ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

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The 8th version of this Conference aims to advance our understanding of entrepreneurship-as-practice, foster network ties, facilitate collaborative writing relationships, and build a strong community of practice scholars.

 

The 8th version of this Conference will take place in-person only Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany.

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The organizers have developed a Research Conference that includes keynote lectures, panel sessions, paper pitches and a working paper development session. Furthermore, the Conference is for scholars and PhDs new to practice theories. The Conference aims at educating interested scholars as well as helps to develop empirical and conceptual papers regarding the ‘practice turn’ taking place in entrepreneurship studies. Building on the first (February 2016 at VU Amsterdam), second (February 2017 at University College Dublin Quinn School of Business), third (April 2018 at Linnaeus University), fourth (April2019 at Nantes Business School), fifth and sixth (virtual events), and seventh (April 2022 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Entrepreneurship-as-Practice (EaP) conferences, this conference and symposium will be held at Leuphana University.

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INTRODUCTION

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The practice tradition (also known as practice-based studies, the practice approach or the practice lens) forefronts the notion that practices and their connections are fundamental to all social phenomena (Rouse, 2006; T. Schatzki, Knorr-Cetina, & Savigny, 2001). For entrepreneurship it means that people “perform” ventures, startups and firms on an everyday basis through materially accomplished and ordered practices (Chalmers & Shaw, 2017; Hill,2018; Johannisson, 2011; Vincent & Pagan, 2019). This is to say that descriptions and explanations of entrepreneurship—such as, recognizing, evaluating and exploiting opportunities—are incomplete without the ‘alternate’ description and explanation of how entrepreneurial life is actually lived in and through practices (Gross, Carson, & Jones, 2014; Keating, Geiger, & Mcloughlin, 2013). The term ‘practice’, therefore, does not refer to an ‘empty’ conceptual category of ‘what entrepreneurs think and do’ (Sklaveniti & Steyaert, 2019), but encompasses the meaning-making, identity-forming and order-producing interactions (Chia &Holt, 2006; Nicolini, 2009) enacted by multiple entrepreneurial practitioners and situated in specific (historical) conditions. Therefore, practice theories orient entrepreneurship scholars to take seriously the practices of entrepreneuring as they unfold and are experienced in real-time rather than as they are remembered. Simply put, practice scholars are concerned with the ‘nitty-gritty’ work of entrepreneuring—all the meetings, the talking, the selling, the form-filling and the number-crunching by which opportunities actually get enacted (Matthews, Chalmers, & Fraser, 2018; Whittington, 1996).

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For background and information on EaP literature, prior conferences, media and other pertinent materials, please go to: https://www.entrepreneurshipaspractice.com.

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PROGRAMME  

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 Wednesday March 29th – Research Conference Day 1: Bridging Perspectives

                                                   

09.00 – 09.30 | Walk-in for coffee & tea 

 

09.30 – 09.50 | Welcome & introductions, moderated by Boukje Cnossen, Steffen Farny, & Ellen Nathues  

 

09.50 – 10.30 | Presentation ‘Taking stock of EaP research: Practice ontologies and entrepreneurial practice’ by Neil Thompson & Orla Byrne (including Q&A)

 

10.30 – 11.00 | Coffee break

 

11.00 – 11.30 | Introduction to the method roundtables by Neil Thompson & Boukje Cnossen

 

11.30 – 13.00 | Various method roundtables 

• Affective ethnography [C40.704]

• Analysing interaction and communication [C40.704]

• (Situated) interviewing [C40.175]

• Video methods [C40.175]

 

13.00 – 14.00 | Lunch [C40.256]

 

14.00 – 15.30 | Bridging perspectives to study entrepreneurship: Practice theories and the Communicative Constitution of Organization (CCO). A conversation between Silvia Gherardi & François Cooren, moderated by Boukje Cnossen & Ellen Nathues

 

15.30 – 16.00 | Coffee break

 

16.00 – 17.00 | Expert panel on publishing with Garima Sharma, Inge Hill, & Matthias Wenzel, moderated by Paul Lassalle

 

17.00 – 17.30 | Closing remarks and outlook onto the next two days, moderated by Boukje Cnossen  

 

19.00 | Conference dinner @ TO HUUS (Schröderstraße 5a/5b, 21335 Lüneburg)

 

March 30th – Research Conference Day 2: Interfaces between Research and Practice

09.00 – 09.30 | Walk-in for coffee & tea

 

09.30 – 11.00 | Keynote ‘Doing impactful entrepreneurship research: Translating, co-creating and performing’ by Garima Sharma, followed by Q&A, moderated by Steffen Farny

