Raj Shankar's Blog, page 6

Peruvian Memories Captured

Between August and September this year, I spent about three weeks in this lovely Latin American nation called Peru. Apart from the time spent at work, I enjoyed learning about Peruvian culture and made some amazing friends. Here are some memories captured.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousands

Presenting Evidence – Tips from The ASQ Editor

ASQ – Administrative Science Quarterly [image error]

Link to journal: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/asq

I also firmly believe (like many others) that ASQ is the crown jewel among journals in management. It is every scholar’s dream to publish there at least once in their life time. Some scholars are amazing, for they publish more than once in the ASQ.

The journal publishes articles that are forward looking and research executed with the highest rigour and relevance. There is no question that when the editor of this wonderful journal says something about “Presenting Evidence”, there can only be things to learn.

Please find a short presentation from the present editor Prof Henrich Greve which I hope you will find fascinating and full of learning.

Link: http://www.henrichgreve.com/uploads/7...

Happy Reading, Learning and Thinking!

India Israel Global Innovation Challenge

Are you applying?

If you are an entrepreneur or a research team interested in solving big challenges in “health”, “agriculture” or “water” – here is a competition that you do not want to miss. It offers financial and non-financial rewards. It also provides a great opportunity to be a “born global” firm.

The last date (as per the linked web page) for application is 12th November 2017.

Check here for details and making an application: https://www.startupindiahub.org.in/co...

Go ahead! Solve big problems! Change the World! One step at a time!

Take the first step today.

Top Entrepreneurship Researchers & Institutions

Entrepreneurship is a young academic field. It is always difficult to find out who is really contributing to its development. Many times rankings are filled with biases and opinions. But when a peer-reviewed journal article suggests a list, it might actually be worth looking at it.[image error]

I am presently at the Nord University Business School, Bodo, Norway for a research stay. The school has many well published Professors (Einar Rasmussen, Gry Agnete Alsos, Tommy Clausen, Lars Kolveried, amongst others). I hope to learn from them during this stay. But what I did not know was that they were one among the top 100 institutions contributing to entrepreneurship research and that two of the school’s adjunct professors (Johan Wiklund and Andrew Corbett) also feature in the top 25 contributing authors in entrepreneurship research. While I was excited to be here anyways, knowing this makes it all the more special. Hope to collaborate and learn from the wonderful scholars here.

Link to the paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsbm.12367/full

Prof Andrew Corbett was here the whole of last week. All of us received feedback on our paper ideas and working papers. There were discussions around collaborations and building on each others work. This is a very progressive culture for research. A lot of tips from senior scholars about “getting published” was helpful, especially for us (junior folks).

Congratulations to the whole team at Nord University Business School for being one of the top 100 contributing forces to entrepreneurship research and wishes for greater glory.

I am really glad to be here in this lovely and vibrant environment for entrepreneurship research and look forward to an entrepreneurial experience.

SEE Conference 2018

SEE – Sustainability, Ethics and Entrepreneurship

I met Prof Markman (Founder and Organising Committee member of SEE) at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC) earlier this year at the University of Oklahoma (OU). His enthusiasm to connect with junior scholars seemed infectious. Though I had heard about the SEE earlier, listening about it from the founder of the conference was a privilege. I can only tell you that if “sustainability”, “ethics” or “entrepreneurship” matters to you; then this is one conference that should be on your list.

I also heard a few other researchers recommend that SEE is growing to be an important place for serious scholars to go. A few people even told me that it is all the more important for junior scholars, especially considering the level of feedback that one receives. Though I have never been to the SEE, I look forward to experiencing one soon.

So, it is my pleasure to share the details of this conference with all of you. The link below provides a lot more details about what you can expect. It also has the call for proposals. I am sure if you have papers to submit, then you shouldn’t miss the deadlines!

Link: http://seeconf.gatsbo.com

Good Luck!!

Why we must work on 02nd October?

Today is 02nd October 2017. In India we celebrate this as “Gandhi Jayanti” – to commemorate the birth anniversary of the “Father of our Nation” – Shri Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi). If you wish to know more about him, please look up here: https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org

The 02nd of October is generally a “holiday” in India. This year it is even more special because it falls on a Monday – (surprised?) – it makes this weekend what people refer to as “long weekend”.

