Conference Theme: Borders, Battles, and Business: Competitive Advantage in a Turbulent Global Environment
Early Bird Registration Deadline: 15 September 2026
Regular Registration Deadline: 9 October 2026
Late Registration Deadline: 28 October 2026
Point of Contact: Ru-Shiun Liou, rliou@ut.edu
Event Overview: AIB US Southeast (AIB US-SE) is excited to announce our 2026 annual conference on the theme of “Borders, Battles, and Business: Competitive Advantage in a Turbulent Global Environment.” This theme reflects a defining challenge of the contemporary international business landscape. Firms today operate in an era shaped by geopolitical rivalry, shifting borders, armed conflict, economic nationalism, and rapidly changing regulatory regimes. These forces no longer represent a minor background risk; they directly shape market access, investment decisions, supply chain configurations, talent, mobility, and competitive positioning. Understanding how organizations can create, sustain, and renew competitive advantage under such conditions is therefore not only timely, but essential. This theme highlights the strategic tension firms face as they must simultaneously manage geopolitical and security risks, respond to regulatory and policy uncertainty, and identify new sources of opportunity amid turbulence.
Hosting this year’s conference in Washington, DC underscores the centrality of policy, diplomacy, and government-business interaction in shaping the global economic environment. The city is home to institutions that shape trade policy, investment regimes, sanctions, development finance, and regulatory standards with global reach. The city also hosts a dense ecosystem of international organizations, foreign embassies, policy think tanks, advocacy groups, and multinational firms, creating a continuous dialogue between public policy and private enterprise. Decisions made in Washington reverberate through global markets, influencing how firms assess risk, structure cross-border strategies, and respond to geopolitical change. This location reinforces the theme’s emphasis on policy engagement, sanctions and trade compliance, supply chain resilience, and the role of firms in contested or fragile environments. Bringing scholars, students, and practitioners together in this context highlights the reality that competitive advantage in today’s global economy is increasingly forged not only in markets, but also through informed and strategic engagement with governments, institutions, and the geopolitical forces that define the current operating environment.
AIB US-SE is one of the largest and most active regional divisions of the Academy of International Business’s thirteen worldwide chapters. AIB US-SE’s annual conference centers on the presentation of the newest ideas in international business to a global audience of academic scholars and business practitioners. The conference is characterized by a strong professional focus, providing participants with a supportive and collegial platform to discuss and develop their ideas, as well as an opportunity for mentoring authors to enhance their papers for publication. Over the past years, AIB US-SE has experienced significant transformation and growth, becoming an academic meeting of choice for over 200 participants each year.