Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

An International Journal

Entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized towns/communities

CALL FOR PAPERS

Entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized towns/communities

Background

Over the last decades, the economic development of and, in particular, entrepreneurial

dynamics in small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) have mostly gone unnoticed (BELL and JAYNE 2009; Lorentzen and van Heur 2012; Schneidewind et al. 2006). In the meantime, scholars and policy-makers highlighted the role of metropolitan regions as engines of growth just like the traditional geographic and urban studies have emphasized (Hall and Pain 2006; Thierstein et al. 2008). This is a significant omission because non-metropolitan areas account for a sizable share of population in many countries (Mayer and Knox 2010; Hamdouch, Demaziere, and Banovac 2017).

SMSTs as well as special cases such as small island communities increasingly represent

an important spatial type. As spatial inequalities are increasing, these small towns/communities play an important role in linking core and periphery. Yet there has not been much scholarly attention on entrepreneurial dynamics and questions around their specific nature. While geographers and planners have analyzed rural and mountain communities in terms of their entrepreneurial potential (Anderson 2000; Baumgartner, Pütz, and Seidl 2013; Carter 1998; Mayer and Meili 2016), they have largely missed to focus on small towns/communities. Two special sessions at recent conferences (AAG, EUGEO) were devoted to the topic of entrepreneurship and SMSTs/communities.

Aim and scope of the special issue

The goal of the planned special issue is (a) to highlight cutting-edge research in the field of entrepreneurship and SMSTs/communities, and (b) to reflect potential implications of the findings for current discussions around regional development policies. The special issue thus will comprise cutting-edge contributions of leading scholars in the field of entrepreneurship, urban and regional development, and geography.

The focus of the papers will be on various aspects of entrepreneurial dynamics in small

communities and in particular on the following:

• The role of entrepreneurs as change agents and the ways they are engaged in the

community

• The role and function of higher education institutions in small towns

• The ways in which small and medium-sized towns respond to challenges such as industrial

decline and change

• Special cases such as small island communities and their unique economic structures

• Other topics

Planned timeline

• November-December 2017: Open call for papers by the journal

• End of February 2018: Papers submitted to guest editors

• End of September 2018: Contributions ready for the journal

Interested authors should submit full papers to both Heike Mayer (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

and Yas Motoyama (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by 28th February 2018. The documents should be in MSWord files and must contain a cover page with (a) the paper title, (b) author names, (c) titles and affiliations, and (d) email addresses.

For further questions about this issue, please contact

Heike Mayer University of Bern This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yas Motoyama University of Kansas This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.