RENT History

The very first RENT Workshop that was organized by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) in 1987 in Brussels, was an initiative of Professor Rik Donckels (at that time at the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel, KUB) and Professor Asko Miettinen (at that time at the Helsinki School of Economics). Both Chairs were affiliated Faculty Members of EIASM. Starting with the first meeting, the workshop was extremely successful and continued to be so ever since.

Over the years the RENT conferences have been organised all around Europe. The conferences have covered a variety of topics in the field of entrepreneurship and small business. The papers have dealt with, e.g., Structures in Small Enterprises, SMEs in Developing and Transition Countries, Problems of Financing in SMEs, Growth and SMEs, Women in entrepreneurship, Teaching entrepreneurship and Training in Management in SMEs, …

Previous conferences have taken place successfully in :

Brussels 1987, Vienna 1988, Cologne 1989, Durham 1990, Vaxjo 1991, Barcelona 1992, Budapest 1993, Tampere 1994, Piacenza 1995, Brussels 1996, Mannheim 1997, Lyon 1998, London 1999, Prague 2000, Turku 2001, Barcelona 2002, Lodz 2003, Copenhagen 2004,  Naples 2005, Brussels 2006, Cardiff 2007, Covilha 2008, Budapest  2009, Maastricht 2010, Bodo 2011, Lyon 2012, Vilnius 2013, Luxembourg 2014, Zagreb 2015, Antwerp 2016,  Lund 2017, Toledo in 2018, Berlin in 2019, online in 2020, Turku in 2021 and in Naples in 2022.

The 2023 conference will take place in Gdansk, Poland