CALL FOR PAPERS

Inaugural IACMR DBA Forum

12th IACMR Biennial Conference

June 2–6, 2027 • Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre • Hong Kong, China

Conference Theme: Advancing Chinese Management Research in the Age of AI

Overview

The International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR) is pleased to announce the inaugural DBA Forum, to be held as part of the 12th IACMR Biennial Conference in Hong Kong, June 2–6, 2027. The Forum invites current students and recent graduates of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programs to submit papers to which they have made a substantial contribution for presentation, developmental feedback, and scholarly exchange.

The DBA degree occupies a distinctive and increasingly vital position in the management research ecosystem. DBA candidates are typically senior executives and experienced professionals who bring deep organizational knowledge to their research, positioning them to produce research that is rigorous in method yet grounded in the lived realities of managing organizations. Yet DBA researchers often lack platforms that connect them across institutions, facilitate dialogue with academic peers, and integrate them into the broader management research community.

The DBA Forum is designed to provide such a platform. It offers an inclusive, developmental space in which DBA students and graduates, PhD students, faculty members, and program directors can exchange ideas, receive constructive feedback, and build networks that bridge the research–practice divide. The Forum also advances IACMR’s broader mission: developing contextualized knowledge of management in Chinese contexts and fostering collaboration between researchers and practitioners. In the spirit of the 2027 conference theme—Advancing Chinese Management Research in the Age of AI—we particularly welcome submissions that examine how AI and digital transformation are reshaping organizations, work, and management practice, though submissions on all management topics are welcome.

Forum Objectives

• Promote practice-relevant research. Showcase DBA research that addresses consequential managerial and organizational challenges, demonstrating the distinctive value of practitioner scholarship.
• Foster inclusive participation. Welcome submissions from DBA programs across institutions, regions, and languages, with parallel English and Chinese tracks.
• Build dialogue across communities. Create sustained conversation among DBA students, PhD students, and faculty on management questions of both theoretical and practical importance.
• Expand the IACMR community. Engage practitioner-scholars as active contributors to IACMR’s mission of advancing contextualized Chinese management research through researcher–practitioner collaboration.

What to Submit

The DBA Forum invites submissions in the form of an extended abstract based on projects with substantial contributions from a DBA student or graduate.

Format and length. Extended abstracts should be 5–7 pages, with a maximum of 3,000 words (excluding the title page, references, tables, and figures), submitted as a single PDF document with 1-inch margins and 12-point font, formatted in APA style.

Required content. The extended abstract should address each of the following elements:

1. Research question and motivation: the managerial or organizational problem motivating the study, and why it matters to both practice and scholarship;
2. Theoretical grounding: the literature and theoretical lens(es) the paper engages, extends, challenges, or contextualizes;
3. Methods: the research design, data, empirical context, and analytical approach, with sufficient detail to permit assessment of rigor;
4. Findings: key results, or preliminary/expected findings for projects in progress;
5. Contributions and implications: the paper’s intended contributions to theory and its actionable implications for managerial practice.

Topical scope. The Forum is dedicated to management research (organizational behavior, human resource management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and international business) spanning both micro and macro topics. It does not cover marketing, management information systems, operations management, accounting, or finance. We especially encourage extended abstracts that leverage the DBA student or graduate’s privileged access to organizational phenomena, settings, or data rarely available to traditional academic researchers, and those that speak to the conference theme by examining AI-driven transformations of work, organizations, and management in Chinese and global contexts.

Eligibility and Submission Requirements

1. Authorship. At least one author must be a current DBA student or a DBA graduate; the DBA author need not be the first author. Co-authorship with faculty advisors or other collaborators is encouraged.
2. Presentation and attendance. The DBA student or graduate author must be the presenter of the paper at the Forum. At the time of submission, the DBA author must declare that, if the paper is accepted, he or she will attend the conference in person to present it.
3. Evidence of DBA status. The submission must include documentary evidence of the DBA author’s status as a current DBA student or a DBA graduate (e.g., proof of enrollment, a valid student ID, or the degree certificate).
4. Language. Papers may be submitted in English or Chinese. Authors should indicate their preferred presentation language at submission.
5. Submission channel. Papers and evidence of DBA status should be submitted through the dedicated DBA Forum channel on the IACMR 2027 conference submission system.

Forum Activities

DBA Paper Sessions

Accepted papers will be presented in dedicated DBA Forum paper sessions, organized into English and Chinese tracks. Each 90-minute session will feature approximately four papers. Sessions will be chaired by DBA program directors or senior faculty, who will also serve as discussants and provide developmental feedback aimed at strengthening each project’s theoretical contribution, methodological rigor, and practical relevance.

Key Dates

All deadlines follow U.S. Eastern Time and are aligned with the IACMR 2027 conference timeline.

Submission Link

https://www.xcdsystem.com/iacmr/abstract/index.cfm?ID=APXu6Bl

(The submission system will open by September 15, 2026.)

DBA Forum Committee

Forum Chairs:

• Xu Huang (Hong Kong Baptist University)
• Katherine Xin (China Europe International Business School)
• Amy Ou (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Committee Members: A committee of DBA program faculty spanning micro and macro domains across the English and Chinese tracks, together with DBA student representatives, will be announced on the conference website.

Inquiries

Questions about the DBA Forum may be directed to the IACMR Office: Wei Zhang (iacmrbj@pku.edu.cn) or Jennifer Zhao (iacmrmembership@pku.edu.cn). Full conference details, submission guidelines, and updates are available at https://eng.iacmr.org/iacmr-biennial-conference-2027/ and https://iacmr.org/2027年iacmr大会/

We look forward to welcoming the global DBA community to Hong Kong and to celebrating scholarship that unites rigor with relevance.