Understanding Innovation and New Venture Creation in Reducing Poverty

Dear Colleagues,

An increasing number of studies have been conducted in recent years regarding the effect of innovation and new venture creation on economic growth. Some, though decidedly fewer, studies have examined the effect on sustainability and poverty reduction. Entrepreneurship, innovation and business studies across disciplines, from economics and management to engineering, as well as the humanities and governments, have taken notice of their potential impact, with respect to poverty reduction (Bruton, Ahlstrom, & Si, 2015; McCloskey & Carden, 2020). Indeed, buying and selling, and lending and borrowing can be understood, and better explained, as social processes that enrich the extant theory of poverty reduction through entrepreneurship and innovation. From this perspective, the role of the linked concepts of innovation and new venture creation is very important, but the relative evidence with respect to poverty is still somewhat limited and scattered. For this reason, this Special Issue in Sustainability will focus on the extent to which innovation and new venture creation have impacted poverty reduction in a sustainable context over time. Because innovation and new venture creation represent a key mechanism through which economies deal with poverty reduction and development, innovation and entrepreneurship present as key tools to be understood, both in terms of their encouragement and their effect. Thus, the aim of this Special Issue is to further understand innovation and new ventures and their relationship to poverty reduction, from higher levels of analysis right down to the level of the SME and household enterprise. Recent studies show how important innovation and new venture creation have been to economic growth, and further understanding needs to be developed as to how economies and individuals can benefit broadly from these activities as well.

Theoretical, empirical and case-based contributions from the management and economics of innovation, as well as entrepreneurship-relevant public policies, are welcome in this Special Issue.

Works cited

Bruton, G. D., Ahlstrom, D., & Si, S. (2015). Entrepreneurship, poverty, and Asia: Moving beyond subsistence entrepreneurship. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32(1), 1-22.

McCloskey, D. N. & Carden, A. (2020). Leave me alone and I'll make you rich: How the bourgeois deal enriched the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Prof. Dr. David Ahlstrom
Guest Editor

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• innovation
• entrepreneurship
• poverty
• economic growth
• sustainable development