Leeds hosts the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference | Leeds School of Business

The Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference (GEIRC) took place in Boulder on June 13 and 14 after a five-year hiatus. In collaboration with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, GEIRC 2024 brought together a diverse group of scholars from around the world to discuss the interdisciplinary impact of entrepreneurship.

Janet Bercovitz, co-chair of the conference and director of Leeds’ PhD program in strategy and entrepreneurship, explained that after the break, the team at Leeds’ Deming Center and the steering committee made up of members of the collaborating colleges wanted to “bring the conference back with a bang .” The aim was to be more global and inclusive, as well as to increase awareness and enthusiasm about GEIRC.

Bringing together a global community

The conference offers a unique opportunity for global collaboration by moving locations each year and bringing together participants from around the world. Bercovitz explained that “expanding the conference helps researchers. A lot of research is done in the US and a lot of data is US and UK oriented. Gaining a broader perspective from an international perspective provides opportunities to develop new insights and data.”

Participants came from Taiwan, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, Italy and more to explore the wide-ranging effects of entrepreneurship and innovation. “This year,” said Betsy Klein, associate director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, “the sub-theme of our conference was using entrepreneurship to solve some of our biggest problems, such as income inequality, health care, climate change and many others. ”

“By being international and intentional in our call for papers in all types of entrepreneurship research,” Klein continued, “we have the best opportunities to make the world a better place.”

While the Leeds School of Business has an incredible local focus on the Boulder and Colorado community, the conference also supports the school’s goal of global impact. “Bringing scholars from around the world to Boulder to highlight the wonderful things that the Leeds School and Boulder have to offer aligns well with this mission,” said conference co-chair Jeff York, who is Leeds’ associate dean for strategic initiatives and director of research of the Deming Center.

An interdisciplinary lens on entrepreneurship

“We’re into entrepreneurship — we believe that everything can have an element of entrepreneurial thinking, and that any industry can benefit from thinking like an entrepreneur,” Klein said. This belief has brought together researchers from various disciplines, including organizational behavior, finance, law, and more.

“It was impressive to see the diversity of the different lenses that were presented,” added York. “People discussed work from areas outside their disciplines, and this kind of interdisciplinary collaboration is what makes the conference stand out.”

The mixing of international participants with different fields of research created the opportunity for participants to network and consider future collaboration. “The research community (at the conference) is unique,” ​​Klein explained. “The works that are presented are not all teachers from one school. Scholars build great connections that offer so many different points of view. We often see PhD students – who are, for example, from the University of Washington, CU Boulder and Oxford – collaborating on a paper.”

GEIRC facilitates these interdisciplinary connections through a careful selection of papers and presentations.

Selecting the right research

One of the main goals of the conference was to receive high-quality papers and organize cohesive presentation sessions. After receiving more than 100 submissions, the judging committee selected approximately 40 to highlight during the event. Over the course of the two-day conference, there were a dozen unique sessions covering corporate innovation, governance, stakeholder engagement, entrepreneurship for the public good and more.

“We ended up having double plays because we had so much quality work,” Bercovitz said. “And the sessions were united by central themes. For example, we had a session that looked at crowding out savings.” While the papers presented in that session focused on different elements of how economies come together, a central theme emerged of how locations matter.

The conference also provided a new opportunity for PhD students to share their work in three-minute presentations called “Flash Talks”. By stripping students’ research down to the nitty-gritty, it helped expose them to a larger network and get feedback from experienced researchers during breaks. “Three minutes is very difficult for people because you usually have about 15 minutes,” York explained. “But it was one of the most popular parts of the conference because sharing rapid research is exciting. You hit the things that really matter and get people talking.”

What’s next for GEIRC

Next year the conference will travel to Taiwan and members of the Leeds community will have the opportunity to sit on the paper review committee and support the planning of the conference. “It’s a good opportunity to continue engaging with partners around the world,” York said.

As the conference continues to grow, co-chairs Bercovitz and York hope the interdisciplinary perspective will continue to be a priority, as it opens the door to future research journal special issues or panel sessions outside the conference. Adding more partners to the conference is also a priority.

“We will definitely add a partner in Asia, and I would love to see a partner in the Global South,” York said. “By adding South America, for example, the conference really starts to reach every corner of the globe.”

Locally, the Deming Center team is also looking forward to releasing new episodes of its podcast, Creative Distillation, this fall. Each episode highlights a recent study to discuss how the research is valuable to business students and the broader startup community. During the conference, podcast co-host York had the opportunity to talk with dozens of researchers from around the world who will be featured.

The conference plans to continue traveling and will be in the UK in 2026 and back in the US in 2027. “We are so happy to continue our partnership with Darden and Judge on this as well. It’s an incredible opportunity to bring teachers from around the world closer together and build great relationships along the way,” said York.