Empowering Sustainable Growth in A Digital Age

June 11-15, 2025
Xi’an, China

Submission System Open: Midnight September 15, 2024, U.S. Eastern Standard Time
Submission Deadline: Midnight October 25, 2024, U.S. Eastern Standard Time

The 11th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR) will be held in Xi’an, China, from June 11-15, 2025. We warmly invite scholars in the field of management who are engaged in China-related research to actively submit conference papers. The field of management mainly covers the following areas: organizational behavior, human resource management, strategic management, organizational theory, international management, innovation and entrepreneurship, employment relations, social issues related to enterprises, business ethics, and management education. China-related research refers to research related to Chinese or Chinese organizations, including research on Chinese organizations operating globally and research comparing Chinese and non-Chinese organizations. It can also be research based on a Chinese theoretical perspective.

We value all high-quality Chinese management research that addresses important questions and reports interesting findings. We accept both conceptual and empirical papers and welcome various methodologies, including survey research, archival data analysis, experimental studies, simulations, case studies, and other creative methods.

The theme of this conference is “Empowering Sustainable Growth in the Digital Age.” This conference will serve as a significant platform for promoting Chinese management research and practice, initiating new discussions and reflections on sustainable growth in the digital era. In today’s digital age, the rapid development of digital transformation and related technologies has brought many challenges and opportunities to enterprises. Scholars in management and the business community need to delve deeper into how to leverage technologies like big data analysis, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to drive sustainable growth in economic, environmental, and social aspects for enterprises. This theme is crucial for scholars as it requires a profound understanding of how digital technologies affect business models, organizational structures, personnel management, and market competitiveness. Researching the impact of digital transformation on the sustainable development of enterprises can offer us a clear perspective, aiding in the development of effective management strategies and methods, thus fostering long-term sustainable growth for companies. For enterprises, reasonable utilization of digital technologies can efficiently manage resources, enhance production efficiency, improve product and service quality, and thereby achieve economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

This theme serves as a reminder for scholars and managers to keep pace with the times while balancing business development and social responsibility, creating long-term value for society. Therefore, “Empowering Sustainable Growth in the Digital Age” is not only an academic gathering of insights but also a critical chapter directly related to the future development of scholarship in management and business practices. For scholars, in-depth research on the digital transformation for the sustainable development of enterprises is a key step forward in academia. For businesses, integrating digital technologies into strategic planning, with sustainable development as the core, is the inevitable path to achieving long-term success and growth. This conference will provide us with a platform for brainstorming and sharing insights, empowering scholars and managers to jointly explore how to achieve sustainable growth in the digital age. The conference theme encompasses a broad spectrum of subjects, exploring the causes and effects of digitalization concerning corporate strategies, executive decision-making, organizational ecosystems, behavior, international strategies, innovation, entrepreneurship management, corporate governance, human resources, business ethics, management education, and corporate social responsibility. It also scrutinizes digital technology and its role in fostering sustainable growth, as well as the key determinants and implications of sustainable growth, especially concerning firm strategy, strategic leadership, globalization, innovation, entrepreneurship, employee and leadership behavior, employment and social relationships, corporate governance, and ESG considerations, among others.

I. Important Reminders to All Submitters

Academic Ethics. IACMR is a nonprofit voluntary association whose operation, growth, and pursuit of excellence depend on cooperation, involvement, and dedication from all members. All forms of academic dishonesty are prohibited, including plagiarism and impropriety with data collection or analyses. Academic ethics also include professionalism in conference participation. Members should honor all professional commitments by presenting accepted papers in either oral presentation sessions or interactive roundtable sessions and by fulfilling scheduled roles as chairs, discussants, or panel members at workshops, scholarly programs, and pre-and post-program meetings. If a member must miss a scheduled meeting because of unforeseen circumstances, the member must contact the relevant program or track chair and make alternative arrangements. All responsibilities and obligations should be performed in a timely, diligent and sensitive manner. Failure to do so violates the general standards of professionalism and disrespects many authors, reviewers, organizers, volunteers, and attendees. All authors must commit to upholding IACMR’s high ethical standards through professional and ethical research, reports, and conference presentations. Please read the full statement of “IACMR Commitment to Excellence”. 

Languages of Presentation. Two parallel programs, the English Program and the Chinese Program, have different guidelines for paper submissions, symposium proposals, and professional development workshop proposals. However, authors should NOT submit the same paper or papers with major content overlap as if they were different papers simply because they are written in different languages. Authors must choose whether to submit a paper to the English or the Chinese program, but not to both. Submissions that violate this rule will NOT be reviewed. The Call for Submissions provides guidance for papers, symposia, and professional development workshop proposals written in English. A separate Call for Submissions in Chinese is released as well. Please use that information for submitting papers or proposals written in Chinese.

