School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSBS) is pleased to announce its 2024 Annual International Symposium on Frontier Management Research, to be held in Guangzhou, China, on June 30, 2024. This year’s theme is “New Global Contexts and Corporate Strategies.”

Over the past 70 years since World War II, the world economy has operated under the principles of open trade, comparative advantage, openness, rules-based competition, and multilateral cooperation. However, we are now witnessing a paradigm shift from market-oriented liberalism to intervention-oriented techno-nationalism, introducing a new global context characterized by volatility, fragility, and uncertainty due to the rise of geopolitical fractures, nationalistic unilateralism, and trade protectionism (Luo and Assche, 2023). Businesses, including established firms, startups, multinational corporations, and domestic enterprises that previously benefited from a liberal, open, and rules-based multilateral system, are now navigating a new global paradigm driven by a coercive realism-based policy approach that emphasizes nationalistic protectionism (Mansbach & Ferguson, 2021).

This transition to new global contexts has ushered in an era of zero-sum thinking and geopolitical confrontation (Luo, 2023), challenging the existing assumptions and mechanisms of globalization. While some studies have explored corporate responses to these new contexts (Luo & Witt, 2022; Cui et al., 2023), the full impact of these global shifts and the strategies firms use in response remain insufficiently understood. As nationalism and protectionism rise globally, corporations of all origins, sizes, and sectors face unprecedented challenges.

This paradigmatic shift offers new opportunities for scholars to reexamine classical theories in international economics, international business, strategic management, and organization, as it may alter the core premises of these theories. Luo (2023) suggests that international business theories need to account for geopolitical (dis)advantages, new locational risks, and incorporate geo-strategies and capabilities along with recalibrated ownership and internalization advantages in preparation for a new era of geopolitical fractures and global disorder. This shift may also impact the foundational assumptions of management and organizational theories, such as institutional theory, organizational learning theory, and dynamic capability theory. We invite submissions that examine how new global contexts might expand or alter the theoretical foundations, thereby influencing the logic underlying corporate strategies.

The new global contexts also present complex challenges to existing corporate strategies and capabilities, which were built on the previous global paradigm. For instance, powerful nation-states are pursuing techno-nationalist and geopolitical gains through significant policy shifts, exacerbating techno-nationalism. As techno-nationalism intensifies, technological decoupling becomes more complex, linking technological capabilities to national security and geopolitical power (Lubinski & Wadhwani, 2020; Witt et al., 2023). Enterprises must develop new capabilities, initiate new projects, and devise new strategies to manage the uncertainties of this paradigm shift. Multinational enterprises must address techno-nationalism in various areas, recalibrating geo-strategies, reconfiguring global value chains, enhancing resilience, and executing effective corporate diplomacy.

Moreover, critical strategic issues such as location choice, foreign direct investment decisions, human resource management in the talent war, collaborative competition for potential synergies, and the use of global value chains for resilience require thorough investigation. Corporations must not only respond and adapt to economic and geopolitical environments but also collaborate to influence institutions in both home and host countries. Organizational resilience is crucial in this new context, necessitating fresh inquiries into organizational structure, behavior, and reorganization. Additionally, the new global contexts call for explorations of international entrepreneurship, offering insights into the interplay between digitalization-enabled opportunities and new geopolitical risks. We welcome submissions from various business disciplines, including international finance, marketing, operations, and information systems, that broadly address corporate responses to the new global norm. We hope to receive interdisciplinary submissions that explore the impact of new global contexts on business operations, reveal corporate strategies for responding to new dynamics, and integrate these issues with firms’ survival, resilience, and sustained growth, as well as the well-being of the business community and society at large.

Call for Papers 

We welcome full-fledged papers as well as abstracts/proposals that broadly deal with corporate strategies in new global contexts. The submissions can deal with the conference theme in either international setting (e.g., for international companies) or domestic setting (e.g., for domestic firms). We encourage submissions that address motives, processes and strategies involving various management approaches toward the new global contexts. We welcome submissions that address the above issues by different types of organizations (e.g., state vs. privately owned; international vs. local firms, digitally enabled vs. traditional firms) and firms competing in different countries and in industries. Submissions should extend and deepen our understanding of some new perspectives across multiple domains—organizational behavior, international business, strategic management, operations management, entrepreneurship, economics, political science, and the like—and at multiple levels of analysis, such as country, industry, organization, and group. To this end, we invite papers or abstracts/proposals (3-5 pages) relating to the conference theme. We only accept original, unpublished papers in English. Submissions are accepted online through  http://en.hudongxuetang.com/m/ZYCJG, where you can log on to create an account and submit your contributions in a few minutes. 

