At the recent Academy of Management meetings, I was lucky enough to attend a Professional Development Workshop on "Business Creation Panel Studies: an International Overview." Most of the data presented was looking at the concept of nascent entrepreneurship, but the Australian and Latvian presentations also dealt with some other populations.  There is a great deal of similarity among the different projects presented, as is apparent from the slides below; however, for a number of reasons the presenters seemed to feel that there was still room for international comparative research and perhaps, eventually, a harmonized data file. 

One of the most interesting parts of sitting in on this session for me was hearing the experience of each principal investigator in gathering support for their project, dealing with vendors, getting data, and then analysis.  Indeed, a couple of themes emerged across presenters which were of note on the pure logistics of organizing a panel survey.  This is my own summary, not something which was presented at the event:

1. Funding - Many of the organizers experienced exogenous shocks to their funding source in the course of carrying out the surveys.  Even without shocks, most of the principal investigators talked about the expensive nature of panel data collection and the importance of securing funding early.
2. Vendor - In all but one case, I believe, these panel surveys were collected using an outside vendor under direction from the academic principal investigator.  While it was not the case for each country, more than half seemed to have had some pretty significant vendor issues during the process.  Indeed several had switched vendors during the course of the panel data collection.
3. Sample - In each case, I don't think the principal investigators ever felt they were able to truly get a large enough sample of nascent entrepreneurs.  This is typically a function of cost and sheer difficulty of screening the adult population (or some other source) in order to find people in the process of starting a business.  

So, with thanks to the presenters in this session for their gracious permission to post the slides to Data Maven, here in the order they presented are the slides from the workshop. 

Business Creation Panel Studies: An International Status Report
Recent Overview Paper on Nascent Entrepreneurship
Australia
Canada
China
Latvia
Netherlands (Presented by Paul Reynolds)
Norway
Sweden
United States
Commentary

Alicia Robb, Denny Dennis, and I did a Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management a couple of days ago.  Here I am posting the slides from that workshop, which focused on data available for entrepreneurship research, along with notes from my comments at the event, which I had not put into slides.

Alicia Robb, Kauffman Foundation and University of California, Santa Cruz Denny Dennis, NFIB
E.J. Reedy, Kauffman Foundation

• Business Dynamics Database
• New developments at the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• General Social Survey
• National Establishment Time Series Database and the related youreconomy.org
• Survey on Consumer Finance
• OECD Trademark Data

Additionally, at the meeting, hard copies of the proceedings of the 2007 Kauffman Symposium on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Data were handed out.  Additional copies were requested by some but electronic versions of each paper are available on line. The 2008 proceedings, which focused on ideas for improving data are also available. 

And lastly, we highlighted a few ways in which scholars could connect with Kauffman and other scholars in this area.  There is this blog, Data Maven, for tracking data developments.  On Facebook, join the Kauffman Entrepreneurship Scholars group.  Subscribe to entrepreneurship emails from Social Science Research Network.  Or participate in Kauffman's emerging scholars programs.

The Panel Study on Entrepreneurial Dynamics II is a public-use data set that allows researchers to examine nascent entrepreneurship.  For the lay person, nascent entrepreneurship is the stage when someone is thinking of starting a new business but has yet to form an active business.  For anyone reading this in real time, just a reminder of the Academy of Management session dealing with PSED-like surveys and also the workshop later this summer called the PSED 101 which is designed to help new researchers get acclimated to the data. 

Paul Reynolds is organizing an interesting PDW at the 2009 Academy of Management highlighting studies looking at nascent entrepreneurship in specific countries.  These are all panel data sets. 

Are you aware of new data that might be of interest to the marketing community?  Then please contact the organizers of this upcoming symposium.   

UIC/MEIG Marketing and Entrepreneurship Research Interface Symposium
August 5-7, 2009
University of Illinois at Chicago

Entrepreneurial marketing topics are rarely integrated in mainstream marketing doctoral coursework and readings.  In 2007, the UIC Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, the Kauffman Foundation, and American Marketing Association's Marketing-Entrepreneurship SIG invited doctoral students from around the world who were studying marketing and entrepreneurship to attend the UIC Symposium on the Marketing Entrepreneurship Research Interface.  Over a dozen doctoral students, many from outside the United States, attended the Symposium held at George Washington University. The success of this event encouraged the Symposium organizers to develop and integrate a special colloquium for the doctoral students at the 2008 Symposium, with a special focus on "International Marketing Entrepreneurship," coordinated by the Swedish Business School at Örebro University.  The 2008 Colloquium was extremely successful, leading to a 2009 colloquium.

The Kauffman Foundation and the Marketing and Entrepreneurship SIG invites doctoral students and new assistant professors to gather and discuss emerging issues in the area, just prior to the American Marketing Association Summer Educators' Meeting. This second Colloquium will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  International scholars will be invited to address various issues of relevance to young researchers. These presentations will be held in the opening afternoon of the Annual UIC Marketing and Entrepreneurship Research Symposium, and integrated with the rest of the Symposium program.

Doctoral students and new assistant professors are invited to this Colloquium.  Fellows will be provided complimentary admission to the Symposium, all Symposium meals, and a small stipend to offset a portion of their airline/hotel expenses. Contact Glenn Omura at omura@msu.edu for nomination/application information.