Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management: New Opportunities and Challenges

Contemporary business environment simultaneously poses a variety of challenges and opens a number of opportunities to entrepreneurial firms. As a result, SMEs are forced to look for new models of strategic behavior aimed at maintaining their competitiveness in a complex external environment as well as leverage arising contingencies in a more flexible manner. This track welcomes papers to foster discussion on the following topics (the list is not exhaustive):

• directions of entrepreneurship development across globe
• emergence of intentions to startup
• SMEs strategic behavior
• sources of entrepreneurial opportunities
• adoption of entrepreneurial strategies within established businesses
• emergence of innovative startups
• personality of entrepreneur
• building SMEs resilience to consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The track will open with a roundtable “Предпринимательство и стратегическое поведение фирм малого и среднего бизнеса в период кризиса” (Working language-Russian). The roundtable will be devoted to discussion of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) evidence on entrepreneurial activity in Russia as compared to other countries, followed by an open dialog with entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Keynote Speakers: 

Oleksiy Osiyevskyy, PhD

Title of the talk: The role of disciplined entrepreneurship for thriving in a new fragmented world

Dr. Oleksiy Osiyevskyy is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary and Academic Director of the Global Business Futures Initiative. In his scholarship, Dr. Osiyevskiy concentrates on the problem of achieving and sustaining firm growth through successfully engaging in entrepreneurial strategies. Particular areas of expertise include analyzing and designing innovative business models, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of corporate innovation practices, and evidence-based strategies for developing high-growth new ventures.

Tatiana Manolova, DBA

Title of the talk: Gender effects on the path from entrepreneurial education to entrepreneurial intentions among STEM students in emerging markets

Prof. Tatiana Manolova is a Professor of Management at Bentley University, Waltham, MA.

Research and teaching interests include strategic management, international entrepreneurship, and management in transition economies. She is currently affiliated with Diana International, a collaborative project which investigates the growth and financial strategies of women-led businesses worldwide. Prof. Manolova serves on three journal editorial boards, the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference Board of Reviewers, and is a Consulting Editor for the International Small Business Journal.