Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management and Growth in European and Fast-Expanding Economies

The planned project will have a topical and a geographical dimension. The first topic, that will be addressed is entrepreneurship and factors (e.g., risk, team diversity, strategy, social networks) influencing the early stages of a start-up process. Related to entrepreneurship is the second topic, innovation management that will deal with knowledge creation and its management in start-ups, SMEs but also large established firms. The third topic addresses leadership and human resource issues related to both entrepreneurship and innovation management. Geographically, the project will take into account that knowledge and innovation in the international context flow in multiple directions. Therefore, the above mentioned topics will be studied interdisciplinary and in academic (e.g., universities, business schools) as well as non-academic institutions (e.g., foundations, small and medium-sized enterprises) in both European countries and fast-expanding economies (e.g., China, Morocco, Argentina) and - where possible - in cross-national context. This will be achieved through a well-dosed amount of international mobility between the participating institutions.