Submission Limitation. The rule is 3+3+2. Each author (either as a single author or as a coauthor) may submit a MAXIMUM of three submissions, including papers and symposia, to the English Program, and three submissions, including papers and symposia, to the Chinese Program. The fourth submission to a single program will be returned to the author without review. Each person (as a presenter or organizer) can participate in ONLY two professional development workshops.

Submission Procedures. We accept electronic submissions only. Detailed information on the electronic submission process will be posted on IACMR website by September 15, 2024, when the website will open for paper and symposium submissions. It will close at midnight October 25, 2024, U.S. Eastern Standard Time. Submissions for the Professional Development Workshop must be received by midnight November 16, 2024 (EST). To ensure that your submissions are received and reviewed, read the following guidelines and the online submission procedures carefully and submit as EARLY as possible. Last-minute submissions often incur mistakes and cause authors to overlook important information regarding the process. Because the program chairs have a very short period to review the submissions, we will NOT review any that fail to follow the proper procedures or to finalize the submission.

Acknowledgment of Receipt. Corresponding authors will receive email confirmations that we have received the submissions.

Review and Notification. Papers submitted to the Scholarly Program will be double-blind reviewed. Reviewers will evaluate each paper for research quality, contribution to the field of Chinese management, and general interest to IACMR members. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejections by February 21, 2025, EST.

II. The Scholarly Program

The Scholarly Program occurs June 11 to 14, 2025, and includes presentations of papers, symposia, and keynote panels.

i. Papers. 

We seek original papers that address the main theme of the conference and topics from all disciplinary areas of organization and management. Originality means that the paper has not been presented at any other conferences or published in any academic journals or books, even if those other outlets are in different languages. Once accepted, the list of authors for any paper shall NOT be changed for the conference presentation and/or conference proceedings.

Accepted papers will be presented at the conference as either paper presentations or roundtable discussion sessions. Each paper presentation will be about 20 minutes, with 15 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A. In the roundtable sessions, authors will discuss their papers in small groups among the participants, led by the session facilitator.

Paper Preparation and Submission Guidelines

1. Please follow the submission steps as shown by the system and tick the paper language, macro/micro track, major research area, key topics and research methods, and fill up the paper title, abstract and upload the full paper.
2. The full paper must include the following components but WITHOUT author’s information
· Abstract Page (including title, up to 200 words of abstract, no more than five keywords that identify the content area, methodological area: qualitative, quantitative, or both)
· Main Text
· Figures (if any)
· Tables (if any)
· References
3. Number all pages of the paper starting from the abstract page.
4. The maximum length for the paper is 35 pages including all tables, figures, notes, and references.
5. Use Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-inch (2.5cm) margins all around for the text, including headers and footnotes.
6. Papers must be written in English and follow the current style, including references format, of the official journal of IACMR, Management and Organization Review.
7. To facilitate the blind review process, remove ALL author-identifying information, including acknowledgments, from the text.
8. Check that the paper prints correctly (i.e., all imported figures and tables appear properly) and ensure that the file is virus-free.
9. Please convert your file into PDF format before uploading. The Word version is also acceptable where conversion is difficult.

10. Submitter Pledge and Confirmation Statement

The online submission system will include a confirmation statement pledging: (a) you have not published or presented the paper or symposium elsewhere, (b) you have not submitted another version in a different language to the IACMR conference, (c) at least one author will attend the conference to present the accepted paper in either the oral presentation or roundtable sessions, and (d) you are willing to serve as a reviewer for the conference if needed. You will not be able to complete your submission until you have signed the confirmation statement.

ii. Symposia 

The goal for symposium presentations is to provide a forum for effective exchange and collective learning that will further our knowledge on a topic. With this in mind, we invite submissions of new, creative, and exciting proposals for symposium presentations. We particularly welcome symposia that are related to the conference theme: Empowering Sustainable Growth in A Digital Age. A symposium consists of presentations from three to four presenters. Each symposium will have a total of 90 minutes for presentations, discussions, and Q&A.

Symposium Preparation and Submission Guidelines

1. A title page that has:
a. The Conference-assigned submission number
b. Title of the symposium
c. Complete full name, affiliation, address, phone number, fax number, and d. email address of all presenters, discussant(s) and chair. Add an asterisk (*) next to the name of the corresponding (contact) presenter
e. No more than five words to identify the content area
2. A 5-page overview of the symposium (i.e., the objectives, the content, the synergy among the presentations provided by the different presenters, and the significance of the symposium to Chinese management research)
3. A 2-3 pages synopsis of each presentation, including references
4. The symposium proposal should not exceed 20 total pages. Use Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-inch (2.5cm) margins all around for the text, including headers and footnotes
5. A signed statement from the organizer declaring: “I have received signed statements from all intended participates agreeing to participate in the entire symposium.”  Symposium submissions will NOT be reviewed unless the statement is included.

iii. Professional Development Workshops 

In addition to paper and symposium presentations in the Scholarly Program, we also invite proposals for Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) that will be held on the last day of the conference, June 15, 2025.

