ARC: Community: ELMAR: Posting

areas: entrepreneurship: call

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Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:28:07 +0000
From: "Adam Lindgreen" <adam_lindgreen@hotmail.com>

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Call for papers

Entrepreneurship and Regional Development announces the call for papers for a special issue on ‘Challenges and opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) arising from ethnically, racially, and religiously diverse populations.’ The deadline for submission is October 31, 2007.

Entrepreneurship and Regional Development provides a multi-disciplinary forum for researchers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship and small firm development and for those studying and developing the local and regional context in which entrepreneurs emerge, innovate, and establish the new economic activities, which drive economic growth and create new economic wealth and employment. The journal focuses on the diverse and complex characteristics of local and regional economies, which lead to entrepreneurial vitality and endow the large and small firms within them with international competitiveness. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development is included in the ISI Citation Index.  
 
Past research

The special edition of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development is intended to identify progression and development in matters arising from a prior special issue (15:2) on ‘Ethnic minority enterprise: policy and in practice.’ In that issue, the editors Monder Ram and David Smallbone identified four key areas of policy:

• A need to consider the indirect as well as the direct influences of government policy on the opportunity structures that ethnic minority and immigrant entrepreneurs face.
• The gap that is consistently reported between the needs of ethnic minority and immigrant-owned firms on the one hand and the support available to them on the other.
• Problems of access to mainstream policies and agencies by minority entrepreneurs, leading to a need for a proactive engagement strategy on the part of agencies if these groups of entrepreneurs are not to remain marginalized from mainstream support.
• The confusion that can arise from a conflation of social inclusion and competitiveness policy objectives.

Special issue: Challenges and Opportunities for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMEs) arising from Ethnically, Racially, and Religiously Diverse Populations

The proposed special issue will address the above issues, but also develop further understanding of business-related challenges, which concern ethnically, racially, and religiously diverse communities and their wider network engagements. The special issue will focus on the activities of SMEs and the challenges and opportunities posed by the dichotomy of ‘specialness’ versus wider engagement.

Due to migration an estimated 125 million people live outside their country of origin. In many countries there are now large groups of diverse ethnic, racial, and religious populations many of which continue to grow and expand relative to their respective ‘host’ countries. Research identifies that some groups live isolated from the rest of the population, keeping their customs and traditions, while other groups assimilate, abandoning their customs and traditions. Apart from this, when different ethnic, racial, and religious groups interact they may adopt customs and traditions normally associated with another group.

It is interesting for businesses to target and market their products to ethnic, racial, and religious groups, especially when their purchasing power is considerable, which is often the case. The influx of immigrants from different countries, therefore, presents challenges, but also opportunities in many aspects of life. It is for businesses themselves to make sure that they profit from this expanding marketplace. Overall, businesses need to be in a position to comprehend the different challenges and opportunities in terms of SME and entrepreneurial strategy, innovation, and marketing resulting from the growing number and diversification of ethnic, racial, and religious groups. Specific topics may include, but are not limited to:

• What challenges are faced by SME producers and manufacturers in understanding, identifying, and satisfying new market opportunities resulting from ethnic, racial, and religious groups that they are not part of and / or are unfamiliar with?
• Does the buying behavior of ethnic, racial, and religious traders or business communities differ from that of mainstream channel members?
• What are the impacts on SME businesses of the activities of national policy and regional government / business associations and other groups on the business activities of ethnic, racial, and religious sub-groups?
• What are the wider ramifications of developments resulting from sector clusters that cater to particular needs of ethnic, racial, and religious groups? This could include inward investments and regional marketing. Does it encourage competitiveness or confound wider engagement?
• Minority or mainstream? Engagement with the wider market, or stuck in sub-culture?
• Are ethnic minority businesses represented throughout business channels, or are they sector and location bound? What challenges are faced by the rural / urban divide?
• Are supply networks closed (cf. guanxi, cultural, and familial ties) for ethnic, racial, and religious products? Can SMEs from outside these ethnic, racial, and religious groups cater for the groups? 
• Should existing network structures be adapted to accommodate new market opportunities?
• What challenges and opportunities are SMEs faced with when interfacing with their end consumers from ethnic, racial, and religious groups?
• Case studies from a variety of sectors, including food and beverage; clothing; banking and insurance; religious travel; and ceremonial events and festivals.

Preference will be given to empirical papers (both qualitative and quantitative), although theoretical papers offering comprehensive frameworks or key issues are also welcomed. As Entrepreneurship and Regional Development is widely read by an academic and business audience, all submissions should include implications for practitioners. 

Processes for the submission of papers

Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be about 6,000-8,000 words in length. Copies should be submitted via email Word attachment (in one file including all figures and tables) to the special issue editors. The first page must contain the title, author/s, and contact information for the contact author. If a paper does not make use of the journal’s appropriate style format, the paper is not sent out for review. For additional guidelines, please see the "Instructions for Authors" from a recent issue of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development or visit http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/08985626.asp. Papers suitable for publication will be subjected to a double-blind review; hence authors should not identify themselves in the body of the paper.
 
Please address questions to the special issue editors:

Dr. Adam Lindgreen
Hull University Business School, Hull, HU6 7RX, United Kingdom.
Tel: +31 652 437 933; Email: adam_lindgreen@hotmail.com

Dr. Martin Hingley
Department of Business Management and Marketing; Harper Adams University College
Newport, Shropshire, TF10 8NB, United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 1952 820 280; Fax: + 44 1952 814 783; Email: mhingley@harper-adams.ac.uk

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