Welcome Message

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

As President of EIBA, I am very pleased to welcome you all to the 36th Conference of the European International Business Academy, hosted by the School of Economics of the University of Porto, Portugal, December 9-11, 2010. This year’s conference theme is “IB’s role in building a better and stronger global economy”. During 2008 and 2009, the world economy was ravaged by a severe economic and financial crisis. Its shockwaves will still be felt for a while. Contractions in trade and FDI flows and on employment were the norm. Contrarily to previous crises, Governments contained, to a considerable extent, their protectionist proclivities. This can be taken to show that, by now, there is a widespread consensus on the virtues of openness to investment and other flows of economic exchange and, indeed, that globalization is quite well accepted. The 36th EIBA Annual Conference aims, among other topics, to discuss whether International Business can be an important part of the solution to the problems raised by the crisis, in order to build a stronger and more resilient global economy, and to pave the way for an era of renewed prosperity. The conference also aims to shed light on how to (to borrow John Dunning’s words) “make globalization good”, thereby to contribute to a sounder, fairer, and more sustainable world. After an evening plenary session on the opening day on the internationalization strategies of some world class Portuguese companies, a second plenary session will be held on the financial and economic crisis and its challenges for International Business. Another plenary session will be organized on the third day and is dedicated to honoring Julian Birkinshaw’s contributions to IB, entitled ‘Network Organization and Subsidiary Entrepreneurship in Multinational Enterprises’. Thanks to the great help of the track chairs and the efforts of the reviewers we were able to organize what we expect to be an academically successful EIBA conference. I look forward to take part in what I trust will be numerous exciting sessions about the latest research in IB in the following tracks: IB’s role in building a better and stronger global economy; Internationalization process and international entrepreneurship; Corporate strategies in international business; HQsubsidiaries’ relations, subsidiaries’ strategies and subsidiary evolution; Managing knowledge and innovation in IB; IB theory, international economics and trade; International finance and accounting; Corporate social responsibility, governance and ethical issues; International marketing; International human resource management and cross-cultural issues; Contemporary issues on IB methodology; Clusters, linkages and policy issues; and Teaching International Business. The venue of the conference will be the School of Economics of the University of Porto in the second most important city in Portugal. We (myself and a great local organizing committee) particularly hope that you will enjoy the ambiance of this delightful city in addition to meeting old friends and making new ones. I wish to all of you an academically and socially successful EIBA conference.

 

 

Kindest regards, Ana Teresa Tavares-Lehmann EIBA President 2010