages” (United Nations, Sustainable Development Goal #3) and to track well-being in assessing a nation’s level of development alongside economic performance (European Commission, 2016). Similarly, the interest in mental health and wellbeing in entrepreneurship is growing (Stephan, 2018; Wiklund et al., 2019). This includes, among other issues, understanding entrepreneurship as a career choice for those with mental health conditions (e.g., Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity (ADHD), as well as exploring entrepreneurs’ potential for both great stress and fulfilment, and thus for both mental ill-being and wellbeing.
Entrepreneurship is a uniquely flexible and adaptable work setting for diverse people. Therefore, some questions to be answered in the workshop could be: What are the relative well-being benefits and costs of different types of entrepreneurs? When and how do women, minorities, individual of different race/ethnic, neurodiverse and those from low- status backgrounds experience wellbeing in entrepreneurship?
The recent crises, the rising cost of living, and armed conflict have further fueled the research interest on mental health, wellbeing, and diversity in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial action in the face of adversity can help individuals and communities to safeguard their wellbeing and build resilience, while the challenges of crises have also highlighted how precarious entrepreneurs’ mental health and well-being is (Stephan, et al., 2022).
Responsables del track
Key topics:
General Summary and Added Value of the Track
The purpose of this track is to advance theoretical development at the intersection of AI and entrepreneurship by creating a conceptual framework that examines the implications of AI on processes, practices, and outcomes in new ventures. The recent progress in artificial intelligence can help address the uncertainty of entrepreneurial activity by alleviating the complexity of data analysis in decision-making. Additionally, AI has the potential to automate the most tedious tasks and processes for new ventures. On the other hand, there is no doubt that its predictive power can play a role in facilitating entrepreneurial action. Ultimately, AI will impact the various internal and external antecedents that contribute to improving the competitiveness of new ventures. However, research in this area is still evolving, and further exploration is needed to fully understand the multifaceted effects of AI on entrepreneurial endeavors.
This would be a good opportunity to open the doors to works that develop new theoretical frameworks combining artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship. Additionally, proposals for theoretical frameworks that assist entrepreneurs in harnessing the analytical power of artificial intelligence in their routine tasks and decisions could advance our understanding of its impact on entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs could gain novel insights into how to use AI to assist them during the phases of opportunity recognition and exploitation.
Track organizers
Relevant topics
Summary and added value to the track
In the era of heightened environmental consciousness, businesses face mounting pressure to mitigate their ecological footprints. At the crux of this debate lie two primary guiding forces: mandatory regulations and voluntary standards. Mandatory regulations act as non-negotiable benchmarks, ensuring firms meet baseline environmental requirements to operate. Conversely, voluntary standards represent a company’s own endeavor to surpass these baselines, integrating eco-conscious practices into their daily operations. Both avenues offer their own sets of advantages and challenges. Critics argue that mandatory regulations can stifle innovation due to their inflexible nature, while the efficacy of voluntary standards is often scrutinized for the perceived lack of genuine commitment they may entail.
Our track aims to delve beneath the surface of this ongoing academic debate. To this end, it calls for papers that provide insights into the strengths and challenges of both mandatory regulations and voluntary standards, as well as the dynamic interplay between these guiding forces in the pursuits of environmental objectives. For example, we encourage investigations into whether the effectiveness of these regulations and standards maybe influenced by additional institutional factors related to the country or industrial sector, the scope of the tools employed, or the supervisory mechanisms, among other relevant considerations. We will also examine how these pressures converge, complement, or potentially conflict in shaping green initiatives or what the tangible effects of different levels of compliance are on a firm’s overall environmental footprint. We seek to offer clarity on theoretical debates but also to equip business leaders with actionable insights, guiding them to more sustainable environmental strategies for their organizations.
