Dear Colleagues,
A warm welcome to Warsaw and the 65th annual meeting of the Academy of International Business. And welcome to our in-person meeting in Warsaw, one of the major cultural, political, and economic hubs in Europe! Poland, which has been exposed to many geopolitical and socioeconomic changes over the years, provides an important setting to discuss this year’s conference theme, “International Business Resilience under Global Disruptions”.
Today’s international business is challenged by unprecedented global disruptions. Such global disruptions undoubtedly influence the nature of international business (IB). Resilience is called for at various levels – government, MNC, and individual – to deal with global crises. We have sessions that feature a wide range of IB resilience and its implications for research and practice on IB. They suggest what new capabilities are necessary for government, MNCs, and individual managers to cope with disruptions; what new roles policy makers, business managers, and employees play in building more resilient global communities; and what new sources of competitive advantage of nations and firms are in the age of global disruption.
AIB 2023 would not have been possible without the efforts of many dedicated people. My big thanks go to all the authors, reviewers, panelists, and session chairs. Many thanks to all the participants – over 1,100 registrants at the time of this writing – who have chosen to join us in-person.
It would never be possible to organize the AIB meetings without the dedication of the AIB Secretariat. Above all, Tunga Kiyak kept providing invaluable guidance and support about every aspect of organizing the AIB conference. A sincere thank you to Tunga who is a true professional in every sense of the word.
Generous support has also been provided by our local host, SGH Warsaw School of Economics. In particular, very special thanks to the SGH Rector Piotr Wachowiak, the Dean of Collegium of Management and Finance Joanna Wielogórska-Leszczyńska, the Dean of Collegium of World Economy Mariusz Próchniak, the Local Committee Chair Mirosław (Mirek) Jarosiński, and the Local Committee Deputy Chair Wioletta Mierzejewska. My sincere thanks to Mirek for his dedication and leadership to host AIB 2023 in such a professional manner.
Throughout the process of preparing the conference, the AIB Executive Board led by the President Maria Tereza Leme Fleury has provided valuable guidance. I’m particularly grateful to the past Program Chairs Gary Knight and Andrew Delios for their invaluable advice and support whenever I needed them. The AIB Fellows, under the leadership of the Dean Lorraine Eden, nominated the recipients of the awards, and organized a consortium, special panels and the Fellows Cafes. As a notable change this year, the Fellows Cafes are scattered throughout the day instead of being concentrated in the early morning.
Our Track Chairs have done a remarkable job preparing for AIB 2023: sending the papers out for review, putting together the sessions, organizing the special panels, suggesting chairs and nominating candidates for different awards within their respective tracks. I was particularly grateful for their commitment to meet the deadlines under time pressure. With so many quality submissions this year, the track chairs skillfully managed to narrow their acceptances to the allocated targets.
In the course of putting the conference program together, many of you have corresponded with my assistant at Keio Business School, Hidehiro Ito. I’m extremely grateful for all his assistance and hard work.
The pre-conference program, under the visionary leadership of Catherine Welch, offers a wide array of innovative professional development opportunities. For the first time, the AIB will be offering an All-Academy workshop on peer reviewing, featuring editors of IB journals and winners of best reviewing awards. Other events include the RM-SIG’s workshops featuring innovative approaches to both qualitative and quantitative research; a PDW devoted to the topic of sustainability, organized by the Sustainability SIG and supported by the main IB journals; and a coaching session on EDI research organized by WAIB, for papers at an early stage of development.
As in previous years, we are proud to receive and honor the recipients of the three major awards given by the AIB Fellows. International Executive of the Year: Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever; International Educator of the year: Salvador Carmona, IE University, Madrid; and John Fayerweather Eminent Scholar: Franklin Allen, University College London.
The panels and the paper sessions in the main conference will be a source of our intellectual stimulation. Among others, I would like to draw attention to the special panels featuring the recipients of the awards given by the AIB Fellows: International Executive of the Year, International Educator of the year, and John Fayerweather Eminent Scholar. The main program also offers a wide array of special panels organized by the Track Chairs, the Program Chair, and the Fellows. The theme of the Local track, “Growth perspectives of CEE region in times of disruption,” is well aligned with this year’s conference theme.
We have many sessions that feature a wide range of IB resilience and its implications for research and practice on IB. This year’s conference theme on disruption and resilience should spark intense discussions of new IB paradigms, changes and continuity in IB, and myths and reality in IB in the age of global disruption. I hope you will find the AIB 2023 conference intellectually stimulating and congenial, and the AIB a welcoming and valuable professional community.
Sincerely,
AIB 2023 Program Chair and Vice-President Program,
Professor of Global Innovation, Keio University, Japan
