Call for Papers as pdf: Call 4 Papers_2008_03_13

Call for Papers

The second international conference on Knowledge Economy will be held at Reutlingen (Germany) from 09^th – 10^th October 2008. The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for exchange in research on knowledge, regional economic development and the particular role of small and medium-sized enterprises. We encourage contributions focusing on SME with theoretical, conceptual, and empirical approaches in the areas of

·       management,

·       economics and

·       social sciences.

The results of the workshops will be discussed in plenary sessions. Proposed papers might cover the following topics:

Workshop I (Managerial sciences):

·       Implementation and maintenance of knowledge management in SME,

·       Distinctive characteristics of SME and their impact on knowledge and/or innovation management,

·       The strategic role of knowledge and innovation,

·       Path-dependency of knowledge and the impact on innovation in SME,

·       Appropriability strategies and possibilities of knowledge and innovation protection in SME,

·       The specific role of entrepreneurs (or entrepreneurship) and relations to innovation management, as e.g. ‘entrepreneurial learning’,

·       The impact of dominant logic, dominant design and organizational routines on the innovativeness of SME,

·       Regional innovation networks and their impact on knowledge and innovation of SME, as e.g. ‘knowledge spillovers’.

·       Business and innovation strategy of SMEs over the industry life cycle.

Workshop II (Economics):

·       The geography of SME distribution,

·       Entrepreneurial dynamism in knowledge-based SMEs,

·       Chances and challenges of regional government intervention to foster SME settlement,

·       Which functional form of the knowledge production function fits best models for highly innovative SMEs,

·       SMEs advantages and disadvantages versus MNCs in the knowledge economy,

·       The impact of workers educational level on SME growth 

Workshop III (socio-economic):

·       Relationships between a modern and effective knowledge economy and the appropriate educational and academic systems as needed by SME.

·       Contributions of the entrepreneurial innovator to ongoing R&D activities and to long lasting research processes.

·       Growing antagonism of knowledge as a private asset and as a public good which touches the innovative abilities of SME.

Time Frame & Presentation Equipment

Workshop contributions will be conducted in 30 minute-sessions, consisting of a approx. 20 min. presentation and an additional 10 min. discussion.

A beamer for the presentation will be provided.

Application and selection procedure:

Please email abstracts (500-1000 characters) to info@knowledge-economy.de as either MS Word or PDF document file attachment. All abstracts will be reviewed by a scientific committee. 

Deadline for submission of abstract:          20.05.2008

Notification of acceptance:                          10.06.2008

Deadline for submission of paper:              31.08.2008

The conference will be held at the premises of Reutlingen University, Germany. Authors are encouraged to submit their contributions in English from now on.

For more information please contact the local organizer, Matthias Kramer (info@knowledge-economy.de).

Scientific Committee:

Prof. Dr. Harald Hagemann (University of Hohenheim)

Leander L. Hollweg (Director TenmanPrognosys GmbH)

Prof. Dr. Niamh O’Mahony (ESB Reutlingen)

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Schneck (ESB Reutlingen)

Prof. Dr. Michael Stephan (University of Marburg)

Prof. Dr. Grahame Thompson (Open University)

Prof. Dr. Martin Zagler (WU Wien)

Conference chairs:

Prof. Dr. Stephan Seiter

Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Baumeister