ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

​The traditional aims of the conference are to advance our understanding of entrepreneurship-as-practice, foster network ties, facilitate collaborative writing relationships, and build a strong community of practice scholars.

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Building on this tradition, our theme for the upcoming conference will be "artefacts and entrepreneuring—The role of other-than-humans in entrepreneurship practices". We would like to explore jointly how adopting a ‘practice lens’ to entrepreneurship research allows us to highlight and theorize the role of other-than-human agents in entrepreneurship. We like to embrace the idea that entrepreneurship is not only a cognitive exercise but essentially mediated through many different artefacts that range from ephemeral narratives and embodiments to physical prototypes (Selden & Fletcher, 2015; Berglund et al., 2020; Berglund & Glaser, 2022). Practice theories offer a theoretical repertoire to make sense of these materializations and their role in different entrepreneurship practices. Let us explore how such concepts as symbolic capitals (Bourdieu, 1986), the contextualities of interaction (Giddens, 1986, p. 282), material arrangements (Schatzki, 1996), or constitutive entanglements (Gherardi, 2012; Orlikowski, 2007), can help us analyze entrepreneurial practices. We also like to explore how adjacent discussions about materiality in entrepreneurship and design (Berglund et al., 2020; Romme & Reymen, 2018) and contextualized entrepreneurship studies (Welter et al., 2019) can benefit from a practice-based approach that can theorize artifacts, not only as distinct and fixed objects but also as relationally existing participants in the ongoing performance of practices.

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We welcome all submissions that address entrepreneurship-as-practice more broadly, in addition to those targeting the conference theme.

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The conference includes keynote speakers, round table discussions, parallel presentations, a popular Paper Development Workshop, and many opportunities to get to know one another.

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Confirmed keynote speakers for the conference:

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Prof. Henrik Berglund (Chalmers University of Technology)

Prof. Dimo Dimov (University of Bath)

Prof. Silvia Gherardi (University of Trento)

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The 10th version of this Conference will take place in person only at Jönköping International Business School, Sweden. If you are not able to join in person, we have an online symposium every year in the autumn, please see events page

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BACKGROUND

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The practice tradition (also known as practice-based studies, the practice approach or the practice lens) forefronts the notion that practices and their connections are fundamental to all social phenomena (Rouse, 2006; T. Schatzki, Knorr-Cetina, & Savigny, 2001). For entrepreneurship it means that people “perform” ventures, startups and firms on an everyday basis through materially accomplished and ordered practices (Chalmers & Shaw, 2017; Hill,2018; Johannisson, 2011; Vincent & Pagan, 2019). This is to say that descriptions and explanations of entrepreneurship—such as, recognizing, evaluating and exploiting opportunities—are incomplete without the ‘alternate’ description and explanation of how entrepreneurial life is actually lived in and through practices (Gross, Carson, & Jones, 2014; Keating, Geiger, & Mcloughlin, 2013). The term ‘practice’, therefore, does not refer to an ‘empty’ conceptual category of ‘what entrepreneurs think and do’ (Sklaveniti & Steyaert, 2019), but encompasses the meaning-making, identity-forming and order-producing interactions (Chia &Holt, 2006; Nicolini, 2009) enacted by multiple entrepreneurial practitioners and situated in specific (historical) conditions. Therefore, practice theories orient entrepreneurship scholars to take seriously the practices of entrepreneuring as they unfold and are experienced in real-time rather than as they are remembered. Simply put, practice scholars are concerned with the ‘nitty-gritty’ work of entrepreneuring—all the meetings, the talking, the selling, the form-filling and the number-crunching by which opportunities actually get enacted (Matthews, Chalmers, & Fraser, 2018; Whittington, 1996).

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For background and information on EaP literature, prior conferences, media and other pertinent materials, please go to: https://www.entrepreneurshipaspractice.com.

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The Conference aims at educating interested scholars as well as helps to develop empirical and conceptual papers regarding the ‘practice turn’ taking place in entrepreneurship studies. Building on the first (February 2016 at VU Amsterdam), second (February 2017 at University College Dublin Quinn School of Business), third (April 2018 at Linnaeus University), fourth (April2019 at Nantes Business School), fifth and sixth (virtual events), seventh (April 2022 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), eighth (Leuphana University), and ninth (University of Leeds) Entrepreneurship-as-Practice (EaP) conferences, this conference will be held at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

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Location

This year we are holding the EAP conference event at Jönköping International Business School, Sweden, located in the northwest of Småland at the Southern tip of Lake Vättern (the second largest lake in Sweden). Beyond purely academic conversations, there will also be opportunities to learn about the local industrial history and experience the city’s proximity to Sweden’s nature.

