Navigating the Future: Innovation, Resilience, and Sustainability in Business

This academic conference explores how businesses can thrive in an era of rapid change by embracing adaptability, ethical innovation, and sustainability. Through discussions on dynamic ecosystems, responsible AI, impact investing, and cultural wisdom, the conference fosters a holistic approach to strategic decision-making—one that balances profitability with social and environmental responsibility. Attendees will gain insights into building resilient enterprises, engaging stakeholders,and leveraging innovation for a sustainable and inclusive future.

Theme Tracks

• Dynamic Business Ecosystems

Thriving Amidst Change – Building adaptable and agile businesses practices and processes in ever-evolving markets.

• Innovating with Purpose

Developing innovative solutions that address global challenges while maintaining ethical and sustainable business models.

• Entrepreneurship in a Changing World

Strategies for navigating uncertainty, economic shifts, and global disruptions with adaptability.

• Ethical AI and Digital Transformation

Leveraging technology responsibly to drive innovation while ensuring data privacy, inclusion, and sustainability.

• Stakeholder Engagement and Shared Value Creation

Building ecosystems that foster collaboration between businesses, communities, and policymakers.

• Impact Investing and Conscious Capitalism

Financial strategies that support businesses with positive social and environmental impact.

• Sustainable Business Models

Exploring frameworks that balance profitability with environmental and social responsibility.

• Cultural and Indigenous Wisdom in Business Strategy

Learning from traditional Indian knowledge systems (IKS) and applying them to modern entrepreneurial challenges.

• Holistic Strategic Decision-Making

Integrating mindfulness in processes and practices to foster the triple P (Profit, People, Planet) agenda.

• Responsible Corporate Governance: Balancing Accountability, Ethics, and Long-Term Value

In an era of heightened scrutiny, corporate governance plays a crucial role in fostering trust, resilience, and long-term success. This track explores governance frameworks, ethical leadership, and regulatory best practices that align business objectives with societal and environmental responsibilities. Discussions will focus on transparency, board diversity, stakeholder accountability, and the role of governance in driving sustainable innovation. Additionally, this track will examine emerging governance challenges, including ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) integration, responsible executive decision-making, and the ethical implications of digital transformation. Attendees will gain insights into fostering a governance culture that balances profitability with ethical responsibility, ensuring organizations remain accountable to shareholders,employees, communities, and the planet.

General Tracks

• Competitive strategies

Market dynamics are crucial in understanding how firms compete in markets, as they increasingly aim for both economic performance and social value creation. Traditional competitive theories focus on standardized performance metrics, but the landscape becomes more complex as firms expand their definition to include social values. Research is needed to understand the market for social values, competition frameworks, value mechanisms, and the interplay of markets. By advancing theories, organizations can target economic performance and social value creation, enriching academic discourse and providing valuable frameworks for practitioners and policymakers.

• Corporate strategies

Corporate strategy, a fundamental aspect of strategic management, has evolved over the past three decades to encompass a wide range of topics related to multi-business, multilocational, and multinational firms. It includes markets for resource and corporate control, competition, contingencies, organizational structures, and non-market strategies for firms spanning economic and institutional boundaries.

• Entrepreneurship

The Entrepreneurship track seeks submissions on entrepreneurial strategies across various markets, geographies, and technological domains. The conference theme explores fault lines, divergences, and contradictions among strategic management paradigms. The aim is to stimulate intellectual cross- fertilization and understanding of entrepreneurial actors and their strategies. Questions include how different paradigms of entrepreneurship relate to each other, how venturing activities affect social trends, investing paradigms, and the impact of emerging technologies on entrepreneurial activities. The goal is to optimize entrepreneurial processes and create success within the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

• Strategy Process & Practice

The conference theme encourages submissions on the process of managing firms, coping with geopolitical forces, and managing headquarters-subsidiary relationships during global crises. The Interest Group encourages questions about corporate deals, purpose, and lessons from strategy process research. The conference aims to highlight the integrative role of strategy process research in managing contradictions, bridging silos, and uncovering synergies across strategic management paradigms.

Additionally, the Strategy Practice focuses on the role of strategists in strategy making, examining the various activities, methods, and tools employed by practitioners. The group seeks to address questions about the fault lines, contradictions, and divergences of strategic management, such as how practitioners adapt their established strategies in a rapidly polarized world, manage relationships with governments, and incorporate stakeholders in strategy-making. The group also explores the impact of AI on organizations' resources and capabilities, as well as the role of stakeholders in strategy making.

• Family Business

Family businesses play a crucial role in the global economy, balancing legacy, innovation, and sustainability across generations. This track explores the unique strategic challenges and opportunities faced by family-owned enterprises, including governance structures, succession planning, wealth management, and professionalization. Discussions will focus on how family firms adapt to market disruptions, integrate new technologies, and balance tradition with modern strategic practices. Additionally, the track will examine the role of family values in shaping business resilience, stakeholder relationships, and long-term value creation. By addressing issues such as leadership transitions, conflict resolution, and intergenerational entrepreneurship, this track aims to provide insights into sustaining competitive advantage and ensuring the longevity of family businesses in an evolving business landscape.

• Business cases for classroom teaching

The Business Cases track invites submissions that provide in-depth examinations of real-world strategic challenges faced by organizations. This track focuses on the application of strategic management theories to practical business scenarios, offering insights into decision-making processes, competitive positioning, and organizational transformations. Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to present case studies that analyze firm-level strategies, industry disruptions, market entry and exit decisions, corporate governance challenges, and strategic pivots in response to evolving economic, social, and geopolitical conditions. The aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice by fostering discussions on lessons learned, best practices, and innovative approaches that can inform both academic research and managerial decision-making.