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Please Post. Thank you.

Audaciously unapologetic for cross-posting...

Thank you for the overwhelming response to the fourth year of our Professional Development Workshop:

Using Simulation Experiments to Build and Test Entrepreneurship Theories.

On Friday, August 9^th, we will be in the Walt Disney World Swan Resort, Swan 6, from 8-11:00. If you already signed up and were placed on the wait-list, make sure you come-we now have room for 240. Let's fill it up! Details are below. The doors will open at 07:30, formal presentations will begin promptly at 08:00, and we will close at 11:00.

We have a fantastic panel talking about an über-important topic in the domain: theory development. This topic is especially vital to entrepreneurship scholars, where the field is believed to be "tilting at windmills"-referencing Cervantes' misguided and hapless Don Quixote-attempting to develop a comprehensive theory that can unite our efforts. These efforts become exceedingly difficult given the extreme variance in the distribution of both the inputs and outcomes of entrepreneurial action. To wit, seminal (Simon, 1968) and contemporary (Boisot & McKelvey, 2010) theory-building guidance suggests that when highly skewed (e.g., power law) distributions are present in a domain, the assumptions of linear relationships and independent observations at the foundation of Gaussian statistics are invalid. Indeed, studies show that using Gaussian assumptions and methods to explain and predict these phenomena can lead to inaccurate conclusions, under-specified theoretical models, and misleading normative recommendations-all of which reduce the credibility of scholarly research (O'Boyle & Aguinis, 2012). Simulation methods have been proposed as a valid alternative for constructing rigorous, formal theory that can account for our globally interdependent, nonlinear, and uncertain empirical reality.

The first half of the PDW will cover theory development using simulation from a conceptual view, including presentations from Jason Davis (MIT), Martin Ganco (UMN), and Alessandro Lomi (UofLugano); the second half will address applied model building. This year, Bob Porter (UCF) will walk attendees through NetLogo, a free agent-based modeling toolkit, and interactively demonstrate general simulation examples and specific model-building techniques.

If you are industrious and inquisitive (and you are...), download the NetLogo toolkit to your laptop now. If you bring your laptop to the PDW, you can work through some of Bob's general examples with him. The toolkit can be downloaded here:

http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

The board says that registration closes on August 7^th. Register now. However, if you miss the deadline, show up anyway-we'll have a seat for you.  The following link is to the PDW's online description:

http://program.aomonline.org/2013/Session_Details.asp?print=true&SubmissionID=13131

We also have a website under construction for the PDW that houses articles and presentation files from previous workshops. After the 2013 session, I'll post presentation and model files. Check it all out at:

https://sites.google.com/site/simbuildtest/home

Hope to see you on Friday at the Swan.

Cheers,

CC

G. Christopher Crawford

Kauffman Dissertation Fellow

Ph. D. in Entrepreneurship, University of Louisville

Visiting Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, Ohio University

Copeland Hall, Unit 312

Athens, OH 45701

(M) 513-295-8717

(T) @DrRedApple

(E) Christopher.Crawford@Louisville.edu