The papers presented at the Cornell-McGill Institutions and Entrepreneurship Conference are now online at
http://epe.cornell.edu/institutionsandeship/ Cornell-McGill Conference on Institutions and Entrepreneurship
July 23-24, 2007. Ithaca, New York
The purpose of the conference was to further the institutional approach to entrepreneurial studies. An institutional approach to entrepreneurship shifts attention away from the personal traits and backgrounds of individual entrepreneurs, and towards how institutions shape entrepreneurial opportunities and actions; how entrepreneurs navigate their cognitive, normative, and regulatory environments; and how actors modify and build institutions to support new types of organizations.
Attendees addressed a wide variety of people and topics including:
- the creation of new institutional structures to facilitate the development of new kinds of organizations;
- the role of government policies in helping (or hindering) new ventures;
- the use of symbols to legitimate novel organizations;
- the role of norms, values, and traditions in facilitating (or impeding) entrepreneurship;
- deinstitutionalization of an established practice as a form of entrepreneurial opportunity;
- the creation of standards and conventions to support new types of economic activities.
A small number of leading scholars facilitated the paper sessions, these included Howard Aldrich, Pamela Tolbert, Heather Haveman, Neil Fligstein, Steve Mezias, Mary Ann Glynn among others.
A second conference is planned for 2008 in Montreal.
Wesley D. Sine Robert J. David
J. Thomas Clarke Professor of Entrepreneurship Desautels Faculty of Management
Johnson Graduate School of Management McGill University
Cornell University