THE 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT IN EMERGING MARKETS (ICBMEM) 2025 (hybrid mode)
THEME: EXPLORING TECHNOLOGIES AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: TRENDS AND PRACTICES IN BUSINESS AND HUMANISM
HOST: HEC Paris, Doha
DATES: 13th-14th December 2025
CALL FOR PAPERS
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 leapfrogging, and better environmental protection – all factors enhancing human dignity as demanded by humanistic management. If managed poorly, however, the inverse applies. Downsides include a bigger digital divide, job displacement, cybersecurity and privacy threats, cultural degradation, and further exploitation could ensue. The 2025 conference organized in Qatar aims at bringing researchers and practitioners together to discuss latest research insights and actionable insights in tracks on these upsides and downsides. HEC Paris, Doha, hosts the event, though based on the number of registrations, the Organizing Committee may expand to a different location to enable a smooth delivery.
The conference will also involve stakeholder dialogues, networking, workshops for Ph.D. students and junior faculty development, and the results of the global case writing competition before a joint dinner to celebrate national culture and international friendship, rounding up the event. All submissions will go through a blind peer review process, and the best articles accepted for the conference will be published in Scopus-indexed special issues of journals. Our international conference of business and management in emerging markets 2025 seeks to explore submissions on both the conference theme in the narrow sense and related issues to successful management in emerging markets. 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.
UN initiatives on anticorruption – Reviewing past progress and strengthening future collaborations
In collaboration with several UN entities and initiatives, we organize a special track on December 14. The idea is to learn from a keynote speech, dialogues and a panel discussion on how to draw the best benefits and insights from initiatives in the past and shape the future of collaborations in and across UN initiatives as well as society at large.
PhD colloquium session
The conference will host a PhD colloquium session. Thus, we welcome abstracts and paper submissions from PhD candidates.
Humanistic management case writing competition Our conference partner, The Humanistic Management Foundation, sponsors a teaching case competition. The first prize is USD 1000, the second prize is USD 500, and the third prize is USD 250 for high-quality cases. Well-developed submissions should focus on conducive ways to convey humanistic management, aspiring to protect and enhance human dignity in business and as an outcome of doing business. A short and concise teaching note should accompany the submission. Submissions must be original and cannot have been published before. Best submissions are invited for publication in our forthcoming book on case studies on humanistic management. The winners are expected to attend the conference. We welcome case studies from a variety of industry and country backgrounds. For further information, please contact Wolfgang Amann at humanistic-management-foundation@outlook.com.
Manuscript submission guidelines
Please submit structured abstracts, competitive papers or special session proposals electronically using the electronic easy chair application following the following link:
Competitive research papers (both conceptual and empirical) and case studies may be submitted either as a full paper or as a structured abstract. You can also choose to submit a special session proposal. Authors (or at least one author) of accepted papers are required to register for the conference AND to present the accepted research at the time designated in the conference program.
Any paper accepted for presentation but not presented at the conference will NOT appear in the official conference proceedings.
Complete paper submissions should not exceed 15 single-spaced pages (Times New Roman 12 pt. font) in total length, including all exhibits and references. The total word count for full papers should be between 2500 and 6000. Be sure to include the title information with each submission, but do not include a title page in the submitted document file. Full papers may also be published as one-page abstracts. Structured abstract submissions should not exceed four single-spaced pages following the same style guidelines as above. The word count should be between 300 and 1200.
Important dates
| Conference steps | Date in 2025 |
| Submission deadline for extended abstract or full papers | 2nd September |
| Notification of Acceptance | 17th September |
| Deadline to submit the full version of updated version | 30th October |
| Early Bird registration deadline | 15th September |
| Regular registration deadline | 16th – 20th November |
| Event date for the International Conference of Business Management in Emerging Markets | 13th-14th December |
Registration fee for online and on-site participation
| Academic | Corporates | Students | |
| Early-Bird registration | Euro 250 | Euro 280 | Euro 100 |
| Regular | Euro 280 | Euro 330 | Euro 150 |
Note:
1. All the payments should be made directly through the conference registration link
2. Participation fee includes conference kit, lunch, refreshments during the main conference day, attendance to all conference sessions and conference dinner
3. Optional: Registration for accompanying spouses/friends would cost USD 100 (excluding conference kit)
For further information or clarification, contact the organizing committee
Prof Emmanuel Chao: ejchao@mzumbe.ac.tz, info@icbmem.org
Prof Wolfgang Amann: wolfgang.amann@hec.edu
Prof Shiv Tripathi: shiv.tripathi@berlinsbi.com
Scientific committee
Prof Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen, BI-Norwegian Business School, Norway
Dr Paul Wabike, Fontys University of Applied sciences, Netherlands
Prof Marit Sjovaag, BI-Norwegian Business School, Norway
Prof Bente Flygansvær, BI-Norwegian Business School, Norway
Dr Judith Iddy, University of Dar es salaam, Tanzania
Dr. Walid Bernaki, National School of Business and Management of Tangier, UAE, Morocco.
Hibat_Allah Ezzahid, UHP University, Casablanca-Settat, Morocco
Dr Nsubili Isaga, Mzumbe University, Tanzania
Kantu Mbozi, Technical and Vocational Teachers College (TVTC), Zambia
Thea Mtau, University of Dar es salaam, Tanzania
Publication opportunities
The conference papers are intended to be disseminated in various forms of publications. We have an opportunity to publish in Scopus-indexed formats. Following are potential outlets:
- Conference proceedings with ISBN
- Special issue of the Journal of International Business and Management in Emerging Markets
- Journal of Emerging Markets
- Applied Journal of Marketing
- Journal of Policy and Leadership
CALL FOR PAPERS
CALL FOR PAPERS
Please make sure you check your paper well, when paper submitted can’t be edited.