The world is seeing the greatest number of conflicts since the end of WWII with 1 in 4 people worldwide living in a conflict zone. As a result, a rising number of founders, business owners, and CEOs find themselves having to grapple with how to maintain firm survival and growth when their social context plunges into violence and terrorism. Recent scholarly work, from Dr. Coles and his colleagues at Cornell University and University of Southern California, explores how violence influences new venture formation and survival. Their results provide some important lessons for how founders, business owners, and CEOs can successfully navigate violent surroundings to ensure their firms’ survival.
UCU Business School invites you on May, 24 at 19:00 to the event (OFFLINE/ONLINE) with Ryan Coles.
During the event, you will find out:
- How social context shapes the level and direction of strategic entrepreneurial activity
- What personal strategies founders and business owners can use to maintain leadership performance during periods of violence
- What organizational strategies founders and business owners can use to increase odds of firm survival during periods of violence
Speaker Biography
Ryan Coles is an Assistant Professor of Management & Entrepreneurship in the Boucher Department as well as the Founder and Chief Scientist at UConn School of Business’ Daigle Labs. Research from Ryan’s lab explores issues related to entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, and environmentally sustainable new firm growth. Ryan’s lab has active studies across a variety of national contexts including: the U.S., Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Ghana, China, Nepal, Iraq, Palestine, and the Kingdom of Jordan. Ryan’s research has been noted for its theoretical innovations and methodological rigor, frequently receiving “Best Paper” awards by the Academy of Management, the global academy for business professors.
Ryan’s quest to understand the social foundations of entrepreneurship has led him to Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring, Latin American communities with a history of drug cartel violence, remote villages in the Himalayas, the Amazon rainforest, and warzones in Eastern Europe. As an organizational sociologist interested in understanding how humans organize, Ryan’s fieldwork with entrepreneurs is not limited to how organizations are created in the formal economy. Dr. Coles has also interviewed entrepreneurs who manage organizations in the informal and illicit economies. This range of experience allows Ryan to bring unmatched organizational understanding to executives, founders, and policymakers.
Outside of academia, Ryan is an active member of start-ups in the A.I., fintech, bioplastics, and agriculture sectors. He also serves on the advisory board of Old Silver Venture Capital, known for its early investment in Moderna. Ryan speaks Spanish and Arabic, is an avid wrestler, and an advocate for equality, environmental sustainability, and scientific exploration. For Ryan, his family is the best organization he has ever created. Ryan and his wife Chloe have three kids.
When: Wednesday, May 24, Kyiv time – 19:00.
Formats of participation: Both offline and online, you can choose a convenient format for participation in the registration buttons.
– OFFLINE [Sheptytsky Center, Lviv, Kozelnytska 2a, 002 lecture room; seating is limited].
– ONLINE [Zoom]
Language: English.
*The payment for the event participation is a charitable contribution from 500 UAH. All contributions will be directed to the fund of the Oleg Vorobyov Scholarship Fund.