Track organizers
Relevant topics
Summary and added value to the track
For more than 50 years, multinational corporations (MNCs) worldwide have operated under the assumption that globalization would progress steadily. An alleged normality of economic and political integration of countries spurred the establishment of cross-border subsidiaries and consequently, boosted the formation of global value chains. Nevertheless, as geopolitical power roles have tectonically shifted, in part intensified by a series of shocks occurred in the last decade (Ciravegna et al., 2023), the trend of globalization has taken a different course, straining global companies’ operations (Buckley, 2020). For instance, the ascent of protectionism and government policies centred on national interests; the new international business landscape in the aftermath of covid-19 pandemic, hit again by recent conflicts in Europe and the Middle East; the irruption of AI tools and the rapid acceleration of digitalization; all amidst of natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, have collectively shaped unique and unprecedented circumstances for international businesses. Rather than signalling the retreat of globalization, these factors are prompting a recalibration of international interdependencies, necessitating a revaluation of strategies for MNCs (Cui et al., 2023). This phenomenon, referred to as "re-globalization" by various institutions such as the World Economic Forum (Forsyth & Prahl, 2023) or World Trade Organization (WTO, 2023), highlights the imperative shift in MNCs mindset to confront the evolving landscape ahead.
In response to that concern, in this special track we welcome contributions on how MNCs face current challenges and adopt international strategies to effectively operate in the new (re)globalization era. Relevant topics may include, but are not limited to:
We encourage submissions employing quantitative and qualitative methodologies, as well as conceptual or theoretical contributions, that rethink and discuss actionable strategies for MNCs to navigate the new era of (re)globalization.
Track organizers
Key topics:
General Summary and Added Value of the Track
In order to achieve SDG regional goverments are supporting the creation and development of more vibrant and dynamics ecosystems. Diversity of factors that are presented in the innovation (Vlaisavljevic et al., 2020; Granstrand and Holgersson, 2020) and entrepreneurial (Theodoraki et al., 2022) ecosystems are acting as enablers of innovation. For instance, Battistella et al. (2017) shows that some agents of ecosystems, such as accelerators, are considered to be especially beneficial to the fostering of innovation activities by representing the connection between extended interventions (research, technical, financial support) and top hard outcomes (the number of technologies with high impact on the market, the introduction of a different technological paradigm within an industry). The literature on Open Innovation (OI) offers a context for understanding the role of start-ups in the ecosystem and how they use external expertise to become a viable member of it.
However, OI may be not always successful, and developing a contingency view of the topic by analyzing the determinants that contribute to its success is still among main areas of interests for further development of this research line. Moreover, Cross Industry Innovation (CII) by crossing the boundaries of the industry to find possible applications for the generated knowledge, or to seek solutions to the innovation problem of the company in question, significantly expands the possibilities of innovation and development for both, startups and ecosystems. Regarding Carmona et al. (2023) CII as a specific case of OI has been poorly addressed by the literature on OI, despite its potential benefits of exploring knowledge and technologies beyond the value chain of an industry. It is therefore very relevant to identify and understand the enablers and success factors, both at the company and ecosystems level, that favor OI and CII and explore their effects on firm performance and sustainable regional growth.
Track organizers
Colaboradores del track
Key topics:
General Summary and Added Value of the Track
Precarious work (i.e., irresponsible working practices and conditions), or employment that is associated with temporary contracts, low earnings and limited or no employee representation, is on the rise.
From a supply chain perspective, these practices should enable higher short-term flexibility and reduce costs, thus improving firm performance. However, from the perspective of most other social sciences, precarious work harms workers and should harm supply chain, undermining the overall firm performance. Furthermore, many companies follow their sustainability goals and try to reduce or eliminate the extensive usage or reliance on precarious work within their supply chains through practices such sustainability-oriented innovation. However, supply chains have become more and more complex as well as globalized. This increases complexity whilst at the same time reduces visibility as well as transparency.
Among global supply chains, with multiple configurations of offshoring and/or outsourcing, finding the ultimate responsible is quite challenging. This makes it easier for companies to “hide” unsustainable working practices. Hence, balancing out a sustainable supply chain management with the performance-oriented goals is a challenge for companies.
Thus, the objective of this track is to highlight and focus on the current state of research in irresponsible working practices, while acknowledging the practices that could help in overcoming them and the consequences for the firm in both scenarios, and fairly ground the uncovered issues in the realm of sustainable supply chain research. The main contribution is focusing the track on the social dimension of sustainability that has been almost forgotten in the research as environment and economics has focused most of the studies.