PDWs provide a forum for researchers to explore a common topic. Their goals are educational and informational and are generally conducted in an interactive and participative format. PDWs are not a forum for several standard paper presentations on a common theme—such sessions are part of the scholarly paper program. We especially welcome PDWs that are related to the conference theme of how to conduct research on Chinese management in a digital age. We are open to proposals that focus on contemporary issues relating to Chinese management research, research methods (e.g., how to conduct quantitative and qualitative research), and professional development topics (e.g., how to help junior faculty in conducting and publishing high-impact research or career development issues). Proposals for workshops dealing with teaching methods and content are encouraged. Creative and novel proposals are particularly encouraged.

If you would like to discuss a PDW idea before submission (in advance of the submission deadline), please contact PDW Chair Eric Zhao at Eric.Zhao@sbs.ox.ac.uk. PDW organizers must submit the following proposal items to the conference website by November 16, 2024, EST.
· Title of the workshop
· Full name and contact information of the chair or organizer, indicated with an asterisk (*) by the chair/organizer’s name, and all presenters, including affiliation, title (e.g., Associate Professor), address, phone number, fax number, and email
· Goal of the workshop (i.e., learning objectives)
· Content of the workshop
· Intended participants and admission criteria for the participants
· Time requirement of the workshop

III. Other Important Information

Conference Proceedings We will not publish full paper proceedings after the conference. Submitting paper to IACMR 2025 does not preclude authors from publishing their papers elsewhere in journals or books.

Best Paper Awards We will present five Best Conference Paper awards in the following categories: micro topics (individual and group level analysis), macro topics (organization-level analysis and strategy focus), conference theme, Responsible Research in Business & Management (RRBM), and best student paper. The Conference Theme Best Paper Award recognizes a paper that best captures the theme of the 2025 Conference—Empowering Sustainable Growth in A Digital Age

Meeting Venue and Registration The conference will be held onsite in Xi‘an, China. Registration for the conference will be open on March 1, 2025.  Detailed information on conference registration procedures, fees, and hotel reservations will be available on the IACMR website beginning by February 20, 2025.

Inquiries For questions about this Call for Submissions or the conference, please contact Program Chair David Zhu at david.zhu@asu.edu. Questions about the IACMR may be directed to Wei Zhang, Executive Director of IACMR at wei.zhang@gsm.pku.edu.cn. General information about the IACMR may be found on IACMR website.

IV. Call for Reviewers Sign-up

As usual, IACMR needs quality reviewers for the 2025 Conference in Xi’an. We encourage you to sign up as a volunteer reviewer for the track in which you intend to submit your paper or the track in which you are knowledgeable. In addition to supporting track chairs in their acceptance decisions and helping authors improve the quality of submissions, being a reviewer exposes you to cutting-edge issues in Chinese management research and connects you and your institution to scholars interested in similar topics. The Reviewer Sign-up system will be opened on June 1, 2024, please sign up and choose your areas of expertise (i.e., keywords) for the track you want to review.  Once you sign up, you may be asked to review up to four submissions for the track (English or Chinese) you selected. Thank you in advance for volunteering to be a reviewer. 

V. 2025 Conference Organizing Committee

Program Chair:
David Zhu, Arizona State University

IACMR Founding President:
Anne S. Tsui, Arizona State University/ Peking University

IACMR Past President:
Zhi-Xue Zhang, Peking University

IACMR President:
Runtian Jing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

IACMR President-Elect:
Wei Shen, Arizona State University

2025 Program Co-chair, Local Arrangement Committee Chair:
Ming Jia, Northwestern Polytechnical University

Macro Track Chairs (English Program):
Kenneth Huang, National University of Singapore;
Wei Shi, University of Miami

Micro Track Chairs (English Program):
Jasmine Hu, Ohio State University/Tsinghua University;
Xin Qin, Sun Yat-sen University

Macro Track Chairs (Chinese Program):
Shihua Chen, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics;
Weiguo Zhong, Peking University

Micro Track Chairs (Chinese Program):
Wei He, Nanjing University;
Kaifeng Jiang, Ohio State University/Peking University

PDW Program Chair:
Eric Zhao, Oxford University

IACMR Executive Director:
Wei Zhang, IACMR