 

11.00 – 11.30 | Coffee break                          

 

11.30 – 12.30 | Impact-oriented entrepreneurship research: A conversation between Matthias Wenzel, Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, Garima Sharma, & Steffen Farny, moderated by Orla Byrne

 

12.30 – 14.00 | Lunch [C40.256] & transit to Ladenzeile [C25]          

 

14.00 – 14.45 | Presentation by Annette Schöneck and interactive fair with the Entrepreneurship Hub @ Ladenzeile [C25]

 

14.45 – 15.30 | Transit to the Utopia Coworking Space (in the city center) (Katzenstraße 1a, 21335 Lüneburg)

 

15.30 – 17.00 | Interactive exercise ‘Locating and grounding our own research’ by Silvia Gherardi & Steffen Farny (followed by drinks)

From onwards 19.00 | Dinner @ Soraya for those who wish to join (self-funded) (Lünertorstraße 18, 21335 Lüneburg)

 

March 31st – Research Conference Day 3: PDWs and Pitches  

09.00 – 09.30 | Walk-in for coffee & tea

 

09.30 – 11.40 | Parallel PDW sessions

• Paper session 1 – Chair Neil Thompson

• Paper session 2 – Chair Ari Kuismin

• Paper session 3 – Chair Orla Byrne

• Paper session 4 – Chair Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich

 

11.40 – 12.10 | Coffee break

 

12.10 – 13.30 | Parallel pitch sessions

• Pitch session 1 [C40.704]

• Pitch session 2 [C40.256]

• Pitch session 3 [C40.175]

 

13.30 – 13.45 | Closing remarks by organisers

 

From onwards 13.45 | Lunch and goodbye 

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Important Dates:

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January 31st, 2023                 Abstract Submission Deadline (Pitch and PDW)                                             

February 14, 2023                  Notification of Acceptance (Pitch and PDW)

March 14, 2022                       Full Paper Submission Deadline (PDW) 

March 20, 2022                      Registration Deadline (All participants)

March 29 - 31 2023                Symposium andConference Dates

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Conference Fees:

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PhD students: €220

All other scholars: €250

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Registration:

https://eveeno.com/332578185

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Questions:

boukje.cnossen@leuphana.de

 

References

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• Chalmers, D. M., & Shaw, E. (2017). The endogenous construction of entrepreneurial contexts: A practice-based perspective. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 35(1), 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242615589768

• Chia, R., & Holt, R. (2006). Strategy as Practical Coping: A Heideggerian Perspective. Organization Studies , 27(5), 635–655. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606064102

• Gross, N., Carson, D., & Jones, R. (2014). Beyond rhetoric: re-thinking entrepreneurial marketing from a practice perspective. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, 16(2), 105–127. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRME-01-2014-0003

• Hill, I. (2018). How did you get up and running? Taking a bourdieuan perspective towards a framework for negotiating strategic fit. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 30(5–6), 662–696. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2018.1449015

• Johannisson, B. (2011). Towards a practice theory of entrepreneuring. Small Business Economics, 36(2), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-009-9212-8

• Keating, A., Geiger, S., & Mcloughlin, D. (2013). Riding the Practice Waves: Social Resourcing Practices During New Venture Development. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 38(5), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12038

• Matthews, R. S., Chalmers, D. M., & Fraser, S. S. (2018). The intersection of entrepreneurship and selling: An interdisciplinary review, framework, and future research agenda. Journal of Business Venturing, In Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.04.008

• Nicolini, D. (2009). Zooming in and out: studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trailing connections. Organization Studies, 30(12), 1391–1418.

• Rouse, J. (2006). Practice theory. In D. M. Gabbay, P. Thagard, & J. Woods (Eds.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science (Vol. 15, pp. 500–540). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044451542-1/50020-9

• Schatzki, T., Knorr-Cetina, K., & Savigny, E. von. (2001). The practice turn in contemporary theory. (T. R. Schatzki, K. Knorr-Cetina, & E. von Savigny, Eds.). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-5221(03)00029-0

• Sklaveniti, C., & Steyaert, C. (2019). Reflecting with Pierre Bourdieu: Towards a reflexive outlook for practice-based studies of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, (forthcoming), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2019.1641976

• Vincent, S., & Pagan, V. (2019). Entrepreneurial agency and field relations: A Realist Bourdieusian Analysis. Human Relations, 72(2), 188–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726718767952

• Whittington, R. (1996). Strategy as practice. Long Range Planning, 29(5), 731–735. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(96)00068-4