Special Issue of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ADDRESSING GRAND
CHALLENGES
Guest Editors:
Sharon Alvarez, University of Pittsburgh
Giovanni Battista Dagnino, University of Rome LUMSA
Jeffrey Harrison, University of Richmond
Anna Minà, University of Rome LUMSA
Yan “Anthea” Zhang, Rice University
SEJ Supervising Co-Editor:
Yong Li, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Submission Deadline: May 1, 2026
Background
The world is facing persistent challenges stemming from widespread poverty (Barkema, et al., 2024; Prado, Robinson, & Shapira, 2022) and income disparity (Todorov & Angelova, 2023), increased legal and illegal migration (Zehfuss & Vaughan-Williams, 2024), global climate change and climate change-induced natural disasters (Mohan & Morris, 2024; Park & Samples, 2024), clean water scarcity (Kistruck & Shulist, 2021; Kistruck & Shantz, 2022; Xie, Li & Zhou,2023), and uncertainty resulting from artificial intelligence (AI), the possible effects of which are only beginning to be realized (Simsek et al., 2024; Towsend & Hunt, 2019). Furthermore, these challenges are interconnected and multidimensional, which makes them even more difficult to address (George et al., 2021). Few, if any, works have addressed the interconnectedness of these Grand Challenges. Indeed, for example, climate change may trigger and amplify poverty and migration. AI, for another example, has the possibility of helping alleviate poverty and addressing climate change whereas AI itself uses significant amounts of energy and water to run, which may contribute to climate change.
Large corporations, governments and public-private partnerships (PPPs), that possess significant amounts of resources, have been interested in these issues to the extent they directly affect operations or important stakeholders (Corbett & Montgomery, 2017; Ketchen et al., 2007). However, long-lasting solutions have not been attained from these sources (Bradley et al., 2021). That is why this special issue is focused on entrepreneurship as an important additional means to address these issues. Entrepreneurship is generative and it looks at challenges as opportunities to create new sources of value (Alvarez & Barney, 2007, 2008; Wright & Hitt, 2017). Entrepreneurs can embrace a Grand Challenge and view it with a perspective different from large corporations, governments and PPPs, which can potentially generate new ways and means to address the challenge. Of course, capturing value when addressing any societal challenge is a major challenge and not widely understood, which is also a reason why governments and big corporations are not well poised to offer long-lasting solutions. Consequently, entrepreneurship offers an additional perspective on addressing Grand Challenges.
Purpose, Aim, and Scope
The purpose of the special issue is to provide a forum for some of the brightest minds in the world to demonstrate how entrepreneurship can address the Grand Challenges. We want to attract new ideas as well as evidence that entrepreneurship is already working on these issues (Zahra et al., 2023). That is, we will welcome both novel theory papers and empirical papers.
The Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal has already demonstrated interest in addressing Grand Challenges through a special issue that looks at how business model innovations address grand challenges (in press). This special issue will cast a wider net regarding approaches to these challenges (beyond business model innovations). We are seeking research regarding each of the four topics of poverty, migration, environmental impact, and AI, and especially research that combines these topics in a meaningful way. As we have suggested previously, the Grand Challenges influence each other. Indeed, at the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Special Conference (May 2025) in Palermo, Italy, Edward Freeman, a world-renowned philosopher who is often considered the father of stakeholder theory, argued that we should reframe the sustainability problem in terms of abundance rather than scarcity. Entrepreneurship, which in essence is generative, can help generate abundance and address Grand Challenges. The next day, George Zarkadakis, an AI expert and author, predicted that AI would create abundance that makes it possible to better address major problems such as global poverty. Of course, making this happen necessitates new ways of addressing the Grand Challenges. Yes, entrepreneurship can play a big role. This fascinating intersection of ideas is simply a teaser demonstrating how the four major topics can overlap.
Some specific research questions of particular interest include:
1. How can or does entrepreneurial activity alleviate poverty?
2. Do or can entrepreneurial activities that address poverty in one global context (e.g., nation or region) transfer to other contexts to also address poverty there?
3. How does migration represent new opportunities to create value for migrants and existing businesses and stakeholders?
4. How do migrant entrepreneurs serve as catalysts for addressing Grand Challenges?
5. What special challenges and opportunities does illegal migration offer for entrepreneurs?
6. What challenges do entrepreneurs face when addressing climate change issues and how can they be overcome while also creating value for stakeholders?
7. What challenges and opportunities is AI likely to bring and how can entrepreneurship address them?
8. Do or can public/private entrepreneurial efforts offer solutions to the Grand Challenges?
9. How do competitive vs. cooperative strategies among entrepreneurs affect the scalability and sustainability of solutions to Grand Challenges?
10. How can entrepreneurs and their partners capture enough of the value created as Grand Challenges are addressed so that they and others are motivated to pursue such endeavors?
As noted, we especially encourage papers that examine interconnections among the challenges. Examples include:
1. How can or does entrepreneurship address poverty resulting from legal and illegal migration?
2. How do legal and illegal migration impact climate change and the environment and where are the opportunities for new value creation associated with this phenomenon?
3. What are the characteristics of entrepreneurs that do or are likely to use AI to address poverty, immigration, or the environment? How can governments or corporations foster this sort of entrepreneurship?
4. What effect does or will AI have on poverty and what opportunities for new value creation will be created through this effect?
5. What effect does or will AI have on legal and/or illegal immigration and what opportunities for new value creation will be created through this effect?
6. How can or do migrants overcome the barriers to becoming entrepreneurs, thus pulling themselves out of poverty?
It is difficult to imagine research topics of more urgency than the Grand Challenges. In some ways, they define the time in which we live. We are seeking new ideas for addressing these challenges—new perspectives and new solutions that are likely to spur additional research for many years to come. Entrepreneurship scholars hold great potential for coming up with these new perspectives and new solutions because the field they study is all about adopting new perspectives on problems and capturing new sources of value creation.
We would also like to mention that these four topics and their intersections were addressed at the previously mentioned SMS special conference in Palermo. The conference included well over 220 scholars from 40 countries. The research sessions and plenary speeches were well attended, and the discussions were vigorous and energetic. Many of the themes of the papers presented at the conference are consistent with an entrepreneurial focus. While we do not mean to primarily target the papers presented at the special conference, the wide attendance and active participation of entrepreneurial scholars in that conference clearly demonstrates that entrepreneurship scholars are ready to contribute to the conversation on addressing Grand Challenges.
Submission and Review Process
Submissions should be prepared in accordance with the SEJ submission guidelines available at
https://www.strategicmanagement.net/sej/overview/submission. Manuscripts must be written in English and formatted in Microsoft Word.
Submission Instructions:
• Clearly indicate in your submission that your paper is intended for the special issue on “The Strategic Role of Entrepreneurship in Addressing Grand Challenges”.
• Submit your manuscript through the SEJ Research Exchange submission portal: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/SEJ.
• For any questions regarding the content of the special issue, please contact the guest editors at:
o Sharon Alvarez: salvarez@katz.pitt.edu
o Giovanni Battista Dagnino: g.dagnino@lumsa.it
o Jeffrey Harrison: harrison@richmond.edu
o Anna Minà: a.mina1@lumsa.it
o Yan “Anthea” Zhang: yanzh@rice.edu
• For questions about submitting to the special issue please contact: harrison@richmond.edu or SMS Senior Publications and Foundation Manager Cobretti Williams (sej@strategicmanagemen.net).
All papers will be reviewed according to the standard policies of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. We plan to have a paper development workshop for the manuscripts that are invited for revision and resubmission to this special issue. Location and date of the PDW will be announced later.
References
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