Public Lecture for Secondary School Students: What Makes an Entrepreneurial Region?
What makes some places better at turning ideas into new businesses, projects and opportunities?
SSE Riga invites secondary school students to a public lecture with Professor Marcus Dejardin, an expert in entrepreneurship and regional economics. Together, we will explore why entrepreneurship thrives in some regions more than others and how people, ideas, local culture and institutions all play a role.
The lecture is designed especially for high school students and offers a chance to discover how economics can help us understand the world around us, while getting a taste of university-level learning at SSE Riga.
What makes a region entrepreneurial? Is it the people who live there, the projects they create, or the environment that surrounds them?
Professor Marcus Dejardin will approach these questions from several angles. We will look at the role of individuals, the kinds of projects and initiatives that emerge in a region, and the wider environment, including local culture and institutions.
The lecture will also explore why some regions generate more entrepreneurial activity than others and show that entrepreneurship is not only about entrepreneurs. The places where people live, study, work and develop their ideas can make a significant difference too.
Marcus Dejardin is a Full Professor of Economics at the University of Namur and UCLouvain, Belgium, and an Editor of Small Business Economics. He heads the Centre for Research in Regional Economics and Economic Policy (DeFiPP-CERPE, UNamur) and is an academic member of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Work, State, and Society (LIDAM-CIRTES, UCLouvain).
He also leads the Chair of Excellence for Research and Expertise in Entrepreneurship (CHEREE, UNamur) and is a Research Associate at Mines Paris – PSL, France.
His research focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation, regional economics, and public policy, with recent work also connecting economics and social psychology. He has published more than 50 scientific articles, chapters and books and has raised more than €4 million in research funding as a promoter or co-promoter.
The lecture is open to secondary school students interested in economics, business, entrepreneurship and understanding how ideas and places shape economic development.