I’m just back from the RENT conference on entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises. This 27th edition took place this year at the University of Vilnius (Lithuania)a where some 200 researchers fro all over the world gathered to discuss this –hotter than ever- topic.
How could entrepreneurship indeed be neglected. With more than 99% of companies in Europe being SME’s and with all the light shed on entrepreneurship by authorities (just think about the European Commission Small Business Act) there is no discussion about the importance of the topic. Yet, as often in such conferences, there were no representatives of official bodies (governments, European institutions, associations and NGO’s acting to promote entrepreneurship). Although the latest and most advanced research was made available on the occasion of this 2-day conference, practitioners were desperately absent which, you will agree, seriously impedes efficient communication between academics and practitioners.
Within the field of entrepreneurship several topics seem to be more trendy than others. The role of gender for instance still catches a lot of attention. This most debated subject was discussed by one of the keynote speakers who argued that today’s research on gender more or less limits itself to “female entrepreneurship”. The question remains however whether this is really relevant as no research addresses “male entrepreneurship”
The path to entrepreneurship was also most debated. Whereas fewer and fewer works tried to address all determinants of the entrepreneurial act (in other words, what are the variables that push an individual to start his/her own business) what I observed is a growing interest for entrepreneurship in eastern and former Soviet countries. The location was of course perfect to discuss such issues (the Soviet troops left Lithuania in August 1993 which is not so far away) but I’ve seen studies on very exotic countries : Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, …. All those countries share some common grounds and yet have very different dynamics. The potential for growth there is just amazing and the future of our economy well be found in those countries.
I’ll come back in more details in the coming days and weeks on some particular learning points of this conference. The intention here is not to force you into the academic world, but rather to shed light on some behaviors and phenomenons that all of you may have observed. I think it is worthwhile that one gives a new perspective on what can be observed in our daily lives.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Research.
