Entrepreneurship Division (ENT)

Call for Professional Development Workshops (PDWs)

Division PDW Chair: Trent Williams

Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) are among the most rewarding, stimulating, and enjoyable sessions of the Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting. The Entrepreneurship Division invites creative and innovative proposals for interactive PDW sessions for the 2025 AOM Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. We are looking for interesting, engaging, and creative PDW’s on Research (topics and methods), Teaching, and Practice to Scholarship and back. Given its mission, “We Grow Entrepreneurial Scholars,” the ENT Division favors PDW proposals that give participants across career stages the opportunity to learn new skills, share ideas, help other scholars, have new experiences, and build connections.

How do PDWs contribute to the overall program?

PDWs are meant as complements, not substitutes, for the regular AOM program. They should NOT cover conventional themes and topics or be structured as traditional paper or panel sessions. Rather, PDWs should be innovative in content and structure, exploring issues and encouraging interactions not usually featured in the main program.

PDW sessions are typically structured as workshops, breakout sessions, tutorials, discussion panels, research incubators, or other interactive formats. PDWs should be thought provoking but also the place to safely present and explore new ideas, by linking different views and creating new research opportunities. Through the exchange of ideas and collaboration across different fields and disciplines, we can develop new avenues for research. We welcome submissions featuring innovative topics or themes, new forms of exchange, and experimental formats—for example, sessions that use technology in novel ways, create interactions among participants before or after the session, and engage participants in new ways.

Bridging Perspectives within the ENT Division and Across Divisions

Proposals should interest members of the Entrepreneurship Division, or fit its domain, which includes not only the phenomena of self-employment, small-business management, family business, new-venture formation, innovation, and firm growth but also more general ideas about the recognition, analysis, and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities; the nature of novelty, creativity, and innovativeness; and how individuals and groups exercise judgment under uncertainty. Sessions with standard paper presentations are more appropriate for traditional symposia.

PDWs are focused on creating bridges across diverse scholarly sub-communities—both within the ENT division and across the Academy of Management. The most effective PDWs encourage interaction among individuals and groups that do not typically participate in the same sessions, workshops, and activities. Bridging diverse audience perspectives might include (but are not limited to) those of junior and senior scholars; between academics and practitioners; among scholars from different countries; among academics following different career paths; and among perspectives across divisional lines and/or theoretical perspectives across the Academy.

Hence you are encouraged to work with colleagues within and outside the Division and submit appropriate PDW proposals which have broad appeal to the Academy membership at-large. Indeed, PDWs provide a unique space where previously disconnected communities can come together, share their knowledge and expertise, build new relationships and ultimately contributing to the growth and development of the field of entrepreneurship.

Submission Format and Components

Please attend carefully to the submission guidelines detailed below. Please note that the submission will not be reviewed if any of the guidelines and formatting requirements are not met.

Proposal Format Guidelines

• PDW proposals can be submitted to only ONE sponsor (that is, one [1] division, division interest group [DIG], or affiliate).
• Proposals should use the following page format:
  • Times New Roman 12-point font
  • Double-spaced
  • 1-inch (2.5cm) margin all around
  • 8.5" x 11”-page setting
• All submissions must be at least 4 pages but are limited to no more than 8 pages. You may use an appendix as needed to provide information that expands on the proposal.
• The entire submission must be contained in ONE document and must be either .pdf, .doc, .docx, or .rtf format

Proposal Structure

• Page 1: Title page which contains:
  • the Academy submission system-assigned 5-digit submission number
  • title of the workshop (in Title Case)
  • name of the proposed sponsor (Division—e.g., ENT Division) and a list of other Divisions or Interest Groups who might be cross-listed given common interests
  • up to 250-word abstract of the workshop
• Page 2: One (1) page explanation as to why the workshop should be of interest to (a) the ENT division as the primary sponsor and (b) other divisions or interest groups
• Page 3: One (1) page description of the workshop’s format
• Pages 4-6: One to three (1-3) page overview of the workshop
• Optional Appendix: You can use space in an appendix to capture references, Tables (e.g., detailed agenda for the workshop), and/or Figures that support the

Proposal Evaluation Rubric

Proposals will be evaluated on their ability to draw an audience from the specific discipline or across AOM, as well as its innovativeness and potential impact on the professional success of participants. While new iterations of previous PDWs are not discouraged, proposals that are a simple repeat – without new innovative content beyond what has already been covered – from previous years will not be considered favorably. In contrast to the refereed scholarly program that has a double-blind review process and standardized time blocks and formats, the PDWs include a wide variety of session formats, are a minimum of 1-hour in duration, and are reviewed by the PDW Chair.

The PDW Chair will use the following criteria to evaluate proposals:

1. Expected substantive and networking benefit for participants. Clearly specify the target audience(s) for the PDW and how your proposed session will facilitate their development.
2. Plans for creating an interactive and engaging session. Explain how you will structure the session to foster interaction amongst participants and promote inter-disciplinary ‘bridge-building.’
3. Breadth of interest of the session for individuals and groups within the Division and the broader Academy. Specify the anticipated breadth of interest, noting that you do not need to be ‘all things for all groups.’
4. Novelty of the topic or the format. Explain how the topic and/or how your proposed PDW format is novel and why introducing that novelty is useful for addressing program goals.
5. The effective use of program time. PDWs are typically at least two hours long, though sessions may be as short as 1.5 hours but must a minimum of 1-hour in duration. Ensure that you explain and justify why the requested time is needed to accomplish your goals and how you plan to maximize the use of that time. In doing so, consider that program time is zero-sum: your requests will ‘trade-off’ program time for other program participants.

Additional resources and questions to ask

William Dougan of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has provided an additional resource in the form of A Guide for Creating and Managing a Good Professional Development Workshop. You might consider those guidelines as you explore your proposal. Before submitting a PDW proposal, consider the following questions in seeking to assess how well you are addressing the PDW rubric:

• Does the workshop offer a high quality and high-level learning experience that has a significant positive impact on the professional development of the participants?
• Does the workshop provide participants with a clear takeaway? (E.g. learn a new skill; develop a new research plan)
• Does the workshop have a theme and a group of participants to draw a strong audience regardless of competing sessions or scheduling restrictions?
• Does the workshop encourage multi-way conversation and interaction among participants from multiple divisions, disciplines, regions, career stages, or demographic backgrounds?
• Is the workshop creative and innovative across topical and/or structural elements?

Submission Process and Deadlines

Proposals should be submitted to the AOM Annual Meeting Submission Center, which is available at the AOM website beginning in early December of 2024. Early submissions and expressions of interest are encouraged. 

The submission deadline is Tuesday, 7 January 2025 at 17:00 ET (GMT-5/UTC-5). The PDW program runs from Friday through Sunday (25-27 July 2025—PLEASE NOTE THE JULY DATE). 

All named PDW participants must commit to participation in advance. All proposals require a statement indicating that all named participants have consented to participate in the PDW. The AOM’s “Rule of Three” for the PDW program is that “no one may submit or be associated with more than 3 PDW submissions; or appear in more than 3 PDW sessions during the preconference from Friday to Saturday, regardless of whether the sessions are held on-site or off-site.” 

If you have questions or would like to discuss a potential workshop idea, please contact the Entrepreneurship Division’s PDW Chair, Trent Williams. To ensure sufficient time to develop your proposal, please forward your general inquiries before 15 December 2025. 

See you in Copenhagen!