Dear Colleagues,
I am delighted to invite you to the workshop "The language of innovation". Please apply by January 20th 2026.
The language of Innovation:
Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Language, Narratives, and Stories in the Age of Polarization
London, 23rd February 2026
Bayes Business School, Finsbury Square Building
Organized by Bayes Business School, University of Bologna's Management Department, and Surrey Business School
Co-sponsored by
The Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRINN 2022)
UK Research & Innovation Economic and Social Research Council (ES/Y003667/1)
Entrepreneurs addressing grand societal challenges operate in an increasingly complex environment. On the one hand, environmental and humanitarian crises are increasing, calling for more human and radical innovation that would help to reduce these crises, calling also for stronger moral positions. On the other hand, entrepreneurs operate in an increasingly amoral space in an era where algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence spread misinformation or falsehood at scale (Hajli et al., 2022; Joaquim & Castelló, 2024), organizations manipulate knowledge to serve strategic interests (Hassan et al., 2023), and political or sociocultural polarization undermines consensus on even the most fundamental social and environmental issues (Knight & Tsoukas, 2019). In this context, entrepreneurs need to reinvent their narratives, develop more creative forms of storytelling, and use language and symbols beyond cognitive facts to engage their stakeholders.
In this context and in the light of an emergence of a vibrant community interested in how entrepreneurs use language and communication to engage with their stakeholders. The aim of this workshop is to: 1) support scholars in the development of early work, 2) explore and define the new conversations around entrepreneurship and communication, 3) engage with the industry to gain knowledge about the phenomenon. For the last purpose, the workshop will kickstart with a practitioner breakfast wherein two social entrepreneurs will give short talks of their engagement strategy followed by a panel discussion with academics in entrepreneurial narrative research and a dialogue with the audience.
The workshop will be developmental, with each paper receiving detailed and hands-on feedback from two senior scholars with a track record of multiple publications in the field of entrepreneurship and language research. Authors will also receive feedback from peers with similar research interests. The workshop offers an opportunity to build community, benefit from discussion and exchange of ideas, and envision new collaborations.
We welcome submissions from a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches that aim to contribute to the study of entrepreneurship and language. Potential contributions include, but are not limited to, the following research topics:
Narratives and storytelling in a polarized and post-truth era
How entrepreneurs understand and communicate their "truth" and the coexistence of multiple, potentially conflicting truths within multicultural, diverse environments?
How new forms of narratives and stories are used to communicate in an increasingly polarized environment?
How disinformation affects storytelling and positioning but also innovation?
The role of visuals and multimodality in communicating, especially but not only in social media.
In the era of the social media communication, fakes and AI generated videos, what role do visuals and multimodality play in communicating new stories and narratives?
How do multimodality changes in the realm of social media to support novel ideas and new products and markets?
Language analysis and its structural properties
How does the post-truth era challenge the investigation of the structural properties of language?
What challenges and opportunities are presented by the advances in machine learning methods to capture variations in styles, structures, and meanings across communication modes?
Application and Selection
We encourage applications based on abstracts of around 1,000 words. The deadline for submitting abstracts is January 20, 2026.
Abstracts should be submitted to: Maggie.Chen@citystgeorges.ac.uk. Notifications of acceptance will be communicated by end January 2026.
Once accepted, participants will be asked to submit a presentation by February 15th, 2026. Abstracts will then be electronically distributed to all participants.
To promote constructive and developmental discussions, we ask participants to read the papers in advance to be discussed at the workshop.
Organizing Committee
Itziar Castelló, Bayes Business School, Itziar.castello-molina@city.ac.uk
Simone Ferriani, Bayes Business School & Universita di Bologna, Simone.Ferriani.2@city.ac.uk
Yanfei Hu, Surrey Business School, yanfei.hu@surrey.ac.uk
Maggie Chen, Bayes Business School, Maggie.Chen@citystgeorges.ac.uk
Entrepreneurs for the breakfast meeting 8h30-9h45
Collette Fox at Provege
Elaine Siu at Kings (tbc)
Additional Faculty (confirmed)
Eero Vaara, Saïd Business School, Oxford
Daniel Hjorth, Lund & CBS
Henri Schildt, Aalto
Donato Cutolo, IE
Ruben Van Werven, Bayes
Arnaud Cudennec, Bayes
Amit Rawal, Bayes
Sai Kalvapalle, Nova
Hamid Fouroughi, Warwick
Program
The workshop starts on February 23rd at 8h30 am with a practitioner breakfast
The academic workshop will start at 10h until 18h
The workshop will feature paper presentations, keynotes, and roundtables
Workshop dinner: 19h
Conference Venue
Bayes Business School, Finsbury Square Building
Accommodation
Participants are responsible for their travel arrangements and accommodation
Scholarships
The event is free and includes meals. A number of scholarships are available. They will be granted on the basis of quality of work and need (priority will be given to Phd students from outside London). The scholarships will cover travel to London and if possible, accommodation. Please send an email to Maggie Chen: Maggie.Chen@citystgeorges.ac.uk with 1 page describing your motivation and short paper before January 20th.