Entrepreneurship research has long celebrated growth-venture capital, IPOs, and the pursuit of "unicorn" status. But those outcomes are the exception, not the norm.
I am excited for you to ponder the questions:
- Does every entrepreneurial venture need to scale?
- What if resisting growth isn't a sign of limited ambition, but a strategic choice?
In this Professional Development Workshop (PDW) to explore these questions and other questions surrounding entrepreneurs who remain small by design to preserve the kind of business-and life-they want to build. We'll examine why entrepreneurs choose not to scale through the lenses of entrepreneurial well-being, family business, resourcefulness, social entrepreneurship, faith, and lifestyle entrepreneurship.
Join us for the discussion of Losing Control: Resistance to Entrepreneurial Scaling
📅 Saturday, August 1
🕒 11:00–13:00 (1pm)
📍 Philadelphia Marriott Downtown – Level 3, Room 305
Panelists:
- Greg Fisher (Indiana University)
- Blake Mathias (Indiana University)
- Todd Moss (University of Oklahoma)
- Robert Nason (McGill University)
- Brett Smith (Miami University)
- Johan Wiklund (Syracuse University)
- Trent Williams (Brigham Young University)
I hope this workshop helps broaden how we think about entrepreneurial success and encourages more research on solo ventures, lifestyle businesses, family firms, hybrid entrepreneurs, and other forms of small-scale entrepreneurship that are intentionally built to stay small. I look forward to seeing you there.
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Justin Canova
PhD Candidate
University of Oklahoma
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