On November 4 and 5, 2022, scholars from business schools in the U.S. and throughout the world assembled at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business for the annual Roundtable for Engineering Entrepreneurship Research (REER) Conference.
The purpose of the conference is to provide an opportunity for leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to share their research on topics related to technology entrepreneurship and innovation.
“The REER Conference, which is now in its 20th year, has become an important venue for both the refinement and dissemination of frontier ideas in the economics of innovation, entrepreneurship, and technical change,” said Alex Oettl, associate professor of Strategy and Innovation and one of the organizers of the conference.
This year, papers were presented on five broad themes: who participates in entrepreneurship; the public funding of science and R&D; the directions of innovation; constraints to innovation; and IP and knowledge in the life sciences.
The speakers discussed a variety of topics, including the economic effects of immigration pardons in Venezuela, race and entrepreneurship, and intellectual property rights in pharmaceuticals, to name just a few. Institutions participating in the conference included Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, MIT, and the University of Toronto.
“While our program was smaller this year than in years past, we received a record number of paper submissions resulting in a 15% paper acceptance rate. The papers were presented by top academics from across North America and largely focused on the constraints and drivers of entrepreneurial innovation,” said Oettl.
At the reception after the conference, Avi Goldfarb of the University of Toronto, gave a keynote talk about his forthcoming book on the economics of AI titled "Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence.
The conference is organized by Scheller faculty Marco Ceccagnoli, Brady Family Professorship, Strategy & Innovation, Stuart Graham, associate professor, Strategy and Innovation, Ashlee Li, assistant professor, Strategy and Innovation, Astrid Marinoni, assistant professor, Strategy and Innovation, Alex Oettl, associate professor, Strategy and Innovation, Eunhee Sohn, assistant professor, Strategy and Innovation, and Peter Thompson, Hal and John Smith Chair in Small Business and Entrepreneurship, professor, Strategy and Innovation.
It is sponsored by the College and its Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).