Welcome to a new academic year and the start of a new cycle for the ENT. Thanks to Per for handing over to me one of the most vibrant Divisions of the Academy that has been the fastest grower in recent years. 

We really do want to make sure that you as members know what is happening in the Division and take part fully in our activities. The member-to-member communication the listserve This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it is highly active and the more recently introduced AoM Connect http://apps.aomonline.org/connect/ is also designed to facilitate communication among members.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is highly active and the more recently introduced AoM Connect (http://apps.aomonline.org/connect/) is also designed to facilitate communication among members.

  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is highly active and the more recently introduced AoM Connect (http://apps.aomonline.org/connect/) is also designed to facilitate communication among members.

We also want to ensure that as many of you as possible take up the opportunity to participate in the Division’s activities. We are now a large division, which means we need to involve a large number of folks in committee and other support roles in just ensuring that things run smoothly. As part of the continuing revitalization of our governance structures and processes to reflect the fact that we are now a large division, we are just completing a major update of Committee chairs and membership, which will be made available soon.

One of Per’s main tasks this year as Past Chair is to coordinate the elections for officers of the Division and we would like to see as many of you as possible becoming involved in nominating and being nominated for elected posts as well as in voting in that process.

With the submission cycle for next year’s conference about to begin I want to emphasize the benefits of becoming involved in the program. The division’s stated mission is to “grow entrepreneurship scholars”. Wearing my editor’s hat, and indeed as an author, I know how much more challenging it has become in recent years to publish in good journals. Becoming involved in the activities of the Division through submitting and presenting papers, as well as signing up as a reviewer, can help a lot in learning about and making progress in the publication process.

The pre-conference PDW sessions are a great way to present and get feedback on early work and emerging research agendas and I would urge you to think seriously about putting together a well-thought out session proposal. Although proposals do need to be of high quality, competition for space tends to be less than for papers submitted to the main program. Harry Sapienza, as this year’s PDW Chair, will be saying more about this.

Reinforcing our mission, the pre-conference program also includes sessions specifically designed to welcome and help develop the careers of PhD students and junior faculty. The substantial funds that we are able to generate from sponsors, notably journals and schools worldwide, enable us to run these and other ambitious activities, such as the social event.

Similarly of relevance to more junior members, the Division has two long-standing dissertation awards, the Heizer Award and the NFIB Award, which are coordinated by David Audretsch in his role as Chair Elect. Look out for the Calls for these sessions and awards in due course.

For the main program, the review process involving three reviewers per paper is a major task that has to be completed in a very compressed timescale in the early part of next year. Sharon Alvarez as Program Chair this year will need your help in large numbers to commit to providing timely reviews to make this work. I know from having been Program Chair two years ago that colleagues really appreciate the time you take to give detailed feedback in reviews…….and of course, there are awards for best papers and best reviewers. The opportunity to act as a reviewer is open to all members and there is an award for best PhD student reviewer.

Also reflecting the Division’s mission, there are awards for teaching initiatives and for field-building in entrepreneurship (such as the Mentor Award). The criteria and nomination details relating to all awards are being made available on the Division’s website.

All Divisions are reviewed by the Academy every five years with the aim of strengthening the Academy and improving the way we serve the interests of members. The review of the ENT, which takes place this year, presents a major opportunity for you to comment on what the Division is doing now and to have a say in what we may wish to do in the future. At the time of writing, the member survey coordinated by Jennifer Jennings as Chair of the Membership Committee is about to be launched and will remain open for a month.

The results will be available in time for the Executive’s Mid-Winter Meeting in February where we aim to discuss them and come up with some recommendations for further initiatives and developments that reflect your views. For us to be able to do that, we need a high response rate that represents views from right across the membership. So, look out for the announcement of the survey and to ensure it reaches you please make sure that we have your current and correct email address. As part of the survey we shall be asking if you would like to become involved in the Division’s activities and directing you to where you can find out more.

The five year review also involves a review of standard metrics for the division relating to growth in numbers, various demographics of members, finance, etc. We shall also be paying particular attention to the new free form part of the report where we need to reflect on the results of the members survey, comment on division ‘health and governance’ checklist we need to complete, and outline goals and actions for the division’s future. We shall be making the results of the survey and the review available to members in the New Year.

I look forward to your contribution to the Division and to meeting many of you over the course of the year.

Best regards to all,

Mike Wright