CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue of the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal (ISSN Print: 1554-7191) Knowledge management in entrepreneurial organizations Special Issue Editors: David B. Audretsch, Indiana University, USA Erik Lehmann, Augsburg University, Germany Maksim Belitski, University of Reading, United Kingdom Rosa Caiazza, University of Naples, Parthenope, Italy Full Paper Submission Deadline: April 15, 2018 The complexities of global change in knowledge management highlight the necessity of collaborative engagement between communities of practice, disciplines, capacities, and borders. Researcher and practitioners are keen to strengthen understanding of challenges related to knowledge spillover and knowledge sourcing in domestic and international contexts with academic rigor, expertise, public understanding and policy delivery. Much of what is known about the knowledge management in entrepreneurial organizations is based on the studies of endogenous growth (Romer, 1994), strategic entrepreneurship (Agarwal et al. 2010; Audretsch et al. 2015; Ghio et al. 2015; international business and knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship (Cuervo, Ribeiro and Roig, 2007; Acs et al. 2013). In addition, exponential growth and adoption of digital technologies has further changed the landscape of use knowledge exploration and exploitation changing the entrepreineurial environment for SMEs and scale-ups (Li et al. 2016). Comparatively little research effort has been devoted to channels of knowledge management within entrepreneurial organization (Cohen and Levinthal, 1994; Aizpurúa et al. 2011), across industries (Kenney and Patton, 2005; Ratten, 2011), localized networks and clusters (Florida and Kenney, 1988; Audretsch and Feldman, 1996) and within the international collaboration setting (Duysters and Lokshin, B., 2011; Fernandes et al. 2013; Audretsch et al. 2015).
Research on knowledge management overlaps with knowledge creation and sharing in-house and knowledge sourcing from external collaborators, with its pros and cons (Ritala et al. 2015), which has been the subject of much scholarly attention. It has mostly been considered independently rather than in combination with each other important issue strategic management of knowledge (Ferreira et al. 2017). This special issue offers a forum for researchers who are interested in the strategic management of knowledge and knowledge spillovers in SMEs, start-ups, scale ups and innovative firms. We hope to gather the best examples of empirical research and theoretical development and showcase novel empirical strategies and new data sources with both domestic and global focus. We are particularly interested in work that develops new conceptual frameworks or integrates findings and theories across multiple domains and perspectives of strategic management and entrepreneurship literature. By integrating these two strands of literature as described in Audretsch et al. (2005), we may develop a theory and empirically investigate the phenomenon inspiring future research on the topic in a new context. This special issue will draw on the sources and channels of the knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship (e.g. external partners, inhouse or collaborative R&D activity, other investment in creative work, sourcing of labor, international trade in goods and services). Against this background the aim of this special issue contributes to the debate on knowledge frontiers and boundaries for entrepreneurial organizations, knowledge exploration and exploitation yielding new conceptual understanding of knowledge measurement and management. It is interested in submissions that provide originality and new thinking, and ways of communicating this, to our understanding of the international challenges of knowledge creation, knowledge spillover and knowledge commercialization within and across local, regional and national boundaries. The research outputs should inform policymaking and / or public awareness of the topic in Europe and internationally. Manuscripts can be both international in scope as well as investigating domestic issues with global relevance. Manuscripts accepted for publication should include implications for business practice. Both conceptual and empirical papers, from different analytical and methodological perspectives, can be submitted. In doing so, we can together build a body of high quality, cumulative research that extends our current knowledge.