Time and place: 22 – 26 April 2024; Aalto University, School of Business, Ekonominaukio 1, PO Box 21210, 00076 Aalto, Finland. The exact classroom will be confirmed closer to the starting date of the course.
Learning goal and objectives:
The main goal of this PhD course is to support doctoral students in learning how to approach and conduct theoretically original and relevant entrepreneurship research. Specifically, students will:
- gain an overview of the main research traditions and current themes in entrepreneurship research and learn about the different concepts and theoretical perspectives commonly applied;
- be able to identify research problems and under-explored phenomena in the entrepreneurship literature and learn to develop theoretically motivated research questions for generating novel contributions;
- learn to use theories from other disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, economics, and geography, for studying entrepreneurship as a multifaceted phenomenon and pronouncedly multi-disciplinary field of scholarly inquiry;
- learn about different ways of theorizing and gain deeper insight into the process of publishing different genres of entrepreneurship research with a particular focus on making a theoretical contribution;
- be able to discuss their research ideas with peers as well as with experienced entrepreneurship scholars joining the course, and collectively brainstorm about potential ways to advance their ongoing research;
- build and strengthen their research network and move from generating research ideas to writing a short academic—review, theoretical, or empirical—paper of topical interest.
Instruction and assignments: All contact teaching (including lectures, class discussions, presentations, and teamwork sessions) will be organized as part of a five-day course workshop taking place at Aalto School of Business, from April 22–26, 2024. Overall, the course involves the following assignments:
Prior to the course, students are required to
- submit an individual paper proposal (1500-3000 words) by 12 April 2024
- submit a short review (250-400 words) of two paper proposals of another participant by 19 April 2024
- (virtually) meet with 1-2 other course participants to discuss, and prepare a short team reflection (3-5 ppt-slides) about, one assigned academic article
During the course, students are required to
- present their submitted paper proposal
- present their prepared team reflections
- share their thoughts on the two assigned paper proposals
After the course, students build on feedback during the workshop and are required to
- submit a short academic paper (minimum of 6000 words, excluding reference list) by 7 June 2024.
Upon notification of acceptance to the course, students will receive a detailed syllabus with all the needed course information, materials, and assignment instructions.
Credits: 6 ECTS
Grading: Grades range from 1-5 (sufficient – excellent).
- 65% of the final grade is based on the short academic paper
- 20% of final grade is based on the paper proposal submission and presentation
- 5% of the final grade is based on the short review of two paper proposals
- 10% of the final grade is based on the team reflection/presentation in-class
The five-day course workshop consists of 5 morning sessions (9:00–12:00) and 5 afternoon sessions (13:00–16:00). Participation in 8 out of 10 sessions is required to pass the course.
Prerequisites: The course is designed as cross-disciplinary and accessible to doctoral students from diverse backgrounds. However, it is especially useful for students interested in doing conceptual and/or empirical research in the broader field of entrepreneurship, and those interested in applying entrepreneurship in adjacent fields such as organization and management studies, international business, marketing, business ethics, and business history.
Admittance: Maximum number of participants is 25. Deadline for course applications is 16 February 2024. Applications should use the following application form and be sent by email to the instructor: ewald.kibler@aalto.fi. The acceptance notifications, accompanied with a detailed course syllabus, will be emailed to the applicants by 20 February 2024.
Course application form:
Name:
Contact address:
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University, faculty, and department:
Research field and major discipline:
(Tentative) Subject or title of dissertation:
When officially accepted to doctoral program:
Main supervisor(s):
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Motivation for course participation (max. 300 words):
Instructor:
Associate Professor, Dr. Ewald Kibler, Aalto School of Business, Ekonominaukio 1, PO Box 21210, 00076 Aalto, Finland; Email: ewald.kibler@aalto.fi, AaltoWebsite: ewald kibler; Publications: GoogleResearchProfile / ResearchGateProfile
Ewald Kibler is Professor (Associate) at Aalto School of Business (BIZ) and serves as Academy of Finland Fellow (until August 2023). He is also the Head of the Entrepreneurship Unit and Head of Doctoral Studies in Entrepreneurship at Aalto BIZ. Ewald received his M.A. in Sociology from the University of Graz, Austria, and his Ph.D. in Economic Geography from the University of Turku, Finland.
His research combines qualitative and quantitative methods and is pronouncedly multi-disciplinary, applying theories from psychology, sociology, and geography. His research interests include, for instance, new venture creation and legitimation (under extreme resource-constraints), entrepreneurial imaginations and failure, social and sustainable business venturing, regional and institutional embeddedness of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurship in times of crisis, youth and senior entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial wellbeing and health, entrepreneurial discourse and narratives, cultural entrepreneurship, and institutional work. Ewald’s research has been published in several established academic journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Research Policy, Academy of Management Discoveries, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Human Relations, Business History, Journal of World Business, Environment & Planning A, and Journal of Economic Geography.
Ewald is Associate Editor at the Journal of Business Venturing Insights and an Editorial Review Board Member of leading entrepreneurship journals Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. He is also Editorial Review Board Member of Academy of Management Journal and Academy of Management Discoveries. Ewald regularly serves as peer reviewer for established entrepreneurship, organization, and management journals, and also frequently collaborates with policymakers, including advising ILO, the OECD, and the European Commission on entrepreneurship matters.
Course coordinator and contact information: Associate Professor, Dr. Ewald Kibler, Professor (Associate), Aalto School of Business, Ekonominaukio 1, PO Box 21210, 00076 Aalto, Finland; Email: ewald.kibler@aalto.fi