Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Wednesday (5/07), the first lecture of the 2023 Global Summer Week (GSW) program series was officially held at the 8th Floor Auditorium of the Learning Center Building, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM). The inaugural lecture was filled by Dr. David M. Waguespack, a professor in management and organization from the University of Maryland. On this occasion, David explained the relationship between location and regional entrepreneurial growth.

“Why do some places have more entrepreneurial activity than others?” David asked during the opening session this time. The participants enthusiastically analyzed the reasons for this, from differences in resources, culture, and population size. Furthermore, David emphasized that location influences the development of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship itself can be classified into need-based entrepreneurship, preference-based entrepreneurship, and growth-oriented entrepreneurship. In this lecture, growth-oriented entrepreneurship, such as startups, is emphasized. Then, David showed a map related to the distribution of startups and venture capital companies in various regional scales, from the world, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, to Jakarta. It can be seen that these companies tend to be concentrated and form clusters in certain areas, especially in the economic center of the region.

David then concluded that company clustering has several pull factors and push factors. The pull factors consist of easy access to labor, funding, and learning from other companies. While the driving factor that becomes a challenge is when the competition becomes too big, including labor competition, idea spillover, and competition to get the target market’s attention.

The next day (6/07), David presented material related to institutions within a company. Each institution, formal and informal, has a different system. In his explanation, David used the game EVE Online as a concrete example of today’s material. Through the game, first, an analysis is made of the relationship between the country of origin and employee autonomy. Furthermore, research is also carried out regarding the relationship between gender norms and their impact on the selection of game characters.

Based on the concrete examples from the game, it is concluded that businesses need to pay attention to cultural preferences and norms when operating in different areas. This is due to the role of gender, beauty standards, and cultural factors in determining consumer behavior. Businesses can create more innovative products by understanding the different preferences between groups.

Reportage: Rizal Farizi