Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing

 

Special Issue on: "Technology Adoption over the Stages of Entrepreneurship"

Guest Editors:
Prof. David B. Audretsch, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Prof. Maksim Belitski, Henley Business School, UK
Prof. Rosa Caiazza, Parthenope University of Naples, Italy
Prof. Christina Günther, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany
Prof. Matthias Menter, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

The role of technology in shaping the emergence, nature, and outcomes of entrepreneurship represents a growing research agenda. Recent research in entrepreneurship and innovation shows that technology matters (Autio et al., 2018), in line with a large literature on information systems and information technology governance on the effect of technological change on firm performance and society (Grant, 1996; Baker et al. 2017).

However, how, when, and which technology matters is much less clear, as a variety of new technologies (business analytics, social media technology, mobile applications and development, cloud computing, internet of things, machine learning, artificial intelligence) is available across industries and regions and may be introduced and adopted at different stages of entrepreneurship: (1) pre-stage (latent and nascent entrepreneurship), (2) early-stage (emergent entrepreneurship) and (3) late-stage (growth entrepreneurship). Heterogeneity both in the technology and in entrepreneurship outcomes invalidates a “one-size-fits-all” approach to understanding the relationship and presents a ripe and relevant research agenda (Nambisan et al., 2017). Some technologies may play a more decisive role at the nascent stages of entrepreneurship (e.g. cloud computing, social media, big data analysis) when resources and skills are limited. Other technologies such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, or blockchain, may facilitate further exploration of opportunities for emergent entrepreneurs and established firms (growth entrepreneurs). Given that “entrepreneurship” itself is a heterogeneous phenomenon, there may be different responses to technology adoption depending on the motivation and stage of emergence of the entrepreneur (Audretsch et al., 2015, 2017).

This special issue addresses the question of how, when, and which technologies should be developed and adopted by entrepreneurs over the different stages of entrepreneurship. For pre-stage entrepreneurship, technologies enable fast access to information and networks as well as the validation of business ideas and concepts. For early-stage entrepreneurship, technologies enable the transition from a startup to a scaleup by reducing transactions costs and lifting research limitations. For late-stage entrepreneurship, new technologies can support further exploration of market opportunities and can facilitate growth and access to new markets. In doing so, the papers in the special issue will examine the role of technologies which enable the pipeline of entrepreneurs from those considering an opportunity (latent and nascent entrepreneurs), those who are already acting on the market (emergent entrepreneurs) as well as those who have developed their market and further exploit existing opportunities (growth entrepreneurs) (see Audretsch and Keilbach, 2008).

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Empirical and theoretical analysis of technology adoption over the stages of entrepreneurship.
• Technology adoption in family firms.
• The impact of technology adoption on economic and societal value creation.
• The role of intelligent technologies (internet of things, neural networks, blockchain, artificial intelligence) in the context of economic and social efficiency.
• The role of cloud computing as a learning process for firm performance and productivity.
• The interplay of prevailing technologies (cloud computing, mobile data, data analytics internet of things, blockchain, artificial intelligence) at different stages of the entrepreneurial journey.
• How fast and how much technology is required to start a business/ maintain a business?
• Future perspectives on technology development.
• Cooperation between entrepreneurs, corporates and government on technology management and innovation.
• The way information is collected, processed, transformed and shared within latent, nascent, emergent and growth entrepreneurship and how it changes productivity in entrepreneurial firms.
• The role of open innovation and technology sharing for entrepreneurial opportunity cognition and pursuit.

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 15 January, 2021

First round of review: 15 February, 2021

Revisions deadline: 1 June, 2021

Second round of review: 1 August, 2021

Revisions deadline: 15 October, 2021

Final acceptance: 30 November, 2021