WINIR Young Scholars Pre-Conference Workshop on 

Institutions, Entrepreneurship &
Shared Prosperity

Prague University of Economics and Business
Prague, Czechia

9 September 2025

Co-organised with
The Law as Science Project and INET’s Young Scholars Initiative (YSI)

The WINIR Conference on Institutions, Entrepreneurship & Shared Prosperity will be held at the Prague University of Economics and Business in Prague, Czechia, on 10-12 September 2025.

Early-career researchers exploring the intersections of institutional theory, innovation, and entrepreneurship are invited to submit their work to the WINIR Young Scholars Pre-Conference Workshop on Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Institutions that will be held in Prague on 9 September 2025. The Workshop aims to advance scholarly understanding of how institutions shape and are shaped by innovation and entrepreneurship, with a focus on the pressing global challenges of sustainability, inequality, and economic transformation.

The theme situates institutional theory at the heart of debates around post-growth paradigms in the Global North, sustainable development imperatives in the Global South, and the role of entrepreneurship across public, private, and cooperative sectors in driving social and environmental change. The Workshop seeks to explore how institutional dynamics influence and are influenced by the ways societies produce, consume, and thrive, fostering innovative and sustainable pathways for the future. Contributions should engage institutional methods and perspectives to examine entrepreneurship and innovation across diverse contexts.

We welcome submissions addressing – but not restricted to – one or more of the following thematic areas:

1. Institutions, Innovation, and Resilience – How institutional frameworks influence innovation ecosystems across diverse contexts, institutional voids in emerging markets and their impact on entrepreneurial innovation, along with the role of governance structures and policy frameworks in fostering resilience. Relevant submissions could include comparative analyses and sector-specific case studies that illuminate these institutional dynamics.

2. Entrepreneurial Responses to Institutional Pressures – How entrepreneurs navigate and respond to complex institutional environments, research on entrepreneurial initiatives that challenge institutional contradictions, institutional entrepreneurship as a driver of systemic change, and analyses of informal entrepreneurship in under-institutionalized settings. Theoretical and methodological advances in studying institutional entrepreneurship also relate to this them

3. Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship – The ways in which entrepreneurial activity addresses global sustainability challenges and promotes social inclusion. This includes studies of institutional frameworks enabling sustainable entrepreneurship, innovative business models incorporating sustainability principles, and impact measurement methodologies. The theme encompasses research on institutional networks and collaborative approaches for scaling sustainable solutions

4. Entrepreneurship Beyond the Private Sector – This may include research on the entrepreneurial state’s role in innovation and market creation, entrepreneurship as a catalyst for governance reform, and cross-sectoral collaborations. The theme encompasses studies of how entrepreneurial approaches reshape public institutions and drive systemic change across sectors.

We also invite submissions that relate to institutions, innovation and entrepreneurship but which do not fit neatly into any of the four themes above.

Eligibility and funding

Applicants working in economics, law, sociology, anthropology, development studies, and other related disciplines are encouraged to apply. Eligible applicants should either be enrolled in a doctoral research programme or have graduated no more than three years before 31 March 2025. Successful applicants will be invited to present their research to a supportive audience of peers and senior scholars and receive constructive conceptual and methodological critique.

Priority will be given to first-time attendees at the WINIR Young Scholars conferences.

Submission guidelines

Submissions should be sent using the designated form. Please follow these instructions closely:

• Abstract: A 500-word abstract with 3 to 5 keywords. Save the file as: LastName_FirstName_Title.

• Short Bio: A brief biography indicating your discipline and institutional affiliation. Save the file as: LastName_FirstName_Bio.

Please subit your materials in PDF form and label them LastName.FirstName.AbstractBio.pdf and LastName.FirstName.CV.pdf.

Submissions should be sent using this form.

Key dates

15 February 2025 – Submission deadline
5 March 2025 – Notifications of acceptance

Please address all inquiries to youngscholars@winir.org.

About WINIR Young Scholars 

WINIR Young Scholars (WYS) aims to identify and promote the next generation of institutional scholars from diverse geographies, sociocultural contexts and disciplines. Its major activities are directed towards creating an inclusive and supportive space for young scholars to receive guidance and mentorship in their journey toward establishing themselves as knowledge creators and navigating the academic job market.

WYS is a collaboration between the World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIR), the Law as Science Project, and the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Convenors: Christina Mosalagae (Institute for New Economic Thinking, Italy), Nikhilesh Sinha (Hult International Business School, UK), Simon Sun (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan), Vanessa Villanueva (European University Institute & Bocconi University, Italy).