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Confirmed speakers

Prof. Henrik Berglund (Chalmers University of Technology)

Prof. Dimo Dimov (University of Bath)

Prof. Silvia Gherardi (University of Trento)

 

How to join

There are three routes for you to join the Conference:

 

1. Submit paper to Paper Development Workshop. We welcome submissions to our popular PDW sessions. The abstract is due on 17th January, 2025. Please include the Title, Author Names, and Institutions, and indicate that you are submitting to the PDW. The abstract is a maximum of 500 words. Please submit the abstract here. Upon acceptance, please notify us if you plan to join. Early bird registration and final registration deadline are below. The deadline for the full paper is March 19th, 2025. You can upload the paper here. Full papers are 10,000 words maximum including references. 

2. Submit an abstract to the Emerging Paper Session. The Emerging Paper Session allows scholars to give and receive feedback on developing ideas or ongoing work that still needs to be developed into a full paper. Early bird registration and final registration deadline are below. The submission deadline for the Emerging Paper Session is March 7th, 2025. Please include the Title, Author Names, and Institutions and indicate that you are submitting to the Emerging Paper Session. The abstract is a maximum of 500 words. Please submit the abstract here. Upon acceptance, we will communicate the date and time for your presentation.

3. No paper, no problem. We welcome scholars of all levels who are interested in EAP. The conference includes many opportunities to learn from keynote speakers, participate in roundtable discussions, and network with EAP scholars. You can also participate as an audience member in the presentations and give feedback on PDW papers. We will have special breakfast mentoring sessions for PhD students and early-career scholars. See registration deadlines below.

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Key Dates

January 1st, 2025                      General registration opens                 

January 17th, 2025                    Abstract submission deadline for PDW                 

January 24th, 2025                   Notification of acceptance to PDW

February 3rd, 2025                   Early-bird registration deadline

March 7th, 2025                        Abstract submission to Emerging Paper deadline

March 8th, 2025                        Notification of acceptance to presentation session

March 12th, 2025                      Registration deadline (All participants)

March 19th, 2025                      Full paper submission deadline (those accepted to PDW) 

April 9 – 11th, 2025                   Conference Dates

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Conference Costs

The registration fee includes a welcome reception, lunches and coffee breaks during the conference, and two dinners. Travel and accommodation are not included. For hotel discounts, see below.

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3500 SEK (~300 EUR)              Early Bird Rate (until 3rd February 2025) 

4000 SEK (~350 EUR)              Regular Rate (after 3rd February 2025)

2000 SEK (~170 EUR)               PhD Student Early Bird Rate (until 3rd February 2025) 

2500 SEK (~215 EUR)               PhD Student Regular Rate (after 3rd February 2025)

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Accommodation

All hotels listed below are within walking distance of the university campus where the conference will occur.

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Hotel Name                     Price per night                Booking           Discount Code

Elite Stora Hotellet        from 90 EUR (approx.)   click here        20% via booking link

City Hotel Jönköping     from 63 EUR (approx.)   email                IHAPRIL25

Scandic Portalen           from 95 EUR (approx.)    click here         BJON090425

Comfort Hotel                from 55 EUR (approx.)    email                JIBSKONFERENS

Vox Hotel                        from 63 EUR (approx.)    click here        JU2025

Match Hotel                   from 130 EUR (approx.)   click here

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Travel options

​Air

• The closest international airport is Gothenburg Landvetter (GOT) with a direct bus (~1.5h) from the airport to Jönköping (Flixbus or VyBuss)

• Larger international airports are:

  • Stockholm Arlanda (+ ~4.5h connecting train)

  • Copenhagen Kastrup (+ ~3.5h connecting train)

•  Minor airports with limited international connections are located in:

  • Växjö

  • Malmö

Train

• Copenhagen – Jönköping is about 3.5h

• Malmö – Jönköping is about 3h

• Gothenburg (City; no train connection from airport) – Jönköping is about 2h

• Stockholm – Jönköping is about 4h

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Registration

Early Bird (until 3rd February 2025) - PhD Student (Click Here)

Early Bird (until 3rd February 2025) - General (Click Here)

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Full Fee (after 3rd February 2025) - PhD student (Click Here)

Full Fee (after 3rd February 2025) - General (Click Here) 

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Please send all inquiries to:

EAP10@ju.se

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