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Call for Papers

International Small Business Journal

'Entrepreneurial Exit'

Guest Editors:

Associate Professor Dawn R. DeTienne, Colorado State University, United States

Associate Professor Karl Wennberg, Ratio Institute & Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Professor Susan Marlow, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

As evidenced by its impact on the entrepreneur, the family, the firm, the industry, and society, entrepreneurial exit has emerged as a critical component of the entrepreneurial process and a distinctive domain of entrepreneurship researchers. Exit is complex because it is both multi-level and multi-faceted. It is multi-level in that exit can refer to exit of the founder or exit of the firm from the market or both. Each of these has varying impact upon existing institutions. It is multi-faceted in that it can be applied to both low and high performing founders and firms and its impact on institutions varies depending upon the context.

Despite its importance, the academic research in entrepreneurial exit is relatively sparse compared to other components of the entrepreneurial process, such as opportunity identification, new venture creation, or growth. Yet the exit is the culmination of all that the firm is and a reflection of all previous goals, decisions, activities, and influence. Entrepreneurial exit research has the capacity to make significant contributions to leading theoretical perspectives including (but not limited to) population ecology, resource-based view, theory of planned behavior, threshold theory, psychological ownership, and theories of leadership, change, affect, and cognition.

There exists a large body of literature which examines business and market exit; however, this research primarily focuses upon large, publicly traded companies leaving a gap in our understanding of how the majority of firms and firm founders across the world develop exit strategies, complete the exit process, and the potential ramifications to both internal and external stakeholders. Further, additional research is needed to disentangle the various dimensions of exit including 'failure' from 'successful' exit, 'deliberate' from 'unplanned' exit and 'honest' from 'dishonest' closure.

We welcome submissions from disciplinary oriented research in strategy, finance, accounting, sociology, psychology, organization theory, economic geography, etc., as well as interdisciplinary studies of entrepreneurial exit. Both conceptual and empirical work will be considered. We would like this special issue to offer a set of papers that encourages theoretical development and empirical examination of the myriad of important topics within entrepreneurial exit. Examples of themes, topics, and problems:

•              The development of exit strategies and processes

•              An examination of psychological / cognitive barriers to exit both internal and external to the firm

•              Studies of founder succession

•              International / comparative studies

•              Studies that disentangle exit from failure

•              Studies that examine exit differences among industries, countries, and cultures

•              Understanding valuation from both seller's and acquirers' perspective

•              The impact and implications of exit on institutions, philanthropic infrastructure or economic development

•              Studies which explore unique methods and data for studying entrepreneurial exit

Final acceptances for the special issue will be drawn from all submissions, and will be subject to an anonymous double blind review.  Full papers for submission to the Special Issue of the International Small Business Journal must be submitted via http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/isbj and must comply with ISBJ guidelines

http://www.uk.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/pdf/ISB_Manuscript_Guidelines.pdf

Final Special Issue Submission Deadline: Friday, 29th November 2013. Publication is scheduled for late 2015 or early 2016.

Informal enquiries on the special issue can be forward to Dawn DeTienne (dawn.detienne@business.colostate.edu) or Karl Wennberg (karl.wennberg@ratio.se)

Dawn R. DeTienne, PhD

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship

2013-2014 Fulbright Scholar, Dublin, Ireland

Faculty Director, Institute for Entrepreneurship

Communications Committee Chair, AOM, Entrepreneurship Division

Associate Editor, Academy of Management Learning & Education

Colorado State University

FT Collins, CO  80523

(970) 491-6446

dawn.detienne@business.colostate.edu