In late September, a distinguished group of entrepreneurship scholars came together in Austin, Texas, to celebrate the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (SEJ). The two-day conference was organized by the SEJ Co-Editors Peter Klein, Yong Li, and David Sirmon, with generous support from the Strategic Management Society and the University of Texas at Austin’s Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship. The conference posed two questions: how has entrepreneurship research developed over the past twenty years, and where the field might go in the next twenty.
Scholars from the U.S. were joined by colleagues from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for a total of 47 scholars from 34 institutions. The group included former SEJ co-editors, current associate editors, some of the field’s most highly cited scholars, editors of other leading entrepreneurship journals, and “rising star” junior scholars that were nominated by senior colleagues.
Rather than keynotes and paper presentations, the program ran as seven interactive panels featuring 36 senior and junior scholars. The panels took on questions such as Who counts as an entrepreneur?, Can entrepreneurship be taught? and Does AI change the fundamentals, or just the setting? As SEJ Co-Editor Peter Klein noted, “The discussion, as expected, was lively and provocative and featured a mix of reflection and informed speculation about the future.”
Several themes ran through the conversations:
- Decision-making under uncertainty is emerging as the core unifying construct around which the field can be built.
- Institutions and grand challenges offer room to grow, as researchers apply entrepreneurship research to issues such as inequality, migration and social responsibility.
- Entrepreneurial education matters, since entrepreneurial skills are at least partly teachable, and research knowledge belongs in MBA and undergraduate classrooms.
- AI is already having a substantial effect on entrepreneurship research and practice, though much remains unknown about how it affects the quality of new ventures.
Klein reflected on the event’s significance for the journal and the Society: “The conference helped SEJ plant its flag as the leading entrepreneurship journal and helped establish the SEJ community (and SMS) as the premier venue and platform for advanced discussions on entrepreneurship research.”
Scholars at every career stage benefited. “Many participants told us they left with new ideas for future work and for potential collaboration,” Klein said. Early-career scholars in particular valued the format: “Several junior participants told us they had never been at an event like this—semi-structured panels and discussions rather than formal keynotes and paper presentations—and left with greater confidence in their own ability to engage in broader and wide-ranging discussions.”
Coming soon to SMS Members
All panel sessions were recorded. Photos and selected videos from the panel discussions will soon be shared with SMS Members and posted in the SMS Member Circle.
