On 29-30 August 2013, the 6th Annual Conference of the Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (AIE) was successfully held in Oxford. The overarching theme of the conference was “Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Inclusive and Sustainable Development”. The conference was hosted by the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), based at the University of Oxford, and co-organised by NERC and RCTI, both based at Tsinghua University.

The conference programme consisted of a wide range of parallel sessions which covered 9 major topics and 44 sub-themes, where more than 200 participants shared their views, thoughts and gave valuable contributions to academic thinking.

The AIE Conference featured prominent speakers from academic and business sectors as well as from international organisations. Keynote speakers Calestous Juma (Harvard University), Luc Soete (Maastricht University), Anne Miroux (UNCTAD), Yves Doz (INSEAD), Augusto Alcorta (UNIDO), David Kaplan (University of Cape Town), Xiaolan Fu (Oxford University), and Rajneesh Narula (University of Reading) were invited to present their views and ideas at the opening ceremony.

During the conference several of the panel sessions included distinguished participants from OECD, UNCTAD, UNIDO and WIPO. Prof Andrew Hamilton (Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford) and Prof Jian Gao (Chair of the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Tsinghua SEM) spoke at the Best Paper Awards Ceremony during the conference lunch announcing the winners.

AIE Conference Best Paper Awards

• Innovation: Mingqian Zhang (Shanghai International Studies University), Pierre Mohnen (UNU-MERIT). Innovation and survival of new firms in Chinese manufacturing, 2000-2006
• Entrepreneurship: Wong Poh Kam, Ho Yuen Ping (National University of Singapore). An exploratory cross-country analysis of the relationship between new firm entry and income inequality
• AIE Conference Special Mention of Pioneering Contribution:
  Richard Heeks; Christopher Foster. Conceptualising Inclusive Innovation: Modifying Systems of Innovation Frameworks to Understand Diffusion of New Technology to Low-Income Consumers
  Raghav Manohar Narsalay; Ryan Coffey; Leandro Pongeluppe. Harnessing stakeholder strengths to scale inclusive business - lessons from emerging markets

The conference was sponsored by

• Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Department for Internatioanl Development (DFID)
• Oxford Department of International Development (ODID)
• Saïd Business School (University of Oxford)
• ISIS Innovation
• Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies (former Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship)