Second International ZEW Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship

On May 22 and 23, 2014, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) together with the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (MACCI) and the Institute for Small Business Research (Institut für Mittelstandsforschung, ifm) of the University of Mannheim hosted the second International Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship (CODE II). About 70 participants discussed recent topics in entrepreneurship research.

39 speakers, who have been selected from about 100 applicants to the conference, presented their latest research results in parallel sessions. In addition, ZEW invited four prestigious keynote speakers. José Mata (New University of Lisbon) gave a talk about about start-up activities of immigrants in Portugal. Thomas Astebro (HEC Paris) presented the results of his research project dealing with hierarchies in Swedish firms. He showed how hierarchic structures influence the probability of employees to enter self-employment. Karen Wilson (OECD, Paris) reviewed up-to-date policies for seed and early stage financing of young firms in several OECD countries. Jeffrey Furman (Boston University) reported about the effects of ithe Innofonds in China. The conference gave a well-structured insight into the current state of the art of several promising approaches in entrepreneurship research, but also highlighted a number of challenges that need to be tackled in future research projects.