During his recent “Professional Development Leave” in Europe, ACE Director Per Davidsson was invited as keynote speaker at three different events. The first was at the European Association for Work- and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) conference in Sheffield, UK, on June 28-29, where Per delivered a speech on “Design & Methods in Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities for Psychology”. Thus, the organizers hoped for the participants to be able to draw on Per’s rich experience from empirical entrepreneurship research when conducting their future studies of entrepreneurship from a psychological perspective. This exemplifies the ongoing trend for entrepreneurship to become a topic of research not only within business schools but also in disciplines like economics, sociology, and psychology.
Second, at the opening of the new Centre for Evidence-based Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University, Germany. Per gave a speech on the topic “Entrepreneurship Research: The Past Decade and Routes Forward”. Under the leadership of Professor Michael Frese – on of Per’s colleagues as Field Editor of the Journal of Business Venturing – Leuphana is building up a strong presence in entrepreneurship research. The emphasis on “evidence-based” marks an interest in robust, replicable findings and in influencing practice, as per ACE’s second mission. Apart from delivering his speech Per explored collaboration possibilities with Professor Frese, and additional visits in either direction or both are likely to follow in 2013.
Third, on October 30, ACE Director Per Davidsson gave a presentation at the OECD headquarters in Paris. The presentation was on “The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) & Other Panel Studies of Nascent Entrepreneurs(hip). Organizer Dirk Pilat, Head of the Science and Technology Policy Division of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology & Industry had gathered an audience representing all the different units within the OECD which work with entrepreneurship, innovation, and small business development issues. The presentation was very well received because the type of studies covered provide supplementary evidence about the start-up phase whereas the OECD otherwise primarily only works with register data, which only capture firms after they have successfully established themselves in the market. The event was initiated by Richard Snabel, General Manager of the Industry Policy & Analysis Branch, Industry and Innovation Division at the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE). Richard is also Chair of the Committee on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Organisation of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The event was a by-product of ACEs close collaboration with DIISRTE on policy-relevant reports from the CAUSEE project.