Michael Slavensky Dahl, PhD

Best paper in European Management Review 2009

My paper with Olav Sorenson, The Embedded Entrepreneur, has been given the EMR Best Paper Award 2009. We are very much honored to receive this award. Thanks to the editors, Alfonso and Maurizio!

From the EMR website:

EMR Best Paper Award – Annual Prize

We are delighted to announce the inauguration of an EMR ‘Best Paper Award’. The recipients are Michael Dahl and Olav Sorensen for their paper, ‘The Embedded Entrepreneur’, which appeared in Volume 6, Issue 3 of the Journal. The winners received a prize of €1000, and certificates were presented at the recent EURAM conference in Rome.

Growth and Job Creation of Spin-offs

Pernille G. Jensen and I have written a small paper on the performance of spin-offs in Denmark in terms of job creation and employment growth. It is an explorative, simple paper presentating findings on the potential of spin-offs as a particularly significant type of entrepreneurial entrant relative to other types of entrants. The paper has been submitted to an edited volume and is based on research from a project financed by the Rockwool Foundation.

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Paper accepted for Social Forces

My paper with Olav Sorenson on the migration of blue collar workers has been accepted for publication in Social Forces, one of the World’s leading sociology journals. We introduce a new method for estimating the financial value of social factors and show how the location choice of blue collar workers depend strongly on social factors and less on financial incentives.

Link to abstract

New book published (in Danish)

Jagten på fremtidens nye vækstvirksomheder

Jagten på fremtidens nye vækstvirksomheder

Nyetablerede virksomheder bidrager årligt netto med 60.000 nye job til dansk økonomi, mens ældre virksomheder i gennemsnit siger farvel til flere personer, end de ansætter. Det understreger vigtigheden af nye virksomheder på arbejdsmarkedet.

De mest succesfulde iværksættere har typisk stor brancheerfaring. Særligt interessante er de såkaldte spin-off-iværksættere, som kommer direkte fra en eksisterende virksomhed i samme branche. Disse iværksættere står bag omkring 30 % af de nye virksomheder, og de har større sandsynlighed for at overleve i længere tid og blive vækstiværksættere. Dvs. iværksættere, der skaber høj beskæftigelse og værdi til samfundet. Overlevelsen hos de nye virksomheder er central og en vigtig forudsætning for en langvarig positiv effekt på samfundsøkonomien.

Undersøgelsen er finansieret af Rockwool Fonden. Bogens resultater bygger bl.a. på en gennemgang af karakteristika ved mere end 26.000 iværksættere fra 1994-2006, suppleret med en spørgeskemaundersøgelse blandt 10.000 danskere.

Undersøgelsen peger på, at beskæftigelsen kan udbygges, hvis de nye virksomheders potentiale styrkes, så de vokser mere. Vi kan med andre ord øge gevinsten uden, at der nødvendigvis etableres flere virksomheder, hvis vi fokuserer på de virksomheder, som overlever bedre, og hvis ejere har en større sandsynlighed for at blive vækstiværksættere. Bogen går derfor videre med at præsentere de personlige karakteristika hos de iværksættere, som giver den største sandsynlighed for overlevelse og vækst.

Spørgeskemaundersøgelsen viser, at spin-off-iværksætterne udover deres brancheerfaring især adskiller sig fra de øvrige iværksættere på følgende dimensioner: De er yngre, og de har en højere indkomst på det tidspunkt, hvor de bliver iværksættere. De investerer mere tid i deres arbejdsliv, og de lægger væsentligt større vægt på selvstændighed. Derfor starter de oftere virksomheder, som er uafhængige af andre virksomheder. Spin-off-iværksætterne bruger ligeledes deres netværk mere aktivt og har forbindelse til flere iværksættere gennem deres netværk.

Michael S. Dahl, Pernille G. Jensen og Kristian Nielsen. ”Jagten på fremtidens nye vækstvirksomheder”, udkom den 19. november 2009 på DJØF Forlag

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Master Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

My research group has a master program, which deserves some attention on this site.

MSc in Innovation, Knowledge and Economic Dynamics (MIKE-E) – leading to a Master’s Degree in Economics. MIKE-E emphasises economic analysis and strategies in relation to knowledge, innovation and economic dynamics.

MSc in Innovation, Knowledge and Entrepreneurial Dynamics (MIKE-B) – leading to a Master’s Degree in Business Economics.MIKE-B has a special focus on knowledge management and innovation in relation to entrepreneurial dynamics.

The close collaboration between the two programmes gives a unique opportunity to combine macro- and micro perspectives, and gives students new possibilities to design and individual study profile. The programmes enroll both Danish and international students and the teaching language is English.

Visit the website or even better see this folder for more information.

Hello world! Site have been updated…

Welcome to the new version of my website. In technical terms, I have moved from Joomla.org to WordPress.org, which is a little more simple and more appropriate for smaller, personal webpages like this. And I like to try something new for the site.

Please note the EMAEE Conference in Jena

My friend Guido Buenstorf is organizing the 6th European Meeting for Applied Evolutionary Economics (EMAEE) in Jena, Germany. The conference targets specifically the younger researcher in this field and is traditionally very successful.

EMAEE is an international conference focusing on young researchers (PhD students and post-docs). EMAEE provides a unique opportunity to discuss the latest insights and methods in applied evolutionary economics and innovation studies with top international scholars.

Evolutionary economics is a leading paradigm for research into innovation, organizations, and industrial dynamics. Beyond these fields, evolutionary economics provides a general approach to the study of emergent novelty and dynamic change in the economy. Plenary speakers at EMAEE 2009 will explore commonalities with the neighboring fields and disciplines – in particular behavioral economics, organization and management science, and historiography.

The conference will welcome among others Steven Klepper, Olav Sorenson, Sid Winter and Francesco Lissoni as keynote speakers. Deadline for abstracts is October, 31st, 2008. Check out the website for further details.

Associate Professor

As of August 1 2007, I have been promoted to be Associate Professor at my current Department. More specifically, I am now Associate Professor of Economics with special attention to Entrepreneurship and Regional Economics.