The conference will be structured around four open-ended debates with an explicit focus on conceptual and theoretical developments. Debate sessions are intended to maximise participation from the floor, with the four invited panelists speaking for no longer than 5 minutes each. This year's panelists include: Invited Speakers include: Geoffrey Jones (Harvard), John Cantwell (Rutgers), Lorraine Eden (Texas A&M), John Hagedoorn (Maastricht), Suma Athreye (Brunel), Peter Buckley (Leeds), Nigel Driffield (Aston), Klaus Meyer (Bath).
Participants will be selected in a deliberate attempt to bring the best established scholars, and the most promising up-and-coming young researchers in this field to evaluate future directions.
The debate sessions will be supplemented by a two-hour poster sessions on both days. These do not necessarily need to be on the theme of the conference, but from any area of IB.
As a new initiative we plan to have Parallel Sessions which relate to the specific themes (below), and be substantially complete papers that can be considered for potential publication immediately after the conference. We are seeking to arrange various publication possibilities.
This year’s themes are
Entrepreneurship and IB
Subsidiaries and the MNE
Externalities and the MNE
Strategic alliances and IB