Dear AIB Attendees:
We would like to invite you to a special session on global entrepreneurship in developing economies on
Sunday, July 1 from 2:30-3:45 in Hemisphere B, Ronald Reagan Building. The session will cover insights and research implications of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) 13th annual survey in 2011.
The session will be presented by GEM team leaders, board members, and the GEM Executive Director, who will discuss the nature of entrepreneurship in the BRICs, Latin American, Eastern European, and Southeast Asian economies. The panelists and discussant will
make some key observations and engage in a discussion with the audience about research using GEM data and opportunities for future research studies in developing economies.
We hope you can attend this exciting session—please see details below.
Donna Kelley
Frederic C. Hamilton Professor of Free Enterprise
Babson College
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND POLICY: INSIGHTS FROM THE GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MONITOR
Academy of International Business
2012 Conference, Washington DC
Session 1.4.1 - Special Session
Time: 2:30-3:45
Room: Hemisphere B
Chair: Donna Kelley, GEM USA Team Leader and member of GEM oversight board; Babson College
Discussant: Jose Ernesto Amoros, GEM Chile Team Leader and member of GEM oversight board; Universidad del Desarollo
Panelists:
·
Introduction to Developing Economies: Silvia Torres Carbonell, GEM Argentina Team Leader and member of GEM oversight board; IAE Business School
·
BRICS countries: Mike Herrington, GEM South Africa Team Leader and GEM Executive Director; University of Cape Town
·
Latin America Region: Leonardo Veiga, GEM Uruguay Team Leader and member of GEM oversight board; Universidad de Montevideo
·
Eastern Europe Region: Slavica Singer, GEM Croatia Team Leader and member of GEM oversight board; J.J. Strossmayer University
·
Southeast Asia Region: Roland Xavier, GEM Malaysia Team Leader and member of GEM oversight board; Universiti Tun Abdul Razak
Entrepreneurship is broadly viewed as a major contributor to the economic growth of nations. For economies at different stages
of development, however, entrepreneurship may play different roles. In emergent economies, entrepreneurship is typically prevalent as people seek to create a source of income when their societies cannot yet supply enough jobs—even amid a lack of institutions
and conditions to support these businesses. On the other end, developed economies have better conditions for entrepreneurship to thrive, yet people have other job options and some may prefer to work as employees, reducing the pool of entrepreneurs to those
that more likely have chosen to pursue their opportunities.
For economies in the middle stages of development, however, entrepreneurship may play its most complex role. Here, industrialization
is taking hold and institutions have emerged to support increasingly sophisticated business and legal environments. Expanding internal markets, opportunities to become value chain players with established organizations, better access to resources, and other
factors contribute to more favorable environmental conditions for entrepreneurship. At the same time, people have more job options as employees of private and public organizations and are therefore less likely to be pushed into entrepreneurship. Their governments
may need to acknowledge the value of entrepreneurship and take actions to enable and support this activity. Yet the relationship between policy and entrepreneurship is not well-understood, and there is little reliable data available to provide a range of insights
across these economies.
With the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, academics have the ability to examine this policy/entrepreneurship relationship across
multiple economies. In 2011, its 13th year, GEM surveyed 54 economies around the world, including 24 at the middle stage of development. This session will explore the frequency and nature of entrepreneurship in the BRICS countries and three developing
regions: Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. GEM team leaders from these regions will participate in a panel discussion about the nature of entrepreneurship in these economies, identifying some key areas for research on global entrepreneurship
and the conditions that may impact this activity in the developing world.
The session will open with an introduction to entrepreneurship in the developing economies and why these regions are unique
as a basis for entrepreneurship research. This will be followed by a brief presentation by each of the panelists on the environment for entrepreneurship in their regions and implications for policy and academic research. The discussant will make some key observations
about research using GEM data and opportunities for future research studies in developing economies. The audience will then be asked to join the discussion.