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CALL FOR PAPERS

Special issue on "Experiments in Entrepreneurship Research" in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

Guest editors

Zoltan J. Acs

David Audretsch

Sameeksha Desai

Isabell Welpe

Focus of the special issue

Research interest in entrepreneurship has grown as it is increasingly recognized as a major contributor to growth, development and the overall advancement of societies. With the surge of research on entrepreneurship, it has become clear that existing knowledge faces methodological shortcomings that prevent consistent, clear research. Prior entrepreneurship research has been criticized for a number of conceptual and methodological shortcomings that led to limited results and constricted the progress of the field.

For example, current work inadequately explains the dynamics of perception, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities (Shane, 2003). Inconsistent results with respect to individual characteristics and entrepreneurial behavior (e.g. Gartner, 1988; Keh, Foo, & Lim, 2002) draw attention to the methodological tools of entrepreneurship as a field of research.

The purpose of this special issue is to consolidate cutting-edge work using experimental methods to study entrepreneurship. Experimental methods can significantly enhance methodological rigor in entrepreneurship research. In this special issue on "Experiments in Entrepreneurship Research", we seek to (a) codify existing challenges about how experimental methods are applied in entrepreneurship research, (b) develop understanding about how to resolve current methodological shortcomings in the field of entrepreneurship through experimental designs, (c) lay a foundation for experimental design in future entrepreneurship studies, and (d) consider the implications of these methods on the development of the field of entrepreneurship, particularly with respect to new topics., and (e) publish experimental research that advances the knowledge of entrepreneurship and overcomes some of the methodological challenges by means of experiments.

Papers should make significant methodological, conceptual or theoretical contributions to current knowledge about entrepreneurship. We welcome papers from macro and micro perspective equally, across several units of analysis.

Submission details

Please submit 3-page summaries by February 28, 2008 to both welpe@wi.tum.de and desais@umkc.edu with "EXPENT" in the subject line. Summaries should include: 

1)      Introduction and research question

2)      Method

3)      Preliminary findings

4)       Status of project

We will invite promising summaries for full paper submission by March 15, 2009 and we will expect to receive full papers by April 30, 2009.

Exceptional papers may also be invited for presentation at the Ringberg conference of the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany in June 2009.  Invitations for full paper submission and for the conference are not a guarantee of final acceptance in the special issue. All papers will undergo a rigorous review process.

The guest editors of this special issue are: Zoltan Acs, David Audretsch, Sameeksha Desai and Isabell Welpe. Please direct questions about the special issue to Sameeksha Desai (desais@umkc.edu) or Isabell Welpe (welpe@wi.tum.de).