Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Enlarge

The team of the Professorship of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability participated in this year's Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM), in Boston. Beyond participating in numerous memorable and valuable presentations and symposia, we have also presented our own articles and organized symposia.

Prof. Ali Aslan Gümüsay co-organized a symposium together with Prof. Matthias Wenzel (Leuphana University) and Jonas Spengler (Cambridge University) on “Utopias, Dystopias & Organizational Imaginaries: Organization Studies in a Brave New World”. The symposium spurred a conversation around the potential of organization studies to both contribute to and learn from alternative (organizational) imaginaries. He further co-organized a workshop together with Prof. Laura Edinger-Schons (University of Hamburg) and Emma van den Terrell (University of Mannheim) on “Rebalancing Capitalism or Delaying Real Progress? A Critical Examination of Impact Measurement”. The panelists discussed whether and how measuring the impact of business on society and the planet can lead to a more socially and environmentally oriented style of capitalism. In a symposium on organizing for sustainability and grand challenges, Prof. Gümüsay presented an article co-authored with Prof. Juliane Reinecke (University of Oxford) entitled “Prospective Theorizing: A Framework for Disciplined Imagination to Theorize the Future”, considering how we can theorize the future before it happens. Together with Dr. Georg Reischauer (WU Vienna) Prof. Gümüsay also organized a workshop on digital organizing that focused on the question how digital technologies such as platforms and algorithms are reshaping the ways individuals coordinate within and across organizational boundaries.

Dr. Esther Salvi won the recognition as “best reviewer” by the Entrepreneurship division, which recognizes her efforts in reviewing and providing useful feedback to our community. Beyond this, she presented the article “It is Not Just About The Law! A New Theoretical Framework of Informal Entrepreneurship Emergence”, which she developed together with Prof. Dr. Daniela Gimenez (TU Dortmund) and Prof. Dr. Diana Hechavarria (Texas Tech). The article was nominated as best paper by the Entrepreneurship division. It proposes a new theoretical framework to explain how state fragility and culture co-shape the emergence of informal entrepreneurship across countries. Esther further participated in the presentation of the article “Impact Measurement as Agentic Activity toward Sustainable Development”, developed by Jan Moellmann (TU Munich), herself, and Prof. Dr. Frank-Martin Belz (TU Munich). This article investigates actual outcomes and impacts of sustainable ventures. The article characterizes three distinct sustainable venture types based on the role impact plays in their context and business model as the result of the different IM activities: impact as bonus, impact as added value, impact as a service.

Amyn Vogel presented his article "Exploring the Role of Individual Beliefs and Social Factors in Adopting Social Innovations", which he developped together with Prof. Daniel Fürstenau (IT University of Copenhagen), Dr. Friedrich Borchers, Prof. Dr. Dr. Felix Balzer, Prof. Dr. Claudia Spies (Charité – Berlin University Medicine) und Prof. Dr. Martin Gersch (Free University of Berlin) The article addresses subjective and collective frames shaping the adoption of social innovations. The findings suggest that assumed role ascriptions, trust, and perceived dependency within social relations play a significant role in shaping the acceptance of social innovations.