In order to finalize the venues for the 2017 Research Method Workshop and the 2018 Biennial Conference, Jiing-Lih Larry Farh (IACMR President), Neng Liang (President Elect), Zhixue Zhang (Vice President Elect and 2018 Conference Program Chair) and Zhijun Yao (Executive Director) visited Wuhan on January 25 and 26, 2016.

HUST Hosting 2017 Research Method Workshop

The 2015 Research Method Workshop, which was held in Tianjin University, was a great success. 135 participants and 14 faculty members set up a record in the workshop history. Three schools expressed their willingness to host the workshop after the Tianjin workshop had ended. Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)has been very supportive to the workshop by sending dozens of doctoral students since the Chengdu workshop in 2009. By submitting a proposal in November 2015, HUST expressed the hope to host the workshop in 2017. Much encouraged by the success of the Tianjin workshop, Larry volunteered to be the academic director again for the 2017 workshop.

On behalf of the HUST School of Management, LingzhiJin (party secretary), Jianqiao Liao, Zhi Yang (associate dean), Yingjun Zhu, Pengcheng Zhang and Wei He met Larry and Zhijun on the afternoon of Jan. 25. Larry gave a brief summary of the past research method workshops and expressed his sincere thanks for the school’s support. He emphasized the workshop would help the local host to build up relationships with the prominent scholars who will serve the workshop faculty advisors and strengthen academic exchanges between IACMR and the school. Prof. Jin affirmed the school’s hopes to organize an international academic conference once a year and reaffirmed the school leadership’s support to host the workshop. He believed the workshop, with prominent professors lecturing to and guiding the participants, would surely help internationalization of the school and faculty. He also offered to seek the support from the university leadership. Both parties discussed about the budget and dates of the 2017 workshop,potential funding sources and possible involvement of the school faculty.

Prof. Liao, as the project leader, believed hosting the workshop is mutually beneficial. On one hand, top scholars in the management research field will offer their best research experience and methods to the local faculty, helping advancing the school’s mission of ‘exploring management knowledge, educating management elite and promoting social development from a global perspective’.On the other hand, the school is the best place for the workshop with good culture and environment and the faculty with the spirit of pragmatic exploration and solid scholarship.

Dean Zongjun Wang joined the meeting after returning to the school from another commitment. He expressed his keenness to join hands with IACMR in organizing international academic activities, both the workshop and the biennial conference. He assured of this full support and urged his team members to organize the workshop successfully.

After the meeting, the group checked the school facilities such as the lecture hall, multi-function rooms, meeting rooms and discussion rooms which will be used for lectures and group discussion rooms. All the facilities turned out to be satisfactory for hosting the workshop. It is a good place for hosting the workshop indeed.

EMS of Wuhan University– Host of 2018 Conference

While preparations for the 2016 biennial conference to be held in Hangzhou are well under way, the Executive Committee is arranging for the hosting school of the 2018 conference. The Economics and Management School of Wuhan University has expressed its intention to host the conference after the initial visit and invitation by Ray Friedman, Vice President of IACMR, last July. After the formal proposal for hosting the conference was received, the EC scheduled a visit to talk with the hosting school and check for potential conference hotels. Neng Liang, being in charge of identifying the 2018 conference host, andZhixue Zhang, being 2018 Conference Program Chair, both joined Larry and Zhijun in the visit on Jan. 26.

Prof. Yanping Li, associate dean of EMS of Wuhan University, has been charged by the school to lead the 2018 conference project. With her good efforts and coordination, visits to three potential hotels had been arranged. The group visited the Intercontinental Hotel, the Reign Hotel and Realm Hotel of Wanda Group and the East Lake Hotel, and checked the hotel facilities and the surrounding hotels/inns. While one hotel may have enough rooms to accommodate 10+ parallel sessions, its location and surrounding supporting hotels were not satisfactory. The other hotel is located in a good part of the city, but it has insufficient space to accommodate over 10 sessions concurrently. The third may enjoy advantages of good location and enough space, but its quotation is beyond our budget…They are the usual scenarios when selecting conference venues. It’s always difficult to find an ideal one at the first sight and the group will have to further negotiate with the candidate hotels to decide on the right one.

The meeting with EMS leadership (Dean Danyang Xie, associate deans Yanping Li and Tao Wang) in the afternoon turned out to be productive. Dean Xie was pleased to meet three IACMR presidents at one time (who often ‘meet’ online). Larry briefed the past conferences of IACMR and expressed his appreciation to Dean Xie and EMS for agreeing to host the IACMR conference. Neng elaborated the key events of the conference and the newly added teaching and learning conference (TLC@IACMR). Both parties went over the expected income and expenditure of 2018 conference, funding sources and local arrangement committee member schools.

Dean Xie spoke highly of IACMR’s achievements in the Chinese management research field and expressed the school’s willingness to host the 2018 conference. He gave brief introduction to the school in terms of student and faculty scales and research teams. The school passed EQUIS accreditation last November, which demonstrated its strong academic and management strengths. With 300 faculty members and quite a big number of scholars who returned from overseas, he has strong confidence in hosting a big-scaled international conference. He commented that hosting the IACMR biennial conference is beneficial for EMS to have international exposure, enhance its academic standard and profile as well as stimulate research potentials of its faculty.  Dean Xie ensured of his full support and would seek the support from the university leadership and financial support from the alumni.