Special Issue on Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation in South Asia.
The South Asian Journal of Business Studies invites submissions to a special issue on "Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation". The issue aims to encourage scholarship on improving our understanding of the role of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in South Asia. History suggests a rich past where profit-minded traders used creative approaches for the production and trading of goods and services in ancient South Asia (e.g., the Harappa-Mohenjodaro civilization), as well as in similar contemporary civilizations in other parts of the world (Miller, 1985; Parpola, Parpola, & Brunswig, 1977). For hundreds of years, South Asia was the hub of global commerce, with traders from different parts of the world converging there to buy and sell new and innovative products. In order to look for potential opportunities for commerce Columbus set sail for South Asia when he accidently ended up in the Americas (Ryan, 1993). However, South Asia is largely absent from the modern academic literature on entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation. Few research articles focused on the South Asian context in these areas have been published in recognized journals. The goal of the special issue is to address this gap in the literature.
South Asia comprising of eight countries- namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka- is the most populous geographical region in the world (about a fifth of the world's population), with rich representation of all the major religions of the world (Bose & Jalal, 2017). Submissions to the special issue are expected to pertain to one or more of these South Asian countries, in one fashion or another. The United Nations Statistics Division's scheme of sub-regions also includes Iran in South Asia. Submissions pertaining to Iran will be expected to refer to this classification in justifying the fit with this special issue. Authors of papers pertaining to other countries or regions that lay claim to being part of South Asia (e.g., Myanmar) should check with the special issue editors before submission.
Topics of Interest
South Asian Journal of Business Studies is inviting papers that provide fresh rigorous perspectives based on solid theoretical or conceptual grounding. We are interested in both quantitative and qualitative submissions, as well as conceptual or empirical contributions, as long as they pertain to entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia. The following research issues are highlighted for illustrative purposes only, but are certainly not meant to be an exhaustive list of topics:
1. The role of culture, religion, and governance in shaping entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
2. Role of economic climate, corruption, and population density in entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
3. An understanding of successful entrepreneurs and their operating environment in South Asia.
4. Factors associated with entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
5. Unique business models in South Asia such as "Jugaad" or innovative fixes to management and design problems.
6. Survey-based empirical studies targeting factors influencing entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
7. Exploration of archival datasets pertaining to entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
8. The role of entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in the economic development of South Asian countries.
9. Gender and its effects on entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
10. Entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation targeted at social (rather than commercial) goals in South Asia.
11. Entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in South Asian firms in industries at different stages of the life-cycle (e.g. new, growing, mature and declining).
12. The role of political players in encouraging or discouraging entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
13. Historical perspectives on entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
14. Illegality and deviant behaviors related to entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia.
15. Entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in both formal and informal business sectors in South Asia.
16. Entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in different types of South Asian firms (e.g. publicly-listed and private).
17. Innovation clusters and/ or start-up clusters in South Asian countries.
18. Non-Western or non-Anglo-Saxon types of innovation in South Asian firms.
19. Non-Western or non-Anglo-Saxon management philosophy that fosters entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in South Asian firms.
Given that there is limited quality research on entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia, the editors of this special issue are looking to cast a wide net. As such, other topics relevant to entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in South Asia will also be considered. All submissions will be expected to follow SAJBS guidelines for authors. In case of questions about the special issue, feel free to contact guest editors Vishal K. Gupta (vkgupta@cba.ua.edu), Mahua Guha (mahua.guha@iimrohtak.ac.in), or Murad Mithani (murad.mithani@stevens.edu).
Submission Deadline - September 30th 2018
References
Bose, S., & Jalal, A. (2017). Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (4th Edition). Routledge, NY.
Miller, D. (1985). Ideology and the Harappan civilization. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 4(1), 34-71.
Parpola, S., Parpola, A., & Brunswig Jr, R. H. (1977). The Meluḫḫa village: Evidence of acculturation of Harappan traders in late third millennium Mesopotamia?. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 20(2), 129-165.
Ryan, J. D. (1993). European travelers before Columbus: The fourteenth century's discovery of India. The Catholic Historical Review, 79(4), 648-670.