The Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

Small Business Economics, Jan 2009

The International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research was introduced in 1996, and it is now firmly established as the most prestigious award for outstanding research contributions in this subject area. Thanks to a generous donation from the Swedish entrepreneur Rune Andersson, it has been possible to make a number of changes aimed at strengthening global recognition of the Prize even further: the name is being changed to the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, the financial side to the Prize is being roughly doubled to 100,000 euros, and the system for nomination, evaluation, and selection of future Award Winners is becoming more structured and transparent. We present here the background to and the organization(s) behind the Award, briefly categorize the winners in the 1996–2008 period, describe the present and the future system for nomination, evaluation, and selection of Award Winners, and discuss the criteria for the selection of Prize candidates and Award-winning contributions.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11187-008-9141-y.pdf

The Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

Small Bus Econ The Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research Magnus Henrekson 0 1 2 Anders Lundstro¨m 0 1 2 JEL Classifications 0 1 2 0 A. Lundstro ̈m Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research , Ja ̈rntorgsgatan 3, 703 61 O ̈ rebro , Sweden 1 M. Henrekson (&) Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) , P.O. Box 55665, 102 15 Stockholm , Sweden 2 Magnus Henrekson is CEO of the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) and Jacob Wallenberg Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. Anders Lundstro ̈m, who initiated the Prize, was the CEO of the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (FSF) from 1997 to 2008. He is also Visiting Professor at the School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Ma ̈lardalen University The International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research was introduced in 1996, and it is now firmly established as the most prestigious award for outstanding research contributions in this subject area. Thanks to a generous donation from the Swedish entrepreneur Rune Andersson, it has been possible to make a number of changes aimed at strengthening global recognition of the Prize even further: the name is being changed to the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, the financial side to the Prize is being roughly doubled to 100,000 euros, and the system for nomination, evaluation, and selection of future Award Winners is becoming more structured and transparent. We present here the background to and the organization(s) behind the Award, briefly categorize the winners in the 1996-2008 period, describe the present and the future system for nomination, evaluation, and selection of Award Winners, and discuss the criteria for the selection of Prize candidates and Award-winning contributions. Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Research award; Small business - L5 L26 In 1996 the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (FSF) and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (NUTEK) established the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research (also known as The FSFNUTEK Award). This Prize is awarded annually and consists of the statuette ‘‘The Hand of God’’, created by Swedish Sculptor Carl Milles,1 and a financial 1 Carl Milles was arguably Sweden’s most prominent sculptor in the 20th century. ‘‘The Hand of God’’ was one of Milles’ last works before his death. Originally, Milles created it to honor the Swedish innovator and entrepreneur C. E. Johansson who revolutionized precision measuring of auto and other industrial parts which made the assembly line possible, and the original still stands in Johansson’s hometown of Eskilstuna. award of SEK 0.5 million in 2008 (roughly USD 80,000). In the 13 years since its inception the Prize has become firmly established as the foremost global award for research on entrepreneurship.2 In 2009 the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) is joining FSF and NUTEK to become the third partner in awarding the Prize. At the same time, the Prize sum is being increased to 100,000 euros (roughly USD 150,000 in 2008), and the procedure for nominating and evaluating prospective Award Winners is being strengthened. The name of the Prize is also being changed into the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. The partnership of IFN has become possible thanks to a generous donation by the Swedish entrepreneur and industrialist Rune Andersson and his holding company Mellby Ga˚rd AB. Given that the Prize is now entering a new phase, we deem the time ripe to present the Award more broadly, and in this article we cover the following aspects: a brief presentation of the organizations behind the Prize, the nomination and selection process of Winners, and a presentation and categorization of Award Winners between 1996 and 2008. The categorization of the 1996–2008 Winners later in this essay provides the backdrop for a central part of this article, namely the discussion of the appropriate criteria for the selection of future Award Winners. We also describe herein the system that will be used, effective from 2009, to nominate, evaluate, select and Footnote 1 continued Throughout the 1930s Milles worked at Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit. Thanks to a contribution from the United Auto Workers, ‘‘Hand of God’’ was recast and donated to the city of Detroit in honor of Frank Murphy, Michigan Governor and U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice. It now stands outside the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit. 2 The Kauffman Foundation established the Kauffman Prize Medal in 2005. The Medal, which includes a USD 50,000 prize, is awarded every 2 years to one scholar under the age of 40 years who is working in the USA and ‘‘whose research has made a significant contribution to entrepreneurship.’’ The inaugural Medal Winner was Scott Stern, an economist from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and in 2007, the Medal was awarded to Toby Stuart, an organizational sociologist (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11187-008-9141-y.pdf

Magnus Henrekson, Anders Lundström. The Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, Small Business Economics, 2009, pp. 1-14, Volume 32, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s11187-008-9141-y