Massey academics take out ICSB prizes

Massey academics won three best paper awards at the ICSB World Conference in Wellington last week. Over 200 papers were presented at the event, which brought together more than 400 business educators, researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world.

Dr Kate Lewis’ Young, female, and entrepreneur: A tale of Sense and Sensibility was judged best paper in the Female Entrepreneurship Track. In it the School of Management senior lecturer discussed how women put their ‘heart and soul’ into their companies, advocating an emotional way of working when compared to men.

Dr Raja Peter, from the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, took out the strongly-contested Social and Economic Development Track with his co-authored paper Government initiatives in fostering solar energy by SMEs in India. In it he argued the Indian government needs to continue encouraging SMEs to adopt environmentally-friendly technologies like solar panels if it is to end the country’s chronic power shortages.

The International Entrepreneurship Track best paper was awarded to Professor Sylvie Chetty, also from the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, and her co-authors for Causation and effectuation in the foreign market entry and selection of software SMEs. The qualitative study of five Finnish software firms found that flexibility was of the utmost importance when taking a product to international markets, as strict adherence to a business plan can lead to missed opportunities.

This was a subject close to the heart of keynote speaker Professor Saras Sarasvathy from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Professor Sarasvathy is well known for her influential work on effectuation – an entrepreneurial way of operating that runs counter to the common business planning approach taught in most business schools.

Professor Claire Massey, who was a member of the organising committee with Professor David Deakins and Dr Marco van Gelderen, said the conference had been very successful.

“The bringing together of people in business, research, and local and central government is hugely important,” she says. “ICSB was able to create genuine conversations between people at all levels of the ecosystem, and that results in more productive entrepreneurship.”

Professor Massey named her conference highlights as the keynote speech at the Public Agencies Forum; the Local Heroes panel discussion; and BIG II, the second Business Innovation Growth event.

The keynote speech at the Public Agencies Forum was given by Dr Denny Dennis from the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation in the United States.

“He talked about enterprise culture and, when it comes down to it, culture outweighs everything else in terms of importance,” Professor Massey said. “Entrepreneurship is a way of looking at the world and, to be successful, we need to make it part of the education process and engage young people early on so its part of the way they think.”

At the Local Heroes panel discussion five innovative New Zealand companies explained how they took their companies global. Massey graduate and chief executive of Obo, Simon Barnett, whose company’s protective hockey gear will be worn by 70 per cent of goalkeepers at the Olympics, said his success was due to counter-intuitive personality traits.

He talked about being focused on the optimal size of your global market, being naive enough to try anything, and keeping cost structures low. He said he was a great believer in Ernest Rutherford’s famous maxim – the absence of money is a great imperative to apply your best thinking to the situation at hand. 
Grow Wellington’s BIG II, which Professor Massey described as a “speed dating session”, gave local business contacts a chance to pick the brains of different ICSB delegates for five minutes each. “The energy level and the intensity of conversation going on in that room was incredible,” she says.

Professor Massey said the conference confirmed the University’s focus on entrepreneurship and SMEs was well placed. “The importance of this area of study really came through very strongly. We came away with more knowledge and more contacts, which will help us be more effective in creating an environment for productive entrepreneurship.”

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

Click here to hear keynote speaker Professor Saras Sarasvathy interviewed on Radio New Zealand.

Watch the 3News item here.