Einreichungsfrist für 3rd Annual Entrepreneurship-as-Practice Conference & PhD Consortium

15. Dez

The third version of this conference is aimed at entrepreneurship scholars and PhD candidates who are using or interested in using practice theory-led approaches towards understanding entrepreneurial phenomena.

 

Call for Papers

3rd Annual Entrepreneurship-as-Practice Conference & PhD Consortium
April 16-20 th  2018, Linnaeus University
Vaxjö, Sweden
 
Conveners
Orla Byrne, University College Dublin
William B. Gartner, Babson College + Linnaeus University
Bruce Teague, Eastern Washington University
Malin Tillmar, Linnaeus University
Neil Thompson, VU University Amsterdam
Karen Verduijn, VU University Amsterdam
 
 
About the Conference
The  third  version  of  this  conference  is  aimed  at  entrepreneurship  scholars  and  PhD
candidates who are using or interested in using practice theory-led approaches towards
understanding entrepreneurial phenomena. PhD candidates and junior faculty looking
to learn about practice theory and entrepreneurship as well as make connections and
get  feedback  from  top  international  scholars  on  their  work  will  find  the  consortium
highly valuable. Researchers that wish to further develop their empirical and conceptual
articles using practice theories and methodologies are encouraged to apply.  
 
Introduction
Building on the first (February 2016 at VU Amsterdam) and second (February 2017 at
University  College  Dublin  Quinn  School  of  Business)  workshops,  this  conference  and
PhD  consortium  continues  to  explore  what  the  ‘practice  turn’  (Nicolini,  2009,  2012;
Schatzki  et  al.,  2001;  Schatzki,  2005),  may  bring  to  understanding  entrepreneurship.
Initiated by such calls as having been made by Steyaert (2007) and Johannisson (2011),
the entrepreneurship as practice movement is now gaining traction, witnessed by such
contributions  as  De  Clercq  &  Voronov  (2009),  Terjesen  &  Elam  (2009);  Goss  et  al.
(2011), and Keating et al. (2013).
 
While  classic  “theorists  of  practice”  (e.g.  Heidegger,  1929/1996;  Wittgenstein,  1953,
1969,  1982,  1980;  Bourdieu,  1990;  Giddens,  1976)  have  emphasized  the  habitual,
repetitive  and  taken  for  granted  role  of  human  practices,  practice  researchers  today
focus on the coordination of actions that reflect people’s understandings of “how to get
things done” in complex settings (Nicolini, 2011; Orlikowski,  2002). Taking a practice
approach makes it possible to conceive of the entrepreneurial process ‘as a culturally
shaped achievement, the result  of engaging  with and transforming social  practices of
doing and living’ (Steyaert, 2007).
Practice  theory  relies  on  the  general  principle  of  consequentiality:  the  relationship
between  situated  action  and  the  social  structure  in  which  the  action  takes  place
(Feldman & Orlikowski, 2011). Practices can be seen as bundled activity patterns that
constitute daily life, thus they are non-individualistic phenomena since ‘the organization
of a practice is not a collection of properties of individual people [but] is a feature of the
practice,  expressed  in  the  open-ended  set  of  actions  that  compose  the  practice’
(Schatzki et al., 2001).
We  see  practice  theory  as  a  means  to  advance  entrepreneurship  research  in  several
ways. First, entrepreneurship as practice continues to move away from understanding
‘who’ an entrepreneur is towards the importance of activity, performance, and work in
the creation and perpetuation of entrepreneurial practice. Second, practice theory helps
us  understand  the  critical  role  of  the  body  and  material  objects  in  organizing
entrepreneurship.  Third,  the  practice  perspective  helps  us  perceive  and  better
understand  the  reproduction  of  entrepreneurial  practices  across  time,  space,  and
individual.
Emphasizing  the  intricate  socially  situated  practices  of  entrepreneurs  comes  with
considerable  theoretical  and  methodological  implications.  These  will  be  addressed
during the PhD consortium and research conference.
This  conference  aims  at  developing  empirical  and  conceptual  papers  around  the
‘practice turn’ taking place in entrepreneurship studies. To do so, we have developed a
PhD  and  Junior  Faculty  Consortium  and  a  Research  Conference  in  order  to  advance
understanding  of  entrepreneurship-as-practice,  foster  network  ties,  facilitate
collaborative writing relationships, and build a strong community of practice scholars.  
 
PhD and Junior Faculty Consortium
The  PhD  consortium  will  be  held  on  16-17 th   April,  followed  by  attendance  to  the
Research Conference on 18-19 th , and concluded by a half-day PhD seminar on 20 th  April.
Location  of  the  PhD  consortium  is  the  beautiful  castle  Teleborgs  Slott  in  Vaxjö
(http://www.teleborgsslott.com/). The consortium is organized by the conveners and
Linnaeus University, who will be offering 5 ECTS for PhD students who will complete
the  course  work  and  papers.  Interested  PhD  candidates  and  Junior  Faculty  should
 
submit  an  abstract  (of  less  than  1,000  words)  by  December  15,  2017  to  William  B.
Gartner (william.gartner@lnu.se). Full working papers for accepted students will be due
February 15, 2018.  The course fee will be posted on October 1, 2017.  Participants will
be  required  to  complete  a  mandatory  reading  list.  The  consortium  will  be  organized
around lectures by practice scholars, open-ended discussions, paper pitches, practice-
based methods training  and  networking opportunities.  Topics  that will be  covered in
the consortium are will include:

