Calls for Papers

The Research Handbook of Entrepreneurial Exit, Edward Elgar Publishing

Editors:

Dawn R. DeTienne, Colorado State University, United States

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

and

International Small Business Journal Special Issue on

Entrepreneurial Exit

Guest Editors:

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

Dawn R. DeTienne, Colorado State University, United States

Susan Marlow, Nottingham University, 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, strategic decisions, activities, and resources.  Because of its wide-ranging impact, 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 behaviour, 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 what the ramifications of exit are to both internal and external constituents.  Further, additional research is needed to disentangle failure and deliberate or successful 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 both the research handbook and the 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 which disentangle exit and failure
• An examination of the uniqueness of portfolio or habitual entrepreneurs
• Studies which 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 databases for studying entrepreneurial exit

The Editors would also like to draw attention to a related conference on Entrepreneurial Exit, organized in conjunction with The Ratio Institute in Stockholm, Sweden scheduled for September 27^th–28^th, 2013.  The scientific committee invites submissions specific to the conference, related to the indicative list above. Presentations at the conference will be considered for both the research handbook and the special edition; thus, the conference is intended to aid the development of papers. However, final acceptances will be drawn from all submissions, and will be subject to an anonymous double blind review process.  If you wish to submit a conference paper, please email karl.wennberg@ratio.se listing "Entrepreneurial Exit 2013 Conference" as the subject heading of the email.  Conference submission deadline: 1 July 2013: Decision on conference submissions will be made by July 20^th, 2013.

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

John F.S. Bunch, Ph.D.

Coordinator,  Institute for Professional Ethics and Responsibility

School of Business

Benedictine College

Atchison, KS 66002

jbunch@benedictine.edu

913-360-7442 (ofc)

913-426-3445 (cell)