UC Associate Dean Keynote Speaker at International Conference

Marianne Lewis, associate dean of undergraduate programs and director of the Marvin P. Kolodzik Business Scholars program in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, was the keynote speaker at an international conference in Switzerland.

Amid researchers from all over the world, Lewis, a management professor, spoke in September about organizational paradoxes at the

Rencontres de St. Gall

conference at the University of St. Gallen’s Swiss Research Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Among the oldest conferences for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) that began in 1948 and meets every two years, participation is exclusive and by invitation only. This year’s select 45 invitees discussed research around a central topic: “In Search of a Dynamic Equilibrium: Exploring and Managing Tensions in Entrepreneurship and SMEs.”

This theme reflects Professor Lewis’ recent publication in the Academy of Management Review, as well as her continuing focus on organizational paradoxes. This conference complemented her chairing of two summer conference tracks on this topic, coordinating related research in Finland 2012, and Portugal 2011.

Charles H. Matthews, PhD, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research at the Lindner College of Business, also led a track at the conference and presented on the topic of  “Antecedents of Planning in Small and Entrepreneurial Ventures: Uncertainty, Decision-Making and Type of Venture.”