  •   How should we define and use “practice” (e.g., practice theory, practice studies, entrepreneurship  as  practice)  and  its  related  concepts  in  the  context  of entrepreneurship?
  • How can we apply various strands of practice theory (such as situated learning theory,  cultural  and  historical  activity  theory  (CHAT),  praxeology,  and  ethno-methodology)  to  study  entrepreneurship  phenomenon,  while  still  keeping conceptual coherence?
  • What  role  does  the  human  body  and  objects  play  in  entrepreneurial  activity?

Why does this matter?

  • How does practice approach refocus the ‘outcomes’ of entrepreneurial action?
  • How  is  a  practice  perspective  related  to  but  different  from  entrepreneurial effectuation? 
  • How can a practice approach link, or go beyond, micro and macro perspectives in entrepreneurship?
  • What implications does practice theory have for entrepreneurial creativity?
  • What  methodological  considerations  come  with  a  non-individualist  notion  of entrepreneurial practice? 

Research Conference  
The  conference  will  be  held  on  18-19 th   April  2018  (with  a  welcome  reception  the
evening  of  April  17).  The  conference  will  offer  keynote  lectures,  opportunities  for
networking,  pitch  presentations  and  round-table  collaborative  paper  development
sessions.    The  location  of  the  conference  will  be  the  main  campus  of  Linnaeus
University.   
 
Scholars wishing to present during the conference must submit an abstract to William
B. Gartner (william.gartner@lnu.se) by December 15, 2017.  The abstract should not
exceed more than 1,000 words. Authors will be notified of acceptance or otherwise by
December 20 th , 2017. Full papers should be  submitted by  February  15 th , 2018.  All
accepted  papers  will  be  pitched  to  all  conference  participants  on  the  first  day  of  the
conference. During the second day of the conference, papers will be assigned to small
working groups for developmental input and feedback. The fee for the conference will
be posted by October 1, 2017.  
 
 
The conference will take place over two full days (from 9.00 to 17.00) on April 18 and
19 th  (with a welcome reception on the evening of April 17) on the Linnaeus University
campus.  
 
Address any queries about the conference or PhD consortium to:
William.gartner@lnu.se
 
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research Special Issue on
“Entrepreneurship as Practice”
 
The  conference  will  serve  as  an  opportunity  for  scholars  to  receive  developmental
feedback on papers that could be submitted to a special issue on “Entrepreneurship as
Practice”  for  the  International  Journal  of  Entrepreneurial  Behavior  and  Research.  
Details on the Call for Papers for this special issue will be posted by November 1, 2017
and we expect the deadline for submissions to be October 1, 2018.   
 
References
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Stanford University Press.
De Clercq, D., & Voronov, M. (2009). Toward a practice perspective of entrepreneurship
entrepreneurial legitimacy as habitus. International Small Business Journal, 27(4), 395-
419.
Feldman, M.S. and Orlikowski, W.J. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing
theory. Organization Science, 22(5), pp.1240-1253.
Giddens, A. (1976). New Rules of Sociological Method. Hutchinson, London
Goss, D., Jones, R., Latham, J., & Betta, M. (2011). Power as practice: A micro-sociological
analysis of the dynamics of emancipatory entrepreneurship. Organization Studies, 32(2),
211–229.
Heidegger, M. (1929/1996). Being and Time. Albany: SUNY Press.
Johannisson, B. (2011). Towards a practice theory of entrepreneuring. Small Business
Economics. 36, 135-150.
Keating, A., Geiger, S. & McLoughlin, D. (2014). Riding the practice waves: Social
resourcing practices during new venture development. Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice 38 (5), 1207-1235.
Nicolini, D. (2009) Zooming in and out: Studying practices by switching theoretical
lenses and trailing connections", Organization Studies, Vol.30, No.12, 1391-1418
 
Nicolini, D. (2012). Practice Theory, Work and Organization: An Introduction. Oxford
University Press. Oxford.
Orlikowski, W.J. (2002). Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in
distributed organizing. Organization Science, 13(3), pp.249-273.
Schatzki, T. R., Knorr-Cetina, K., & von Savigny, E. (Eds.). (2001). The Practice Turn in
Contemporary Theory. Psychology Press. London.
Steyaert, C. (2007). ‘Entrepreneuring’ as a conceptual attractor? A review of process
theories in 20 years of entrepreneurship studies. Entrepreneurship and Regional
Development, 19(6), 453-477
Terjesen, S. and Elam, A. (2009), Transnational entrepreneurs' venture
internationalization strategies: A practice theory approach. Entrepreneurship Theory
and Practice. 33, 1093–1120.
Schatzki, T.R. (2005). Peripheral vision the sites of organizations. Organization
studies, 26(3), pp.465-484.
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, L. (1969). On certainty. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, L. (1981). Zettel (2 nd . Edn.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, L. (1980). Culture and value (Amended 2 nd  edn.). Oxford: Blackwell.