Newswise — Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), widely considered the premier conference for entrepreneurial research, was established in 1981 to provide a dynamic venue where academics and real-world practitioners link theory and practice, and to encourage and increase quality research in entrepreneurship. The 2017, BCERC Call for Papers received 491 abstracts from lead authors from 38 countries. Of these, 300 researchers are attending the conference from 25 countries to present papers.

In addition to the conference, and hosted in conjunction with BCERC since 1985, Babson College will hold the 2017 BCERC Doctoral Consortium Program, co-sponsored by the University of Oklahoma Michael F. Price College of Business. The Doctoral Consortium provides doctoral students with the opportunity to gain insight into current research issues through intense interaction with consortium faculty, and seeks to encourage scholars and educators to become leaders in the field of entrepreneurship education. The Doctoral Consortium received 76 applications from 19 countries for 25 participants.

BCERC is pleased and honored to have co-sponsorship with the University of Oklahoma Michael F. Price College of Business. Established in 1928, the Michael F. Price College of Business ensures the enduring global competitiveness of Oklahoma and the nation. As OU’s second-largest college, the Price College of Business educates over 4,000 students through undergraduate, master’s, executive and doctoral programs across six academic divisions in Accounting, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Finance, Management and International Business, Management Information Systems, and Marketing and Supply Chain Management.

The college boasts over 25 nationally ranked programs. U.S. News & World Report currently ranks the college’s undergraduate program in the top 50 (#48) on its list of "Best Undergraduate Business Programs." The Steed School of Accounting is consistently ranked in the top 10 at both the undergraduate and graduate level among other business schools of its size by Public Accounting Report. The Center for Entrepreneurship is consistently ranked second in the nation among public universities at the undergraduate level and among the top 10 by Princeton Review andEntrepreneur Magazine. The International Business program ranks in the top 30 by U.S. News & World Report for the 11th consecutive year. The Price College Full-Time and Professional MBA Programs are among Bloomberg Businessweek’s Best B-Schools of 2016, and ranked as a Tier I program by CEO Magazine the past two years. The Executive MBA is also ranked as a Tier I program by CEO Magazine and among the top three in the world by Find-MBA.com the past two years. 

Babson College and the University of Oklahoma are honored to have the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation sponsorship of the Doctoral Consortium Program. Local sponsors of the conference also include the Norman Economic Development Coalition, the Norman Chamber of Commerce and VisitNorman.

On Friday evening, June 9th, at the Oklahoma Memorial Union, the Best Paper Awards for the 2016 issue of Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research BCERC Proceedings will be announced.  The Best Paper Award Sponsors are: The Babson College Bertarelli Family Award for The Best Paper on the Topic of Family Entrepreneurship; The Ewing Marion Kauffman Emerging Scholar Award; The Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM) Award for The Best Paper on the Topic of Public Policy; The G. Dale Meyer Award for The Most Relevant Research in Social Entrepreneurship; The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) for The Best Paper on a General Topic of Entrepreneurship and The Oregon State University Best Paper Award for the best paper on the topic of Ethics in Entrepreneurship.  Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research BCERC Proceedings (FER) contains summaries of the presented papers, and the abridged papers of the selected top 40 papers. FER is the most comprehensive collection of empirical research papers on entrepreneurship, representing research from institutions from around the globe. 

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.