Theme: Sustainable Innovation & Entrepreneurship in a Fragmented World
Submission Deadline: November 2, 2020
Registration Deadline: November 19, 2020
Overview: Today, the world faces political, societal, and natural environmental challenges that span geographic and economic boundaries. Increasing protectionism and trade wars impact the way goods and services are produced and traded across country borders, also impacting the way global value chains are fine sliced and geographically spread. Similarly, societal backlashes to rising income inequality in combination with political dissatisfaction have led to unstable business environments and mass migration highlighting societal cleavages that impact global business. Moreover, global natural environmental challenges have been the subject of intense debate in recent years, leading to another set of challenges for conducting international business. All these challenges have led to increased fragmentation of the global business environment, wherein global businesses are forced to develop strategies aimed at ever more disparate niches.
Innovative and entrepreneurial activities require a sustainable perspective, emphasizing long term considerations, systemic solutions, and the creation of multiple forms of value for diverse stakeholders. The opposing unsustainable and short-term perspective focusing purely on generating economic value for a narrow range of constituents seems increasingly untenable. We encourage contributions related to any of these challenges related to innovation, and entrepreneurship in a fragmented world.