The conference will feature several world-renowned keynote speakers who are authorities in their field, including Rosalie.L Tung (Simon Fraser University), Yadong Luo (University of Miami), Garry Bruton (Texas Christian University), Jiatao Li（Hong Kong University of Science and Technology）, Ari Van Assche (HEC Montreal), and others. The symposium will also host parallel paper sessions, during which the keynote speakers will offer developmental feedback on each paper presented. Additionally, there will be a meet-the-editors session. The conference will recognize two to three best paper awards, selected based on the quality of the submissions. The winners will be awarded a certificate and a cash prize.

Conference Speakers 

Rosalie. L Tung

Rosalie L. Tung is Professor of International Business at Simon Fraser University (Canada).  She holds the Ming and Stella Wong Chaired Professorship.  Through an election of her peers Prof. Tung has served a five-year term on the Executive Committee of the Academy of Management, including the positions of President in 2003-2004 and Past President in 2004-2005.  She has also served as the 2015-2016 President of the Academy of International Business (https://aib.msu.edu/), the premier association of professors of international business worldwide.  She has served as the 2017-2020 Dean of the Fellows, Academy of International Business.   Rosalie has been selected as the 2023-2025 Editor-in-Chief, the Journal of International Business Studies.

Prof. Tung has been inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a Fellow of the British Academy of Management, and a Fellow of the International Academy for Intercultural Research.  In 2021, she was awarded the John H. Dunning Academy of International Business President’s Award in recognition of “outstanding service to AIB and the field of international business”.  In the same year, Rosalie was selected as the recipient of the 2021 Academy of Management, International Management Division Eminent Scholar Award.  She is also one of sixteen International Business scholars to be awarded a Gold Medal for most substantive contributions” in the Journal of International Business Studies, the premier journal in International Business, in that journal’s first 50 years (1970-2019) of publication.  Rosalie was also selected as the recipient of the 2019 Academy of Management’s Distinguished Service award, “in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding service, commitment, and dedication to the Academy of Management”.  In addition, in 2020 she was awarded the Academy of Management, International Management Division Outstanding Service to the Global Community Award   She is the winner of the 1998 Vancouver YWCA Woman of the Year Award in Management, the Professions and the Trades, and is the recipient of the 1997 American Society for Advanced Global Competitiveness Research Award.

Prof. Tung was formerly a Wisconsin Distinguished Professor, Business Administration, with the University of Wisconsin System.  She also held the position of Director, International Business Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  She has served on the faculties of the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), University of Oregon, and as a visiting professor at Harvard University, University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (England), the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and China Europe International Business School (Shanghai, China).   She has served on the United Nations Task Force on Human Resource Management.

Professor Tung is the author or editor of eleven books and has also published widely on the subjects of international management and organizational theory in journals such as the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Organizational Dynamics, California Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Annuals, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Perspectives, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, Long Range Planning, Human Resource Management, and Euro-Asia Business Review (INSEAD, France).  Her research has been cited in leading national and international newspapers and news magazines, including the International Herald Tribune, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and East Asian Executive Reports. 

Yadong Luo

Dr. Yadong Luo holds the Emery Findley Distinguished Chair and is Professor of Management at the University of Miami Herbert Business School. He is a fellow of the Academy of Management (AOM) and the Academy of International Business (AIB). With a prolific output, Dr. Luo has authored over 20 books and more than 200 research articles, including over 60 in UT-Dallas Journals-listed publications. His work spans a broad range of subjects, from global strategy and cooperative alliances to cross-cultural management and emerging market businesses. Dr. Luo’s outstanding contributions to international management have garnered widespread recognition, establishing him as one of the leading scholars in international management, according to various rankings. His numerous honors include the JIBS 50th Anniversary Gold Medal, the AOM Educator Award, the University of Miami’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Axiom Gold Medal for his recent book. His work has significantly enhanced the understanding of various cutting-edge topics in international business, such as the internationalization of emerging market firms, global co-opetition, geopolitical risks, and digital globalization. This is further evidenced by his impressive H Index of 112 and over 56,000 citations on Google Scholar.

