ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ENT)

Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) are among the most rewarding, stimulating, and enjoyable sessions of the Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting. The Entrepreneurship Division invites creative and innovative proposals for interactive PDW sessions for the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024) in Chicago, IL, USA. We are looking for interesting, engaging, and creative PDW’s on Research (topics and methods), Teaching, and Practice to Scholarship and back. We encourage you to include in the abstract information about the PDW itself, as well as also explain why other Divisions would want to cross-list it.

Given its mission, “We Grow Entrepreneurial Scholars” the ENT Division favors proposals that give participants at all career stages the opportunity to learn new skills, share ideas, help other scholars, have new experiences, and build connections. PDWs are meant as complements, not substitutes, for the regular AOM program. They should NOT cover conventional themes and topics or be structured as traditional paper or panel sessions. Rather, PDWs should be innovative in content and structure, exploring issues and encouraging interactions not usually featured in the main program. PDW sessions are typically structured as workshops, breakout sessions, tutorials, discussion panels, research incubators, or other interactive formats. PDWs should be thought provoking but also the place to safely present and explore new ideas, by linking different views and creating new research opportunities. Through the exchange of ideas and collaboration across different fields and disciplines, we can develop new avenues for research. We welcome submissions featuring innovative topics or themes, new forms of exchange, and experimental formats—for example, sessions that use technology in novel ways, create interactions among participants before or after the session, and engage participants in new ways.

Proposals should interest members of the Entrepreneurship Division, or fit its domain, which includes not only the phenomena of self-employment, small-business management, family business, new venture formation, innovation, and firm growth but also more general ideas about the recognition, analysis, and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities; the nature of novelty, creativity, and innovativeness; and how individuals and groups exercise judgment under uncertainty. Sessions with standard paper presentations are more appropriate for traditional symposia.

However, the most effective PDWs encourage interaction among individuals and groups which do not typically participate in the same sessions, workshops, and activities: not only within the Entrepreneurship Division (e.g., between junior and senior scholars, between academics and practitioners, among scholars from different countries, among academics following different career paths, and so on), but also across the divisional lines of the Academy. Hence you are encouraged to work with colleagues within and outside the Division and submit appropriate PDW proposals which have broad appeal to the Academy membership at-large. While not required, submitters are encouraged to consider the overall AOM 2024 conference theme, “Innovating for the Future” when developing their proposals. PDWs are also focused on fostering and connecting communities by creating bridges between distinct publics that may not have interacted before. Through PDWs, it is possible to create a space where previously disconnected communities can come together, share their knowledge and expertise, build new relationships and ultimately contributing to the growth and development of the field of entrepreneurship.

Proposals will be evaluated based on (a) expected substantive and networking benefit for participants, (b) plans for creating an interactive and engaging session, (c) breadth of interest of the session for individuals and groups within the Division and the broader Academy, (d) novelty of the topic or the forum for the exchanges, (e) the effective use of program time, and (f) fit with the conference theme. We encourage proposals that explicitly address these six criteria. Proposals that are a simple repeat – without new innovative content beyond what has already been covered – from previous years will not be considered favorably. Proposals will be evaluated on their ability to draw an audience from the specific discipline or across AOM, as well as its innovativeness and potential impact on the professional success of participants.

As PDWs are intended for professional development, proposals should explain how their session will foster interaction and personal development among participants as well as the audience they will aim to attract. In order to allow interaction, PDWs are typically at least two hours long, though sessions may be as short as 1.5 hours but must a minimum of 1-hour in duration.

Further, all submissions are limited to no more than 8 pages but must have at least 4 pages.

The title page must include the Academy submission system-assigned 5-digit submission number, title of the workshop (in Title Case), name of primary sponsor, and a list of other sponsors who might be interested in the workshop as well as an abstract (250 word maximum), one page explanation as why the workshop should be of interest to the ENT division, one page description of the PDW format, 1-3 page overview of the workshop. The page format requirements for all submissions are as follows: Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, 1-inch (2.5cm) margin all around, and 8.5" x 11" page setting. The entire submission must be contained in ONE document and must be either .pdf, .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Please note that if any of the above guidelines and formatting requirements are not met, the submission will not be reviewed.

Before submitting a PDW proposal, consider the following questions:

• Does the workshop offer a high quality and high level learning experience that has a significant positive impact on the professional development of the participants?
• Does the workshop provide participants with a clear takeaway? (E.g. learn a new skill; develop a new research plan)
• Does the workshop have a theme and a group of participants to draw a strong audience regardless of competing sessions or scheduling restrictions?
• Does the workshop encourage multi-way conversation and interaction among participants from multiple divisions, disciplines, regions, career stages, or demographic backgrounds?
• Is the workshop creative and innovative in all of its elements?

William L. Dougan of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has provided an additional resource in the form of A Guide for Creating and Managing a Good Professional Development Workshop.

Proposals should be submitted to the AOM Submission Center, which is available beginning early December of 2023. Early submissions and expressions of interest are encouraged. The AOM 2024 submission deadline is Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 17:00 ET UTC-5/GMT-5. The PDW program runs from Friday through Sunday, 9-11 August. All named PDW participants must commit to participation in advance. All proposals require a statement indicating that all named participants have consented to participate in the PDW. The AOM’s “Rule of Three” for the PDW program is that “no one may submit or be associated with more than 3 PDW submissions; or appear in more than 3 PDW sessions during the preconference from Friday to Saturday, regardless of whether the sessions are held on-site or off-site.” If you have questions or would like to discuss a potential workshop idea, please contact the Entrepreneurship Division’s PDW Chair, Christina Theodoraki. To ensure sufficient time to develop your proposal, please forward your general inquiries before 15 December 2023. See you in Chicago!