Newswise — The 38th annual Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), co-sponsored by the School of Business Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), Centre for Enterprise Development and Regional Economy (CEDRE) and the Irish Network for Teachers and Researchers of Entrepreneurship (INTRE), is being held in Waterford, Ireland through June 9, 2018.

BCERC, widely considered the world’s 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 2018 BCERC Call for Papers received 681 abstracts from lead authors from 46 countries. Of these, 350 researchers are attending the conference from 37 countries to present papers.

2018 BCERC Doctoral Consortium Program

In addition to the conference, and hosted in conjunction with BCERC since 1985, Babson College will hold the 2018 BCERC Doctoral Consortium Program, co-sponsored by the School of Business, Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, ArcLabs Research & Innovation Centre, and the Society for Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS).

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 110 applications from 28 countries for 25 places.

Co-Sponsorship

BCERC is pleased and honored to have co-sponsorship with the School of Business, Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), Centre for Enterprise Development and Regional Economy (CEDRE) and the Irish Network for Teachers and Researchers of Entrepreneurship (INTRE) and our BCERC—(WIT) Sponsors—Salesforce, Southern Regional Assembly (SRA), European Union European Regional Development Fund, South East Business Innovation Centre (SEBIC), Waterford City & County CouncilFailte IrelandThe Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) and County Councils of: Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, THE packaginghubImmersive VR EducationnearFormand The House of Waterford Crystal.

During the Salesforce-BCERC – WIT 2018 Awards Dinner on Friday evening, June 8, the Best Paper Awards for the 2018 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 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 world.

Waterford Institute of Technology

WIT is the major provider of higher education in the South East region of Ireland and one of the largest institutes of technology in Ireland. WIT’s range and scope reflect the changing needs of the South East as well as the country as a whole. The range of academic programs is extensive, ranging from Higher Certificate right through to post-doctoral research and covering the Humanities, Health and Nursing, Science and Informatics, Engineering and Architecture, Business and Education. WIT is Ireland’s leading research-informed institute of technology with a global reputation for innovation and research excellence. The institute has been focused on creativity and research innovation as a driver of the knowledge society for more than 20 years and plays a key role in Ireland’s social, cultural, and economic development. This is shown by the fact that WIT researchers have competed successfully against university researchers for prestigious national and EU research funding (e.g. PRTLI, SFI and EU Frameworks Programme FP4, FP5, FP6 and most recently FP7). During the last 10 years, Waterford Institute of Technology has successfully attracted more than €70 million in research funding. For more information, visit https://www.wit.ie/.

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The top-rankedcollege 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.

Meeting Link: The 38th annual Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), Waterford, Ireland, June 6-9, 2018