Karlshochschule International University in Karlsruhe, Germany, is organizing an international conference on “Narrative and Innovation” with the aim to bring together scholars and practitioners from different contexts to discuss about the topic. The conference forms part of an interpretive approach towards business administration, strategic management, and entrepreneurship, by introducing instruments of semiotics, linguistics, narratology, and others. The topic of the conference therefore is open to a bundle of scientific and industrial perspectives.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, the early recognition of change in societies, markets and organizations is crucial. Not only from a competitive point of view are the signals more valuable, the earlier they are recognized.

Early recognition based on narratives opens windows for innovation and helps to foster new business opportunities.

It has largely been acknowledged that organizations are built, maintained and developed by story-type tools of management and leadership. The communication of missions and visions, the setting of myths and basic values, the implementation of change management processes through rhetorical issues, and so on, are amongst the most powerful means to drive the organization forward. As a consequence, text based analyses of the organizational self and of organizational meaning has been gaining interest in organization theory continuously in the last decades.

Less known and still to be discussed is the role of the cultural context in this behalf and the way in which the mutual influences of organizational story-building and the narrative processing of knowledge in a culture do actually interact.

How do value systems of cultures and organizations exchange their scales and priorities?
Which narratives form part in the encounter of partners in a complex network of stakeholders, which interactional formats can be identified?
How do generic structures change, how can the sense-making character of new signs and stories be interpreted?
How do styles in story-telling change and what does style-shifting indicate?
Where are the strategic and organizational challenges?
What are the levers that open new paths to opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial innovation and business development?

Particularly desired are papers about the topics of the conference which cover any subject in the broader field of narrative and innovation.

Three types of contributions are welcome
1. Presentation
2. Poster
3. Panel

More details: http://narrative-innovation.org