Congratulations to our colleague Conny Steenblock, who has been awarded the Best Paper Award at the 23rd Nordic Conference on Small Business Research (NCSB) 2026 for her paper “Legitimacy Under Scrutiny: Gendered Support Organizations in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.”

The conference was hosted by the Nord University Business School in Bodø (Norway) and brought together leading scholars in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business research. Founded in 1980, the NCSB has earned a strong reputation as a leading forum for scholarly dialogue following the Nordic tradition of collaborative advancement of knowledge in these disciplines.

The award-winning paper examines how organizations that provide training and support for women entrepreneurs establish and maintain legitimacy within entrepreneurial ecosystems. Drawing on the concept of narrative work, the study sheds light on the strategies these organizations employ to position themselves as credible and influential actors in supporting diverse entrepreneurial activity.

Receiving the NCSB Best Paper Award represents a significant recognition of the paper’s scholarly contribution and its relevance to contemporary debates on entrepreneurship, gender, and ecosystem development!