The RENT XIX took place in Naples on November 17-18 and was hosted by the DIEG - Department of Business and Managerial Engineering and ODISSEO - Centre for Organization and Technological Innovation.

The main theme and slogan for RENT XIX was: Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness and Local Development. The papers presented dealt with several aspects of entrepreneurship and small business development, for example from entrepreneurship, innovation and new firm performance to global entrepreneurship.

The 2nd Inter-RENT Publication "CHALLENGES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SME RESEARCH" was officially launched on the 18th, and published on this website on 16th of December 2005.

The best paper award ceremony took place in the final plenary session. Exceptionally, two best papers were chosen this year. The awards went to Jonas Gabrielsson and Diamanto Polis from Lund University, Sweden on their paper “Prediction or Control? Exploring the Influence of Career Experience and Career Motives on Entrepreneurial Decision Making" and to Frits H. Wijbenga (Durham Business School, U.K.), Theo J.B. Postma (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) and Rebecca Stratling (Durham Business School, U.K.) on their paper "The influence of the venture capitalist’s governance activities on the entrepreneurial firm’s control systems and performance". Congratulations to the winners!

For more information on the programme, please visit the Official Conference Website.



1. Listening to words of wisdom
2. Jonas Gabrielsson receiving one of the best paper award
3. The organising team; President David Smallbone (ECSB), Prof. Mario Raffa, local representative and Conference Manager Graziella Michelante (EIASM) with some bubbly