Guest editorial: Globalization and the convergence of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship

Abstract

This Special Issue of the Management Research Review comprises a selection of the best papers presented at the 2014 annual conference of the International Management Research Academy (IMRA) co-organized with the Global Business School at the Kean University Union campus in New Jersey, USA. The theme of the conference centered on “Globalization and the convergence of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship”, with the aim of bringing together a diverse and multi-disciplinary group of scholars and practitioners from across emerged, emerging and frontier markets. The conference received 108 extended abstracts involving 239 authors from 31 countries, of which 31 proposals were rejected in the first round, leaving a total of 76 submissions to be invited for presentation. The conference attracted a number of leading academics and practitioners, including the keynote addresses by Dr. Raj Shaj, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telemed Ventures; Joseph Sheridan, President and Chief Operating Officer of Wakefern Food Corporation; Dr. Dawood Farahi, President of Kean University; and Dr. Michael Cooper, Dean of the Global Business School at Kean University. While the keynote speakers uniformly highlighted the need for forward-looking and entrepreneurial leaders with global and multicultural perspectives, the selected conference presentations provided valuable examples and demonstrated ways in which the convergence of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship could offer significant competitive advantage to any business in our increasingly globalized environment.