For the last decade, the International Conference for Business and Management in Emerging Markets (ICBMEM) has been contributing to the academic community. It provides a platform to advance research on the unique features of conducting business in emerging markets. Qatar is a highly admired location and ideal for the next meeting, offering unique logistics advantages for numerous emerging markets. After organizing the conference in Norway, Tanzania, the Netherlands and Morocco in recent years, ICBMEM’s steering committee announced Doha, Qatar, for the 2025 iteration of the conference. In 2025, the conference will be held in hybrid mode, allowing participants to join in person or online.

This year’s conference theme is “Exploring technologies and digital transformation: Trends and practices in business and humanism”. It is based on the insight that new technologies dominate top management agendas and impact the future of work considerably. The upsides and downsides of technological change and digitalization are likely to be more extreme in emerging economies. Upsides include growth opportunities, impact on the future of work and job creation, financial and social inclusion, education access, entrepreneurship opportunities, poverty alleviation, healthcare improvements, agricultural innovation, infrastructure….

We invite authors to submit literature reviews, conceptual papers, empirical papers, case studies, and structured abstracts in fields related to but not limited to the ones presented below. December 13 will see the kick-off of the conference in the late afternoon after an opportunity to explore Doha. December 14 is reserved fully for the tracks of the academic program.

The following are the indicative topics – all related to emerging markets and/or the conference theme: 

• Strategy
• Leadership
• Governance and policy
• Marketing management
• Economics
• Supply chain management
• Finance and investment management
• Alternative financing (microfinance, crowdfunding, blockchain)
• Franchising
• Corporate social responsibility
• Sustainability and contemporary management
• AI and emerging technologies
• Entrepreneurship
• Happiness and well-being
• Anticorruption and integrity in business
• All topics related to humanistic management and the protection and enhancement of human dignity.

The conference will be at HEC Paris, Doha

Exploring technologies and digital transformation: Trends and practices in business and humanism