Guyana Memories Captured

Carribean Memories Captured – Official

So much India in Guyana

Guyana is one of the 15 countries which form the Carribean Community. Guyana is on the mainland of the South American continent. Guyana has strong links to India. It appears that Indians landed here more than a 150 years ago (brought by the British) as indentured labourers. It is therefore not too surprising that a major part of the population is of Indian origin.

Some of the things that caught my attention and made me feel that there is so much India in Guyana are:

So many common Indian names pronounced the Indian way – ‘Ramesh’ (guy who sold lunch to us everyday); ‘Darmender’ (who drove us around); Preya (a colleague who participated in the training) and many more…
Three Indian Restaurants in Georgetown – ‘Taste of India’; ‘Maharaja’; and ‘Aagman’ (been to the first two; third scheduled for this week)
Two listed spoken languages: Carribean Hindustani and Tamil (spoken around here); At the above mentioned restaurants there were many who could speak Hindi.
I saw a poster of ‘Hanuman-ji’ and a few temples too
I saw some women wearing ‘saree’ the t[image error]raditional Indian women wear. One of our participants in the training also told us that earlier this year the Indian High Commission had held a ‘Saree Draping Event’ to allow everyone to soak in the Indian culture. The local Guyanese seemed to like it so much.
The best thing I noticed while being driven to work – A notice saying that there is going to be a ‘Rath Yatra’ (check the picture in this blog).

So as an Indian from India, visiting Guyana makes you feel more at home than many other places, because you have so much of India here.

The country is so beautiful and that deserves to be written up too. I did a bit of seeing Georgetown (Capital of Guyana) and a little around the city. Hope to write some experiences in a separate blog.

But the fact remains – ‘there is so much India in Guyana’.

 

My First Visit to the Carribean

I have always been a big fan of the West Indies cricket team. Right from the days of Viv Richards to Chris Gayle – they entertain and keep us glued to the sport. With the onset of the ‘T-20’ format of the game, they have only shown how inherent a part of the game, they are! But never did I dream or wish to go there – but it all happened at short notice and kind of suddenly.

Here I am, writing this, sitting in the land of the West Indies – ‘The Carribean’ specifically in Georgetown, Guyana. My hotel room opens into the Atlantic Ocean. The country is green and the people are so fun loving. It has all signs of a country filled with aspirations to grow.

While I was on the flight from New York to Georgetown, I had two old women sitting on the same row. One was 89 and the the other was 70, both of Guyanese origin. They had so much life in them, so much aspiration, especially the older lady. I was so inspired by her energy and enthusiasm. She was engaged in some really small business (by global standards), but she never made it sound so. I liked the way she told me that she was building it. They gave me some tips on places to visit while I’m in Guyana and wished me well. I’m not ‘selfie’ crazy, else I would have posted one here with them.

My experience at the Airport amazed me. We got out of the plane, walked to a small hall where immigration, customs and baggage belt was present. Just outside the hall there were people waiting to pick their guests and of course some taxi drivers trying their luck. No order in parking, but no confusion either. It appeared to me the equivalent of a railway station in a small Indian town / village.

Our driver picked us up and we were on our way to the hotel. He drove quite fast along one of the three rivers in Guyana. It rained pretty heavily while we were enroute to the hotel and I got a couple of nice pictures. Here is one of them![image error]

He stopped us to treat us to some ‘coconut water along the country side. There was a man who came out of his home and served us fresh coconut water. Indians comprise a large part of Guyana’s population. Georgetown itself has three popular Indian restaurants – ‘Taste of India’, ‘Maharaja’ and ‘Aagman’. In the last few days I’ve already had food at two of them. They are tasty and the people running the restaurants speak Hindi.

It is my first visit to the Carribean and it is my first time in South America. It has been awesome so far and I really look forward to knowing Guyana (and the Carribean) through its people and places. My work here also offers me this wonderful opportunity to know about the entire Carribean Community in one place!