Garry Bruton

Garry D. Bruton is a Professor of Management at the Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University. His research interests are at the intersection of entrepreneurship, international business, and strategy. He has published over 100 articles in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. In addition, he has co-authored three textbooks. Previously he was President of the Asia Academy of Management and former General Editor of the Academy of Management Perspectives and Journal of Management Studies.  He is the only person to hold the Hall Fulbright Chair in Entrepreneurship twice.  In 2018, Clarivate Analytics identified Professor Bruton as one of the 96 most cited faculty in the world in all Business & Economic disciplines for research published 2006-2016. In 2019 he was identified using Web of Science data as among the 0.1% of the world’s faculty for citations of his research in all disciplines in all universities in the world for research published 2008-2018. In 2021 he was #74 in US in business and management domains (largely all fields except finance and economics) for citation impact (H-factor) according to Research.com. In 2022 he was identified as one of the top 10 publishers in the world from 1995-2020 in the three leading entrepreneurship journals (ETP, JBV, SEJ). In 2023 Stanford University identified Professor Bruton as one of the top 2% of cited scholars in all disciplines in the world.

Jiatao Li

Dr. Jiatao Li is currently Lee Quo Wei Professor of Business at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has previously served as Senior Associate Dean of the HKUST Business School. Professor Li is an area editor of the Journal of International Business Studies，and was former vice president and board member of Academy of International Business. Professor Li is very active in the international academic community and is an authoritative expert in international business strategy. His main research areas include organizational learning, strategic alliances, corporate governance, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit. His research works are often published in top management academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies, and many of them have won the Best Paper Award.

Ari Van Assche

Dr. Ari Van Assche is Professor of International Business and Director of the International Institute for Economic Diplomacy at HEC Montréal. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Business Policy and Fellow of the Academy of International Business. He is also a Visiting Professor at Reading University and the University of Leeds. Professor Van Assche’s research focuses on the organization of global value chains and the implications for public policy.

Conference Schedule 

Conference Avenue 
Lecture Hall 106, No.6, Lanyuan , East Campus Sun Yat-sen University, 132 Outer
Ring East Road University City, Panyu District, Guangzhou, China

Conference Registration 

We welcome both submissions and direct registrations. Those who are interested in participating in this symposium should register via the conference website http://en.hudongxuetang.com/m/ZYCJG  in time. The deadline for registration is May 31 2024.

The registration fee includes all forums and lunches listed in the conference schedule.Details are as follows.
Regular Rates：RMB 1000
Student Rates：RMB 800

Those who are interested in participating in this symposium should register via the conference website in time. The deadline for registration is May 31 2024. The registration fee includes all forums and lunches listed in the conference schedule.  The payment channel will open later on, please pay attention to the subsequent payment notice after registration. 

Payment Methods:

Please go to https://pay.sysu.edu.cn/app/#/qrcode-pay?range=6770&project=177 or scan the QR code below (which supports WeChat Pay, Alipay, and UnionPay) to make your payment for the registration fee.

Notes:

1. When making the payment, kindly indicate ‘2024 SYSBS ISFMR + Your Name + Employer/University‘ in the remarks section and upload a screenshot of the successful transaction for verification and confirmation.

2. Once issued, invoices cannot be modified. Ensure your name or the invoicing organization’s name are accurately provided during the payment process. The system will automatically generate and send an electronic invoice to the provided email address, so please keep it safe for future reference.

Important Dates 

Paper and abstract/proposal submission deadline: May 15, 2024
Please submit papers on our conference website: http://en.hudongxuetang.com/m/ZYCJG
Author notification of accepted presentations: May 25, 2024
Conference registration deadline: May 31, 2024
Conference registration website: http://en.hudongxuetang.com/m/ZYCJG

SYSBS CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Professor Weiwen Li (Chair), Professor Daomi Lin, Professor Ziyan Zhu, Ms. Li Jiang

Contact Us 
Email：duanqwen3@mail.sysu.edu.cn
TEL：+86-20-39334315

Information 

Guangzhou

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province. It is China’s southern gateway to the world. It is the central city of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, the Pan Pearl River Delta economic zone and the hub city of “one belt and one road”.

Guangzhou is a famous historical and cultural city. Since the Qin Dynasty, Guangzhou has been the administrative center of government. It has been the political, military, economic, cultural and scientific and educational center of South China, and the birthplace and prosperity of Lingnan culture. Guangzhou has been the main port of the Marine Silk Road since the third century, the largest port in China in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the world-famous Oriental port city. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Guangzhou was the only major foreign trade port in China and the only one in the world that has been prosperous for more than 2000 years.

