ISBE 2017 Live Webinar
Wednesday, 8th November, 14.00-15.30 GMT
Conquering Borders:
Gender, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity
Hosted by the Gender & Enterprise Network (GEN)
A Special Interest Group of ISBE
To join the webinar virtually on Wednesday, November 8th at 14:00-15:30 GMT, use this link:
http://bit.ly/2xF9mrD
Tweet us at @ISBEGEN and share your experience using the hashtag #isbegen
For technical support please email Rob Edwards at
The video of the webinar will be made available on the ISBE YouTube channel.
In embracing the conference theme of ‘Borders: prosperity and entrepreneurial responses’, the Gender and Enterprise Network (Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Special Interest Group) will host an international webinar during ISBE 2017.
This webinar aims to conquer some of the political borders that separate the international entrepreneurship community by bringing us together to share and discuss the potential of entrepreneurship in conquering borders through virtual and physical presence.
A panel of gender and entrepreneurship experts will share with us their research on how entrepreneurs conquer the borders in their minds, as well as the social, political and economic borders that define our present and future.
We encourage those interested to consider hosting a ‘webinar party’ where you gather in a classroom or auditorium at your institution to watch together, so that the content can transcend the physical borders of the ISBE 2017 conference, and inspire discussion and debate amongst your communities of practice.
Our Speakers
Professor Susan Marlow – Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Prosperity
Professor Susan Marlow is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Haydn Green Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Nottingham, UK. With specific research interests in the influence of gender upon entrepreneurial behaviour, Susan has published extensively in UK, European and US journals around this topic. In addition, Susan has received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, is a Fellow of ISBE and was the Editor of the International Small Business Journal until 2016.
This presentation will critically review the potential for entrepreneurship as a pathway for women to gain prosperity. I will acknowledge the opportunities a career in entrepreneurship offers in terms of self-fulfilment, income generation and independence but in so doing, I will reflect upon how gender shapes this career path and the implications for women. Whilst arguing that women must not be constrained by gendered ascriptions from pursuing entrepreneurial endeavours, I will also cast some doubt upon the almost evangelical powers afforded to entrepreneurship to address poverty, discrimination and exclusion with a particular focus upon how this message is translated across borders.
Dr Lorna Treanor – Overcoming Barriers and Borders: Crowdfunding and Women Entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland
Dr Lorna Treanor is an Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Nottingham. A co-founder and former Chair of GEN, Lorna has held a long-standing interest in women’s entrepreneurship and the gendering of entrepreneurial behaviours in different contexts.
This presentation will focus on the economic and social effects of political borders that have long been recognised by the European Community. Northern Ireland, with a turbulent history and its location on the periphery of Europe, has presented challenges to would-be entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs are also recognised as facing additional gendered barriers in terms of accessing finance, networks and information. The research undertaken in collaboration with Dr Sharon Loane and Dr Laura Bradley explores the use of reward-based crowdfunding by women entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland and it potential in assisting women entrepreneurs in this locale to overcome barriers and borders.
Dr Natalia Vershinina – EU Migrant Family Businesses in Birmingham: Reactions and Responses to Brexit
Dr Natalia Vershinina is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at University of Birmingham, UK. Her research cuts across diverse but complementary areas of entrepreneurship, gender, family firms, ethnicity and social class. She is a Co-chair of the BAM Entrepreneurship SIG, Co-chair of ISBE’s Family and Community Business Track, and member of ISBE’s Gender and Enterprise Network (GEN) committee.
Since the Brexit vote, EU migrant entrepreneurs have faced an uncertain future in the UK. In her talk, Natalia reports the findings of the ‘EU families and Brexit’ project, with a particular focus on the lived experiences of life and work for women from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania and their children, as they prepare to conquer their borders in the UK. The project undertaken in collaboration with Dr Catherine Harris and Dr Aleksandra Kazlowska explored the ways in which EU citizens running businesses in the UK are coping with the uncertainty of Brexit, how Brexit may affect the businesses they run, their sense of belonging and the cohesiveness of the communities within which they are situated. The team interviewed 15 Polish family businesses and 7 families running businesses in the West Midlands, and originating from Baltic States (Latvia and Lithuania).
Dr Haya Al-Dajani – Resourceful Arab Refugee Women Navigating Borders in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Dr Haya Al-Dajani is an Associate Professor (Reader) in Entrepreneurship and Chair of the Responsible Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation Group (RESI) at the University of Plymouth, UK. Her overall research aim is the understanding of the intersectionality of entrepreneurship, empowerment and gender, and their collective impact on economic and social development, especially for forcibly displaced persons. Haya Co-chairs the Gender and Enterprise Network (ISBE SIG) and the Plymouth University Women’s Network.
Refugee camps in many developing economies are often permanent or long term communities rather than temporary and transient settlements. The majority of their residents remain trapped and unable to conquer the personal, physical, economic, political and social borders between them, their host nations, and their homelands. Excluded from mainstream employment, services or social benefits, entrepreneurship is often their only means of earning a living. As such, these communities provide important insights into entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurial refugees establish thriving, yet informal, new ventures within the most unpromising and restrictive conditions. Haya’s presentation focuses on preliminary findings from a research project funded by the ESRC DfID programme, and focusing on Iraqi, Palestinian and Syrian refugee women residing in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Professor Diane Holt – Women, income generation and borders in the informal economy – A focus on subsistence contexts in Africa
Professor Diane Holt is a Professor in Management at Essex Business School. She is the PI of the Trickle Out Africa project exploring social and environmental enterprises in Africa. Her other current research focuses on indigenous entrepreneurs in the Amazon and a conservation agriculture field experiment in Kenya
This presentation focuses on the borders that women face in sub-Saharan Africa when locked into subsistence and informal economy income generating activities. It draws on interviews with informal economy entrepreneurs in Kenya and South Africa. It also explores recent work with subsistence women farmers in Kenya exploring the borders they face in accessing resources for improving productivity of their farms.
Professor Maura McAdam – Discussion Chair and Facilitator
Professor Maura McAdam is Professor of Management and Director of Entrepreneurship, Dublin City University in Ireland. She is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar within the area of entrepreneurship having a particular expertise in gender, incubation, technology entrepreneurship and family business.