Open Workshop: Democracy and Entrepreneurship
The aim of the Open Workshop Series in Business and Management Studies is to promote top-quality academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences. This is a unique opportunity for sharing knowledge and networking with local and international community members.
The interrelation of entrepreneurship and democracy has recently gained increased attention and has become of interest for researchers in the entrepreneurship and innovation field. Democracy is no longer taken for granted for entrepreneurs as well as innovators and investors because democracy is under threat worldwide. Thus, the role of democracy in the context of entrepreneurship and innovation specifically and the economy in general is more and more in the spotlight. For example, Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson were awarded the Nobel Prize for their research focusing on democracy and economics last year, and this year the Nobel Prize was awarded on Innovation research and the necessary context factors – like democratic structures. Thus, entrepreneurship and democracy has become a focus in the research community in entrepreneurship and other disciplines.
Since the publication of one of the pioneering conceptional papers discussing the relationship of democracy and entrepreneurship (Audretsch & Moog, 2022), postulating that both constructs are related to each other by freedom of thought, choice, decision making and action (Arendt 1958, 2003, 2018), the discussion goes on that democracy enables individuals to start and run entrepreneurial activities and be conducive to innovation and generate economic growth. Numerous articles probe deeper into the subject and deliver empirical as well as theoretical insights and results supporting or challenging this idea. The conclusions from papers and research contributing to this ongoing discussion have been very heterogeneous, and could be characterized as contradictory in many cases.
This presentation seeks to deliver a deeper understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurship and democracy, generating insights, explanations, and reasoning for the extensive spectrum of outcomes and how we could find a way to gain explanations for that or develop theoretical as well as conceptional approaches to deliver an understanding, when there is a strong relationship to be expected and in which context not. The paper tries to deliver insights to the both very multifaceted concepts of entrepreneurship and democracy.
Speaker: Prof. Petra Moog, University of Siegen, Germany and University of Zurich, Switzerland
Professor Dr. Petra Moog, ZHAW – Director of the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Petra M. Moog holds the Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at the zhaw, Switzerland and runs as director the institute IIE. Her research interests cover topics from startups & entrepreneurship, academic spin-offs, up to ecosystems, SMEs, innovation, family business, values and democracy. Within entrepreneurship, for example, Petra Moog studies the role of incentives on the motivation of scientists to act entrepreneurially or how human and social capital affect the entrepreneurial willingness of individuals and later on how this affects the success of businesses. She researches networks and ecosystems in a university context, compares institutional settings and disciplines. Her research is theory-based and empirical.
Petra M. Moog studied economics at the University of Cologne, Germany. Additionally, she completed a Master in International Management (CEMS/MIM) at Universitá Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy, before finishing her PhD on Success Factors of Entrepreneurship at Cologne University.
She has been a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School. She was a visiting professor at Cornell University (Ithaca) and Kings College (London). Before taking over the Chair at zhaw, she did run her chair at Siegen University (Entrepreneurship & Family Business) for 15 years, was as PostDoc at Zurich University, Switzerland, and worked at the Small Business Research Institute in Bonn.
She developed the EXIST interdisciplinary teaching program at Siegen University as well as NRW excellence program, building interdisciplinary infrastructures; she did run the PhD graduate school Entrepreneurship and SME Management at Siegen University for six years.
Petra Moog teaches Entrepreneurship Theory, Entrepreneurial and Innovation Business Planning and Management, Strategy and Management, Personnel Economics/HR Management, Empirical Research Methods, Family Business Management, as well as SME Management. She has taught at various universities, namely, Zurich University, ZHAW and EHB Bern in Switzerland, Cologne University, RWTH Aachen and Wuppertal University, Germany, as well as at different European and US universities as guest professor or lecturer. She is a review member of several academic and professional journals and the author of several books and edited volumes as well as over 50 articles and book chapters. Her research has appeared in such journals as Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Small Business Economics, Family Business Research, Journal of Family Business Strategy, Journal of Technology Transfer, etc. She is on the Editor board of Journal of Technology Transfer and Small Business Economics.
Discussion moderated by Prof. Arnis Sauka.
Attendance is free of charge.
Please sign up for the seminar, by writing to arnis.sauka@sseriga.edu by December 17, 2025.
The aim of the SSE Riga Open Workshop Series is to:
- Foster cooperation between business and management researchers, practitioners and policymakers, as well as
- Promote academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences, focusing on but not limited to entrepreneurship, marketing, management, public administration, and strategy.
Organised by Professor Arnis Sauka, the Centre for Sustainable Business at SSE Riga