Research on competitive dynamics and entrepreneurial learning awarded 100,000 Euros

The 2019 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research goes to Boyan Jovanovic, Professor of Economics, New York University. Jovanovic is awarded for his pioneering research on the competitive dynamics between incumbent firms and new ventures, entrepreneurial learning and selection processes. The Global Award is the foremost international award in entrepreneurship research with a prize sum of € 100,000.

Boyan Jovanovic has provided pathbreaking results on fundamental topics related to entrepreneurship and occupational choice, entry, exit, learning among firms, technology diffusion, income distribution, and economic growth. One significant methodological contribution of Jovanovic is the integration of entrepreneurship into dynamic mathematical models and general equilibrium analyses of the labor market, thereby incorporating the role of entrepreneurship at a more aggregate level.

Professor Jovanovic’s most important contributions include:

• Explaining the role of entrepreneurial entrants by exploring how, over time, new efficient firms learn, survive and grow, while inefficient firms fail. Thus, Jovanovic links entrepreneurial endeavors to how industries are organized as well as to macroeconomic outcomes, thereby enriching our understanding of the entrepreneurial function in the economy;

• Providing an outstanding insight into the complex interdependencies between labor market sorting, through which some individuals become entrepreneurs and others become employees. The outcome of such processes influences innovation, technological change, industrial churning, the distribution of human capital, and growth; none of this, according to Professor Jovanovic, would have happened without entrepreneurs.

The Award ceremony will take place in Stockholm on May 16. For further information, please visit our website, www.e-award.org.

The Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research is the foremost global award for research on entrepreneurship. The Award honors significant contributions to theory-building on entrepreneurship and small business development. The Award consists of the statuette ”The Hand of God” by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles and a prize amount of 100 000 Euros.

Founder of the Award: Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum. Co-founder: The Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Sponsor: Vinnova – Sweden´s Innovation Agency. Donor: Lars Backsell.