Knowledge Management in the 21st Century: Resilience, Creativity

12th International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics
IFKAD 2017
Knowledge Management in the 21st Century:
Resilience, Creativity and Co-creation
St. Petersburg, Russia | 7-9 June 2017
Special Track
Encouraging social entrepreneurship in a changing
world
Organizers:
Angelo Bonfanti | University of Verona, Italy
Rossella Canestrino | Parthenope University of Naples, Italy
Tomasz Kafel | Cracow University of Economics, Poland
Pierpaolo Magliocca | University of Foggia, Italy
Cristina Simone | Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Description:
The track calls for original, inspiring and research-grounded papers about the
way social aims may be pursued by the means of entrepreneurship that means
about the way both new and existing knowledge may be managed to solve
societal problems, supporting social changes and improvements at the same
time.
Accordingly, the proposed track aims to collect both theoretical and empirical
contributions examining processes, methods and tools employed by both profit
and non-profit organizations in the development of their own "social oriented"
activities. Examining the linkage between knowledge and entrepreneurship is
not new in the literature.
A wide body of cross-national contributions recognizes the existing affinity
between individual's ability to identify business opportunities and to act on
them by starting a new venture (Audretsch and Keilbach, 2005; Sarasvathy et
al., 2003; Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990; Venkataraman, 1997). In accordance,
entrepreneurship was usually considered as the process by which individuals
pursue entrepreneurial opportunities without regard to the resources they
currently control (Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990), by: 1) catching opportunities
and 2) maximizing the value creation through the exploitation of the existing
resources, as well as through the development of new ones. Within the field of
the mentioned perspective, Sarasvathy et al. (2003, p. 142) provide for a
definition of "entrepreneurial opportunity" as "a set of beliefs and actions that
enable the creation of future goods and services in the absence of current
markets for them".
But what about the individuals' ability to recognize and use opportunities for
business or social purposes?
Much of the more contemporary thinking about entrepreneurship has focused on
the differences among the individuals with reference to the cognitive process
by which they reach the decision to start a new firm (Shaver, 2003; Shane and
Eckhardt, 2003, Krueger; 2003; McClelland, 1965): according to their
perspective variations across peoples' attributes – as self-efficacy (the
individual's sense of competence), collective efficacy, social norms, and
previous personal experience (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000) – are responsible
for the establishment of a different cognitive process (that means different
learning processes and knowledge models acquisition) that leads people to
become an entrepreneur.
Rather than examining individual variations, Audretsch and Keilbach (2005)
analyzed how the cognitive process, inducing the entrepreneurial decision, is
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affected by the context, particularly comparing high knowledge contexts with
impoverished knowledge, finding that high knowledge contexts generate more
entrepreneurial opportunities, where the entrepreneur serves as a conduit for
knowledge spillovers. By contrast, impoverished knowledge contexts were
found to generate fewer entrepreneurial opportunities.
According to the mentioned perspectives, therefore, knowledge, be it new or
existing one – may be considered an important source, not only for the arising
of business entrepreneurship, but also for social entrepreneurship.
In spite of the underlined contributions, nevertheless, very little is already
known about the way knowledge may be addressed to get social purposes, as
well as about the reasons why entrepreneurs pursue social aims, rather than
business ones. This is particularly true with reference to the role played by
culture and institutional constrains.
As supported by the wide literature about the topic, both firms' propensity to
devote and to adopt social responsible practices is affected by culture
(Parjanen, 2012; Eisenberg, 1999, Taylor and Wilson, 2012; Kaasa and Vadi,
2010; Arslan, 2000; Husted, 2000, 2001) mainly because of the relevance that
values and beliefs have in shaping the hierarchy of firms' goals. Similarly, since
very few firms are able to develop internally a wide range of knowledge, social
entrepreneurial initiative are likely to develop easier when actors (at both firm
and institutional level) relate one to each other, producing new patterns of
learning (Canestrino and Magliocca, 2016). But, in doing this, individuals and
organizations are strongly influenced and shaped by institutions; that means
they are "embedded" in an institutional environment or set of rules, which
include the legal system, norms, and standards (Freeman, 1987; Lundvall, 1992;
Edquist, 1997). In the path of the mentioned perspective, therefore, new and
existing research topic belong to the exploration of the existing linkage
between culture, institutional constraints and the emergence of social
entrepreneurship, at both national and international level.
According to these considerations, multidisciplinary approaches and
interdisciplinary contributions will be welcomed and encouraged, in order to
produce a cross-fertilization and a deep understanding of a complex, and still
little investigated phenomenon.
This track will host original research and case studies by academic and business
providers on strategies, processes, tools, and methods to manage knowledge for
social entrepreneurship.
Authors are invited to submit theoretical, empirical and practitioner papers
belonging to the following topics:
•
Drivers and implications of social entrepreneurship
•
Models and measurement for social entrepreneurship
•
Specificity of performance measurement/management in social
entrepreneurship (ex.: SROI, Social Value, Social Profit, etc.);
•
Social entrepreneurship and creativity: how to use knowledge in a creative
way to solve or reduce societal gaps (e.g.: social innovation);
•
Knowledge Transfer and Learning in Non Profit Organizations (e.g.: what
can companies learn from Non Profit Organizations);
•
Networks for social entrepreneurship;
•
Tools to get social aims: resources acquisition and crowdfunding.
•
Getting Sustainability by the means of social entrepreneurship
Other topics not included in the list, but relevant for the track will be
evaluated
Keywords:
Social entrepreneurship, social aims, social benefits, knowledge management,
knowledge transfer, learning process, social development
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Guidelines:
Researchers wishing to contribute are invited to submit an extended structured
abstract (in MS-Word format) of 500-700 words by January 15, 2017. The
abstract should address theoretical background, research objective,
methodology, and results in terms of expected contribution to Knowledge
Management theory and practice. Authors are encouraged to follow the
guidelines for both extended abstracts as well as full papers available on IFKAD
site www.ifkad.org
Important dates:
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15 January 2017 - Abstracts Submission Deadline
20 February 2017 - Acceptance notification to authors
15 March 2017 - Early-Bird registration deadline
10 April 2017 - Full paper submission deadline
10 May 2017 - Registration deadline
7-9 June 2017 - Conference sessions
For further information
For any further information, please contact the conference manager at
[email protected]
www.ifkad.org