ICSB 2012 focuses on indigenous businesses

The 2012 International Council for Small Business World Conference, being co-hosted by Massey University in Wellington in June, will include a session on indigenous entrepreneurship for the first time.

Indigenous entrepreneurship is a growing field of research and the conference provides an opportunity for scholars to showcase their work on an international stage. The best papers will also be published in a special issue of the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues.

Indigenous entrepreneurship is one of 18 ‘tracks’ being covered during the 2012 conference. Others include entrepreneurship, education and training; social and economic development; small business management; new venture creation; and this year’s theme, ‘Leading from the Edge’.

The Leading from the Edge track will focus on pioneering entrepreneurial behaviour during challenging times. Both man-made ‘events’ and natural disasters can create new environments for entrepreneurial activity – an issue that is this is particularly relevant to New Zealand after the Canterbury earthquake last year.

The conference’s keynote speaker is Professor Saras Sarasvathy from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. She has been named one of the top 18 entrepreneurship professors by Fortune Small Business Magazine.

2012 will be the first time the conference has been held in New Zealand, and more than 400 small business educators, researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world are expected to attend.

Massey University’s Centre for Small and Medium Enterprise Research successfully bid to host the conference, along with the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand, Wellington City Council, and Grow Wellington.

Dr Marco van Gelderen, Massey university lecturer, entrepreneurship specialist, and chair of the conference’s programme committee, says the event will bring many international perspectives to New Zealand.

“The ICSB World Conference is looking to be a truly global conference,” he says. “There have already been abstracts submitted by authors from 40 different countries, and we expect many more in the coming weeks.”