The AOM Entrepreneurship Division's Financial Position in the COVID-19 Era
January 9, 2021
by Maribel Guerrero
ENT Division Treasurer
When I assumed the AOM Entrepreneurship (ENT) Division Treasurer in 2019, the role represented a great honour as well as a pleasing opportunity to serve our Division with the responsibility to continue the great work of previous treasurers.
In my first NewsBlast in 2019, we looked back into the financial statements from 2012 to 2018 to understand the financial position of our Division. Additionally, we recognised our sponsors (mostly universities, foundations, and publishers) and their invaluable contributions. Moreover, we focused and emphasized on two key operating expenses for our Division, namely – 1) Social events (for engaging doctoral, early career, mid-career, and late-career consortiums), and 2) Awards (for recognising the excellence, advances, and contributions in our research community). I am happy to share that despite increasing our investments in these crucial expense items, we continued to maintain a healthy balance sheet.
In my second NewsBlast in 2020, we expressed our gratitude to the 2019 ENT Division sponsors' contributions that allowed the participation of 40 Ph.D. students from diverse countries in the Doctoral Consortium (i.e., five students more than in 2018). Additionally, we continued to invest in reward and recognition of research excellence through 12 awards! Furthermore, we invested in numerous other engagement initiatives including organizing meetings with Journal Editors as well as social/ networking opportunities for the doctoral consortium, early-career consortia, mid-career consortia and late-career consortia participants. However, we continued to be cognizant of the need for fiscal sustainability going forward.
For my third NewsBlast for 2021, as we all know, 2020 surprised us with an unexpected event, "the worldwide health pandemic"! The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in many ways. A positive view of this external shock has been the emergence of a creative destruction effect on AOM's conference activities. Financial issues were no exception. Although the 2020 AOM Annual Meeting's virtual edition helped momentarily to diminish one of the main operating expenses (social and networking events), we introduced several financial adjustments in these uncertain times. We are very grateful for our 2020 sponsors' vibrant efforts, our members' entrepreneurial spirit, and the vital financial support from the AOM. The rapid and disruptive response of these ENT Division collectives made it possible to achieve the 2020 ENT Division goals (i.e., Doctoral Consortium, PDW sessions, Paper sessions, Awards recognitions) as well as introduce new initiatives (i.e., ENT-Encounters mentorships, Symposiums)!
In the face of current challenges, the Entrepreneurship Division Executive Committee has been working together over the year in multiple entrepreneurial initiatives and innovative strategies "to sustain our goals while remaining financially sound". In this continuous learning process, we are convinced that together, we will support the ENT division's post-pandemic challenges and financial shape to be ready for the new decade's goals, projects, opportunities…. We hope to see you face to face soon…
All the best for the new entrepreneurial year and stay safe!
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