On the 20th - 21st February, Orla Byrne in collaboration with Richard Tunstall, Karen Verduyn and Bruce Teague organized and ran the 2nd Annual Entrepreneurship as Practice PhD & Research Workshop at the UCD School of Business, Dublin, Ireland 

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Special Issue Workshop for Entrepreneurship and Regional Development Journal

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Conveners

• Orla Byrne, Assistant Professor, School of Business, University College Dublin

• Richard Tunstall, Assistant Professor, Leeds University Business School, Leeds University

• Karen Verduyn, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Economics & Business Administration, VU Amsterdam

• Bruce Teague, Associate Professor, Centre for Entrepreneurship, Eastern

        Washington University
 

 

Confirmed Keynote Speakers and Panelists

• Theodore Schatzki, Senior Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky

• Dimo Dimov, Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Bath

• Susan Marlow, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Nottingham University Business School

• Robin Holt, Professor, Dep. of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School

• Bengt Johannisson

         Professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Development, Vaxjo University

• Susi Geiger, Professor, School of Business, University College Dublin

• William B. Gartner, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Copenhagen Business School & California
  Lutheran University

 

About the Workshop
The workshop was aimed at scholars and PhD students who are using or
are interested in using a practice theory-led approach to entrepreneurship. The workshop helped develop papers for submission to a Special Issue in Entrepreneurship and Regional Development Journal titled 'Entrepreneurship as practice; Grounding entrepreneurship into  contemporary practice theory' 

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Workshop Summary
Building on the first workshop (February 2016 at VU Amsterdam), this workshop explored what the ‘practice turn’ (Nicolini, 2009, 2012; Schatzki et al.,2001; Schatzki, 2005), may bring to understanding entrepreneurship. Initiated by such calls as having been made by Steyaert (2007) and Johannisson (2011), the entrepreneurship as practice movement is now gaining traction, witnessed by Goss et al. (2011), Keating et al. (2013), and Chalmers & Shaw (2015).

The workshop started with with a keynote presentation by Theodore Schatzki (Senior Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky) entitled “What’s practice got to do [got to do] with it”. The presentation gave an overview of practice theory, what this theoretical stream is about, why it is spreading, what it is good for, and some of its limitations. You can see his full presentation here.

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Following the presentation,a panel discussion made up of Professor Theodore Schatzki, Professor Bengt Johannisson, Professor Bill Gartner discussed how can practice theory advance the field of entrepreneurship; how to define what entrepreneurship as practice can and cannot be; and the boundaries, limitations and future possibilities. 

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After parallel sessions where participants spoke about their ongoing entrepreneurship-as-practice studies, Richard Tunstall chaired a plenary discussion titled "Bringing it all together: Practice, entrepreneurship & our own research" that reflected on the pre-workshop readings (outlined above), key note address, panel discussion, and paper presentations.

 

The first day ended with a dinner and drinks at Eden Bar & Grill.

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Bright and early the next day, Bengt Johannisson (Professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Development, Vaxjo University) gave a keynote presentation about enactive research as a methodological approach to conducting and theorising practice research, followed by Q&As. You can see his full presentation here.

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Afterwards a very informative and open panel discussion chaired by Susi Geiger with editors Susan Marlow, Robin Holt, and Dimo Dimov. Gave advice and recommendations for publishing empirical practice research. You can see the full discussion here. 

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A final round table discussion led by Orla Bryne and Neil Thompson discussed final thoughts about challenges and opportunities faced in conducting practice based studies, as well as what the guest editors for the EAP Special Issue in ERD are looking for in submissions. The workshop ended with a discussion about where and when to host the 3rd EAP workshop. You can see all the pictures from the workshop here.

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We are already looking forward to the 3rd EaP Workshop next year in Sweden!