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following aspects: How knowledge and empirical evidence are built, communicated and disseminated in a cross-disciplinary context of entrepreneurial organizations? How do different institutional, business, political or cultural settings change knowledge flows and the mechanisms of knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship? The role of organizational and environmental conduits, such as formal and informal institutions, corruption and newly available digital technology for expansion of knowledge frontiers and penetration of knowledge boundaries? The role of entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders and entrepreneurial community in the knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship at firm, industry and regional levels? What is the role of knowledge and creativity management in development of entrepreneurial ecosystem and communication channels between stakeholders? How does knowledge spillover work across variety of entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders, type of knowledge (e.g. tangible and intangible, complete and incomplete, individually or collectively owned) and, finally, geographical proximity between knowledge producer and knowledge recipient? The phenomenon of reverse knowledge spillovers and snipping off knowledge benefits in entrepreneurial organizations: way of protection, engagement or disengagement. What is an appropriate research methodology to study the knowledge spillover across type of knowledge, knowledge partners, networks of ecosystem stakeholders and various institutional frameworks? Important dates Deadline for submission of full paper is: April 15, 2018. Please send your papers directly to the guest-editors and make sure to follow the Submission Guidelines available at: http://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/entrepreneurship/journal/11365 Papers should be a maximum of 10,000 words in length. For informal inquires related to the Special Issue, proposed topics and potential fit with the Special Issue objectives, please send a voluntary abstract (250 words) until February 1, 2018 to Maksim Belitski m.belitski@reading.ac.uk
Guest Co-editors contact details: David B. Audretsch - Indiana University, USA (daudrets@indiana.edu); Erik Lehmann, Augsburg University, Germany (erik.lehmann@wiwi.uni-augsburg.de), Rosa Caiazza, University of Naples, Parthenope, Italy (your email); Maksim Belitski, University of Reading, United Kingdom (m.belitski@reading.ac.uk) References Acs, Z. J., Audretsch, D. B., & Lehmann, E. E. (2013). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 41(4), 757-774. Agarwal, R., Audretsch, D., & Sarkar, M. B. (2010). Knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 4, 271 283. Aizpurúa, L. I., Saldaña, P. E. Z., & Saldaña, A. Z. (2011). Learning for sharing: an empirical analysis of organizational learning and knowledge sharing. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7(4), 509-518. Audretsch, D. B., & Feldman, M. P. (1996). R&D spillovers and the geography of innovation and production. The American economic review, 86(3), 630-640. Audretsch, D. B., Castrogiovanni, G. J., Ribeiro, D., & Roig, S. (2005). Linking entrepreneurship and management: Welcome to the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 1(1), 5-7. Audretsch, D. B., Kuratko, D. F., & Link, A. N. (2015). Making sense of the elusive paradigm of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 45(4), 703-712. Cohen, W.M., & Levinthal, D.A. (1994). Fortune favors the prepared firm. Manag. Sci. 40 (2), 227 251. Cuervo, Á., Ribeiro, D., & Roig, S. (Eds.). (2007). Entrepreneurship: concepts, theory and perspective. Springer Science & Business Media.Duysters, G.M., & Lokshin, B., 2011. Determinants of alliance portfolio complexity and its effect on innovative performance of companies. J. Prod. Innov. Manag. 28 (4), 570 585Ferreira, J. J., Ferreira, J. J., Ratten, V., & Dana, L. P. (2017). Knowledge spillover-based strategic entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 13(1), 161-167.
Fernandes, C., Ferreira, J., & Raposo, M. (2013). Drivers to firm innovation and their effects on performance: an international comparison. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 9(4), 557 580. Florida, R. L., & Kenney, M. (1988). Venture capital, high technology and regional development. Regional Studies, 22(1), 33-48. Ghio, N., Guerini, M., Lehmann, E. E., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2015). The emergence of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 44(1), 1-18. Kenney, M., & Patton, D. (2005). Entrepreneurial geographies: Support networks in three high-technology industries. Economic Geography, 81(2), 201-228. Li, W., Liu, K., Belitski, M., Ghobadian, A., & O'Regan, N. (2016). e-leadership through strategic alignment: an empirical study of small-and medium-sized enterprises in the digital age. Journal of Information Technology, 31(2), 185-206. Ratten, V., & Dana, L. P. (2017). Knowledge spillover-based strategic entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 13(1), 161-167. Ritala, P., Olander, H., Michailova, S., & Husted, K. (2015). Knowledge sharing, knowledge leaking and relative innovation performance: An empirical study. Technovation, 35, 22-31. Romer, P. M. (1994). The origins of endogenous growth. The journal of economic perspectives, 8(1), 3-22.
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