| 2008 ENT Division Professional Development Workshops: Call for Proposals It is no secret that many find the Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) to be the most stimulating part of the Academy of Management annual meeting. Until November 15 you have your chance of making this part of the meeting an even greater experience! Yes, the Entrepreneurship Division hereby invites proposals for Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) for the 2008 Academy meetings in Anaheim. PDWs are a platform for us to share knowledge and expertise in a highly interactive fashion, and thus to foster our professional development. They are also an opportunity for the division to engage with the theme of the 2008 Academy, The Questions We Ask. These two aspects – engaging, interactive format and addressing the conference theme – will weigh heavily when proposals are evaluated. According to our Domain Statement the Entrepreneurship Division's domain is the creation and management of new businesses, small businesses and family businesses, and the characteristics and special problems of entrepreneurs. Major topics include: new venture ideas and strategies; ecological influences on venture creation and demise; the acquisition and management of venture capital and venture teams; self-employment; the owner-manager; management succession; corporate venturing and the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development. In particular, we would welcome sessions in which contrasting points of view on such topics are compared and debated. Sessions that can push forward the division's level of scholarship and teaching by (re)examining some of our core assumptions and practices are also keenly encouraged. It is a plus but not an absolute must to connect to the conference theme. Just as a teaser to get your thinking going, what about... The Questions We Ask...and the Questions They Ask (about the relationship between Entrepreneurship and the disciplines or other fields of enquiry) The Questions We Ask and the Methods We Use (is there a clash between the emergent and often outlier phenomenon we are studying on the one hand, and the standard method toolbox we apply on the other? If so, what are the remedies?) The Questions We Ask and the Theories We Use (same as above, but focusing on theory rather than method) The Questions We Ask and the Answers They Want (the relationship between our research pursuits and the expectations and needs of students, business practitioners and policy-makers) The Questions We Ask and the Answers We Get in Different Parts of the World (on the potentials of and limits to generalizability and community across boarders and continents). PDWs are an opportunity for more interactive discussions, for alternative formats, and for stimulating conversation within our division as well as across divisional lines. Sessions that will take advantage of this opportunity to examine what constitutes excellence in the practice of both research and teaching, and thus to push the division's scholarship and practice to new levels, will be favored. Note that a rule of 3 has been introduced for PDWs. This means that no individual can be on the program for more than three PDWs. The number of PDW appearances does NOT restrict the number of papers an individual can submit to the main conference. Please advise the participants you try to recruit about the rule of 3. New this year is that all submission must be made fully electronically at http://submissions.aomonline.org/2008. Note that this site will become functional on Oct. 1 -- hence you have some time to organize your participants and collaborations before it opens. Submissions should NOT be submitted via email to the PDW chair. The closing date for submissions is midnight November 15, 2007. Partnerships with other divisions may be suggested by marking the appropriate boxes in the electronic submission. PDWs will be scheduled between 1:00 P.M. on Friday August 8, 2008 and noon on Sunday August 10, 2008. |