E-Magazine
An overview of the ISBE Conference
Ossie Jones, Conference Chair
The 32nd ISBE conference attracted more than 400 international delegates who participated in four days of intense debate and discussion. The conference began with a doctoral day which took place on 3rd November at the University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS). More than 40 doctoral students attended the event and the programme was designed to help students whatever their particular stage of the doctoral journey. The presenters were as follows:
Dr Ming-Huei Chen (National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan): The doctoral journey: learning to know yourself
Dr Wing Lam (University of Central Lancashire Business School): Creative ways to research entrepreneurship: ‘getting a smart start’
Dr Dilani Jayawarna (Manchester Metropolitan University Business School):Effective use of quantitative data – a publication strategy
Dr Jason Cope (Hunter Centre, Strathclyde Business School): Publishing from your PhD
Dr Robert Lee (Manchester Metropolitan University Business School): Mixed-methods research
The main conference, which began on 4th November, took place at the Novas Contemporary Urban Centre which was opened to coincide with the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations. 
Professor Colette Henry, ISBE President opened the event and delegates were then welcomed by Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council and Professor Sir Howard Newby Vice Chancellor of Liverpool University.
An introduction to the Women’s International Centre for Economic Development (WICED) was provided by Maggie O’Carroll (Train2000) and Professor Patricia Greene (Babson College). This £5 million project will be the hub of international research on female entrepreneurship as well as providing enterprise support including space for up to 80 business units to help women start and grow their businesses. Keynote speaker, Jonathan Hick then provided an entertaining account of the risks and rewards of his career as a serial entrepreneur. In addition to his many other ventures Jonathan is founder of Directorbank which specialises in boardroom appointments for equity backed businesses. 
Professor Denise Fletcher (Sheffield University) then chaired a panel debate which examined the ‘Recession Coping Strategies’ available to small firms. The panel comprised an eminent group of experts from academia, the public and private sectors:
Professor Alistair Anderson, FSB Professor on Entrepreneurship, RGU, Aberdeen
Mr John Leake, MD, Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus
Mr Frank McKenna, Downtown Liverpool
Professor David Storey, Warwick Business School
Mr Mike Taylor, Liverpool Vision
The ISBE Board wanted to ensure that the conference attracted high-quality papers and track leaders/advisors were encouraged to only accept papers/abstracts which made a genuine contribution to knowledge. The papers were organized into 10 tracks and were presented in six 90 minute parallel sessions:
Learning for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
Business Creation and Development – Stimulating Start-ups
Creative Industries Entrepreneurship
ICT, IT and e-business in the Small Firm Sector
Gender and Enterprise
Entrepreneurship, Networks, Innovation and Resource Acquisition
Management, Skill Development and Growth Issues
Social, Environmental and Ethical Enterprise
Venture Capital, Finance, Taxation and Regulation
Business Support and Internationalisation
The conference dinner on 5th November was held in one of Liverpool’s most impressive and important buildings. St George's Hall is amongst the finest neo-classical buildings in the world and is a Grade I listed building. 
Delegates were welcomed to St George’s Hall by Mr Michael Parker, chair of Liverpool Vision, main sponsors of the ISBE conference. Liverpool Vision is the City’s economic development company and was established at a critical stage in Liverpool’s urban and economic renaissance. The company is enabling Liverpool to complete and accelerate the economic recovery and growth that has taken place over last decade. Liverpool Vision are focused on building a strong, sustainable economy which can compete effectively in international markets. Councillor Gary Miller executive member for enterprise and tourism, also offered his welcome to the conference participants. Councillor Miller has specific political responsibility for promoting enterprise and exploiting the city's cultural advantage to attract and retain investment, visitors, works and residents.
The ISBE Board wanted to end the conference with a formal summing-up of the main outcomes, Each of the ten track leaders were asked to compile a brief summary of the implications emerging from papers presented in their particular track. The conference concluded on Friday 6th November with an overview of the key outcomes based on four themes which were condensed from the track summaries:
Education implications – Professor David Rae, University of Lincoln
Research implications – Professor Sue Marlow, De Montford University
Practice implications – Dr Nigel Lockett, Bradford Management School
Policy implications – Dr Allan Macpherson, University of Liverpool Management School
As conference chair it was extremely satisfying that the Liverpool event ran remarkably smoothly after the difficult circumstances of the last 12 months. I am very pleased to acknowledge that the conference would not have happened without the hard-work and commitment of Liz Carrington and Chris Dillon. Both Liz and Chris made a massive contribution to every aspect of the conference from ensuring the website was operational to organizing the sessions. However, I would like to mention Liz’s efforts in obtaining sponsorship from Liverpool Vision – without which the 32nd ISBE conference would have been much less successful.
In conclusion, as my term of office on the ISBE Board coincided with the end of the conference I decided not to seek re-election. I did this with great reluctance as I believe that ISBE is now in a much stronger position to represent the academic community and to exercise influence over policy and practice. However, as Allan Macpherson and I are about to take over editorship of the International Journal of Management Reviews I want to ensure that I can devote the appropriate time to ensuring that IJMR remains one of the leading journals in business and management. It would certainly be satisfying to see representatives of the ISBE community publishing their research in IJMR as small business and entrepreneurship is certainly an under-represented theme in the journal. Personally, I am already looking forward to ISBE 2010 in London which I am sure will build on the success of 2009 in Liverpool.
Oswald Jones, Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Liverpool Management School