Sun Yat-sen University

Sun Yat-sen University, founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and with an educational tradition spanning over 100 years, is a preeminent research, academic and cultural center and the premier location for talent development in South China. Under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, and strongly supported by both the Ministry and Guangdong Province, Sun Yat-sen University has developed into a modern comprehensive university that enjoys a reputation as a top-tier university nationally and a renowned university internationally. With five campuses in the three cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen, and ten affiliated hospitals, the University is striving to become a world-class university and global center of learning. 

Sun Yat-sen Business School

Founded in 1985, School of Business,Sun Yat-sen University is one of the earliest institutions dedicated to business administration education and research in China. It has become a renowned business school in China and the world.Its discipline of Business Administration is a First-level national key discipline, achieving excellent results in both the fourth and fifth rounds of national discipline evaluation.Furthermore, it has ranked first in China for five consecutive years (2019-2013) in the ShanghaiRanking’s “Best Chinese Disciplines” rankings.

The School of Business won the honorary title of “Outstanding Unit in National Education System” in 2019. The School was accredited by triple accreditations of AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB, being the first business school in South China and the second in Chinese mainland to obtain three major international accreditations. In 2021, the Laboratory of Big Data Driven Management Behaviors and Decision Making (Sun Yat-sen University) applied by the School was selected as one of the first batch of Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratories(Cultivation) by the Ministry of Education .

The School of Business follows the motto of Sun Yat-sen University: “Study Extensively; Enquire Accurately; Reflect Carefully; Discriminate Clearly; Practice Earnestly”, based on the mission of integrating diversified cultures, developing students’ spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation, fulfilling social responsibility and cultivating of business management elites, with equal emphasis on academic theory and practice. The EMBA program ranked in QS Global Top 100 EMBA 2022. In the international ranking of The Economist, the MBA program has been listed as the World’s Top 100 MBA Programs for six consecutive years, being the only business school in the Chinese mainland on the list. After becoming the first batch of AAPEQ accredited A-Level units in 2015, the MPAcc program once again obtained the accreditation conclusion of the highest level A-level in 2021. Additionally,two alumni were selected in the list of Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia”.

At the same time,  the School has also made remarkable progress in scientific research,with the number of approved projects and funding received from the National Natural Science Foundation both ranking among the top in business schools nationwide. The publication of high-level academic paper is steadily increasing,and our academic influence is continuously growing. The high-quality scientific research provides robust support for the “Double First-Class” initiative (referring to the construction of world class universities and disciplines).

Accomodation Guide 

For the convenience of attendees, the conference’s Organization Committee has made reservations with some nearby hotels at agreement prices. The conference agreement prices are reserved until May 7, 2024. Participants can directly contact the following hotel contacts for booking. Since the number of rooms is limited, please make reservation as soon as possible if you need it.

The Xanadu Guangzhou
Reference price: Deluxe King Bed Room (Twin Room): RMB 600 (Including double breakfast)
Address: International Biological Island Xingdao South Road No. 1,Haizhu District ,Guangzhou, Guangdong
Hotel Contact: Mr. Zhang
Reservation Phone: +8618925154311

University Town International Hotel
Reference price: Standard King Bed Room /Twin Room: RMB 420 (Including double breakfast)
Address: Hua Gong Bei Road 68th Higher Education Mega Center of Guangzhou China (Entered by the north gate of South China University of Technology)
Hotel Contact: Miss Liang
Reservation Phone: +8613560247991

You can also book the hotel room by scanning the QR code above

GHIC The Mulian Hotel of Bio-island Guangzhou
Reference price: Superior King Bed Room: RMB 450 (Including single breakfast) / Superior Twin Room: RMB 500 (Including double breakfast)
Address: No.106 Xingdao Huannan Road, International Biological Island, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong
Hotel Contact: Miss Zhong
Reservation Phone: +8613632268319

Aloft Guangzhou University Park
Reference price: Standard King Bed Room: RMB 448 (Including single breakfast)/Twin room: RMB 518 (Including double breakfast)
Address: No. 66 Lide Street, Xiaoguwei, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Panyu District, Guangzhou
Hotel Contact: Miss Deng
Reservation Phone: +8618926222648

For the latest information, please vist SYSBS’s website:  https://bus.sysu.edu.cn/event/10465 or the conference website：http://en.hudongxuetang.com/m/ZYCJG