“Entrepreneurship In Abandoned Places: From Ghost Towns and Vacant Cities to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone”
by Richard A. Hunt
Virginia Tech
https://zoom.us/j/3370698252?pwd=OWRmQ1hNNWhRWng2QnhsTENzK1hGUT09&omn=99147244005
Meeting ID: 337 069 8252
Abstract:
Entrepreneurs play a key role in the imagination – and sometimes in the re-imagination – of new socio-cultural, economic, environmental, and institutional possibilities. Through the commitment of non-trivial, irreversible investments of time, capital, and other tangible and intangible resources, business venturers engage in novel action to generate reproducible benefits. While a large body of scholarly literature examines the manner which entrepreneurs identify, develop, and exploit new commercial possibilities in untapped frontiers, entrepreneurs also have the ability to exert enormous regenerative influence upon abandoned, deserted, or even destroyed locales. Extending and enhancing recent work on “spatial entrepreneurship,” we develop and test a novel perspective concerning the entrepreneurial reimagination of abandoned places.
We uncover potent implications for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the finding that without the involvement of entrepreneurs, efforts to reimagine, reclaim, and revitalize abandoned human structures are fruitless.
Bio:
Dr. Richard “Rick” A. Hunt (Ph.D., University of Colorado) is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, where he also serves as Research Director at the Apex Center for Entrepreneurs. Additionally, Rick is an Associate Editor at Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and serves on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, and Journal of Business Venturing Insights.
Rick’s research examines entrepreneurial environments, advantageous knowledge, new sector formation, market entry, and early-stage operational behavior. His work has placed more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, proceedings, and book chapters in top management and entrepreneurship outlets and has been recognized through numerous awards, including the NFIB Prize for Outstanding Dissertation, the Sumantra Ghoshal Research & Practice Award, three ENT Division – Academy of Management Awards for Best Conceptual Paper (2017, 2019, 2021), and more than three dozen other honors and awards for conceptual and empirical research.
Prior to his doctoral studies, Rick worked in Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, and the USA as a consultant and educator, as well as a corporate finance and planning executive in pharmaceuticals, investment banking, and high-tech. He also co-owned a successful start-up, providing environmental services throughout the Western USA. In addition to his Ph.D., Rick holds degrees from Rice (B.A.), Harvard (M.A.) and Stanford (M.B.A.).
