Dear IACMR Members, Colleagues and Friends,

As the year comes to an end, I am honored to extend my warmest New Year greetings on behalf of the IACMR Executive Committee. I wish you a vibrant and prosperous 2026 filled with hope, happiness, peace, and good health!

Despite the many challenges our world continues to face, my enthusiasm and expectations for Chinese management research remain unwavering as the President of IACMR and as a scholar. The IACMR Board of Governors, Executive Committee, and our members are fully committed to advancing the mission of research and teaching in Chinese management.

This year, we have continued to carry out a variety of activities both online and offline as scheduled. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to IACMR, including our staff in Beijing Office, our conference organizers, track chairs, volunteers, and host schools, our board and committee members, our reviewers for MOR and conferences, workshop faculty, seminar speakers, and our journal editors and staff. It takes so many people contributing their time and energy to make IACMR be the scholarly community that it is, and wants to be.

Now, I’d like to briefly highlight some key achievements of IACMR in 2025.

The 2025 Xi’an Conference

Thanks to the joint efforts of Program Co-Chairs Professor Runtian Jing, Professor Xu Huang, myself and the local arrangement committee chair Professor Ming Jia from Northwestern Polytechnical University, the conference was successfully held from June 11 to 15, 2025. The theme of the conference was “Empowering Sustainable Growth in a Digital Age” featuring 9 keynote panels, 22 symposiums, 119 paper presentations, 70 roundtable presentations, and 26 professional development workshops. It also included all-day university recruitment fairs and “School Nights” receptions. Over 1700 scholars and students from 23 countries and regions gathered in this academic feast.

Online Seminar Series

This year, we maintained close contact with our members through multiple series of webinars. These webinars not only provided members with access to high-quality management research but also offered them a platform for career development discussions. With the joint efforts of seminar committees, we successfully held more than 10 online seminars, including Research Seminars, Young Scholar Development Seminars, Women’s Development Seminars and Teaching Seminar Series.

Management and Organization Review

Under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Professor Xiao-Ping Chen, Management and Organization Review (MOR) is committed to becoming a leading academic journal that offers novel and pioneering insights in the field of organizational management, within both the Chinese context and comparative international settings. The second MOR International Conference and PDW will be held at the University of the United Arab Emirates from February 20 to 22, 2026; the third MOR Paper Development Workshop occurred in Xi’an this past June, while the fourth is scheduled for December in the beautiful city of Nanning, Guangxi; “Lights On MOR!” hosted by Professor Ray Friedman continues to bring us exciting content with video interviews of authors. We look forward to your submissions to MOR while you keep up with each new issue!

IACMR-MOR Ph.D. Course on Chinese Management Research
This course, taught by 13 distinguished scholars, equips IACMR doctoral student members with the knowledge and skills to conduct groundbreaking and meaningful research in the Chinese context. The course is free for members who have completed their first year of doctoral studies. The second cohort of the course is currently underway.

Awards

In addition to many authors receiving various Conference Paper Awards, Professor Michael Morris from Columbia University was honored with the 2025 IACMR Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award. Also, five students (Yishu Cai from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ziyan Cui from Tsinghua University, Xiaoxiao Jiang from the University of Western Australia, Pengzhao Lyu from the University of Cambridge, and Runjia Zhang from Peking University) were awarded Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund grants for 2025. Congratulations to all of these award winners!

Preparations for the 2027 Biennial Conference

The organizing committee for the 2027 IACMR conference has been established and preparations have begun. The theme is “Advancing Chinese Management Research in the Age of AI” (IACMR 2027 Conference)。The submission system will open on September 16, 2026, and we sincerely invite you to submit your work to the conference.

Looking ahead to 2026, we will launch a series of academic activities, including the 12th Research Method Workshop, the 2026 Teaching Workshop, and brand-new projects in collaboration with other renowned international academic organizations. Stay tuned!

As we enter the new year, let us continue to uphold the core values of “Pursuit of Excellence, Source of Inspiration, Responsible Scholarship, and Spirit of Service” with enthusiasm as we embrace 2026!

Wei Shen

President of IACMR
Dean’s Council Distinguished Professor
W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
On Behalf of the IACMR Executive Committee