Call for papers
Special issue of Technovation
Honoring the life's work of Bruce Kirchhoff
Submission deadline: December 1, 2011
Guest editor
Scott Newbert, Villanova University
Bruce A. Kirchhoff, Ph.D., one of the entrepreneurship field's true pioneers, passed away on May 1, 2010 at the age of 73. Bruce served as distinguished professor of entrepreneurship and Director of the Technological Entrepreneurship Program at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Over the course of his decades-long academic career, Bruce published more than 100 articles on entrepreneurship, economic development, and strategy in a variety of academic journals, books, trade publications, and popular media and was cited by Inc. magazine as one of the top 16 entrepreneurship researchers in the United States.
Prior to joining NJIT, Bruce served on the faculties of Babson College, California Polytechnic State University, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Jönköping International Business School of Sweden, Purdue University, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the University of Utah. Bruce also served the profession as a founding member of the Entrepreneurship Research Consortium, which conducted the first Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED I), and as president and executive vice president of the International Council for Small Business. Bruce's success as a scholar was due in no small part to his vast professional experience, which included service as Chief Economist and President of the USA office for the United States Small Business Administration, Assistant Director of the Minority Business Development Agency in the United States Department of Commerce, an economic development consultant with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Peru and Guatemala and with the Peace Corps in Moldova, as well as founder of two successful technology businesses. In total, Bruce consulted for more than 200 small businesses throughout the Americas, earning six awards for excellence in small business consulting from the United States Small Business Association. Bruce was also instrumental in developing the highly acclaimed Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program, which have been among the most influential US government policies for facilitating research and development in small, high-technology firms.
As a scholar, Bruce spent his career researching how new and small independently-owned firms contribute to job creation and wealth redistribution. He referred to this process as "dynamic capitalism" in order to reflect the changing nature of the business community (Kirchhoff, 1994). Bruce held a largely Austrian view of economics, arguing against the general equilibrium model and in favor of Schumpeter's view of capitalism as a cyclical process of creative destruction (Kirchhoff, 1991) for which he found compelling empirical evidence to support (Kirchhoff, 1989). Bruce further believed that among entrepreneurial firms, those that sought to exploit disruptive technologies (either through basic research or via technology transfer partnerships) had the greatest effect on economic development and growth. As a result, Bruce was a strong advocate for government policy that facilitated new firm entry in general (Kirchhoff and Phillips, 1988) and high-tech new firm entry in particular (Kirchhoff et al., 2007; Romig et al., 2007).
In the spirit of Bruce Kirchhoff's scholarly achievements, this special issue seeks manuscripts that focus on the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology, and economic development and growth. As it was important to Bruce, it is also important to this special issue that contributions have substantive implications not only for academics seeking to extend theory, but also for both practicing entrepreneurs seeking to build new and/or small organizations and policy-makers interested in promoting the welfare of local and/or national communities. The following is a list of potential topics for the special issue:
· Do small firms contribute to economic growth and development in the same way that new firms do?
· What role do new/small firms play in the transfer of disruptive technologies? How can public policy facilitate that commercialization process?
· How has the post-recession environment affected new firm births and/or small firm growth? Are these effects more or less pronounced in high-tech industries and what are the implications of such an effect?
· How can public policy promote new firm births and/or small firm growth in general? How effective are existing programs of this nature? Does program effectiveness vary by geographic region (i.e., states, nations)? Upon what additional factors (i.e., institutional environment) is the success of such programs contingent?
· Is there a connection between high-tech and high growth entrepreneurial firms? Does that connection (if it exists) warrant increased public support given the relatively low incidence of high-tech firms?
· Does the nature of public support for new and small high-growth firms differ from that required by other types of firms? What is the optimal mix of public support for new and small firms by firm type?
These are just a sampling of the topics that could be addressed, and submissions on other related topics, provided they draw upon the general research interests of the late Bruce Kirchhoff, are welcome. Please submit manuscripts to http://ees.elsevier.com/technovation/ by December 1, 2011. Authors should indicate that they would like to the submission to be considered for this special issue by designating the Article Type as "Special Issue: Bruce Kirchhoff Memorial." Questions regarding any aspect of this special issue may be directed to the guest editor, Scott Newbert, at scott.newbert@villanova.edu.
Cited references
Kirchhoff, B.A. 1989. Creative destruction among industrial firms in the United States. Small Business Economics 1 (3), 161-174.
Kirchhoff, B.A. 1991. Entrepreneurship's contribution to economics. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 16 (2), 93-112.
Kirchhoff, B.A. 1994. Entrepreneurship and Dynamic Capitalism: The Economics of Business Firm Formation and Growth. Praeger, Westport CT.
Kirchhoff, B.A, Newbert, S.L., Hasan, I., Armington, C. 2007. The influence of university R&D expenditures on new business formations and employment growth. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 31 (4), 543-559.
Kirchhoff, B.A, Phillips, B.D. 1988. The effect of firm formation and growth on job creation in the United States. Journal of Business Venturing 3 (4), 261-272.
Romig, A., Baker, A., Johannes J., Zipperian, T., Eijkel, K., Kirchhoff, B., Mani, H.S., Rao, C.N.R., Walsh, S. 2007. An introduction to nanotechnology policy: Opportunities and constraints for emerging and established economies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 74 (9), 1634-1642.