Academy of International Business in collaboration with IIM Indore began its AIB India Chapter 2016 Conference at IIM Indore on April 21, 2016. The three-day conference theme is South-to-South FDI, which aims to bring together scholars from multiple disciplines and countries to examine international business in the context of emerging economies.
The conference began with India IB Pre-Conference Workshop on April 20, 2016, conducted by Professor S. Ragunath, Professor, Corporate Strategy & Policy, Dean (Admin), IIM Bangalore and Professor Elizabeth Rose, University of Otago, New Zealand.
The inaugural ceremony took place on Thursday, April 21, 2016 with the formal welcome by Professor Manish Popli, Conference Co-Chair. This was followed by the lamp lighting ceremony by Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore; Professor S. Raghunath and Professor Elizabeth Rose.
Professor Krishnan then delivered the welcome address and said that management scholars in India have not traditionally being spending time on studying or researching international business. ‘We spend more time on Indian Business pattern and how it works, what are its problems and how they can be resolved. However, now many scholars and professionals have started studying international business and do comparative study. This describes how our traditional business pattern is shifting towards a new direction’, he said. He also mentioned that the increasing technology and emerging markets in developing countries are a reason for this shift, which have provided interesting topics like brand building, business management etc. as a motivational force to go ahead with international business study. He concluded his talk congratulating the organizing team for all the efforts put in for the conference.
This was followed by a Keynote Address by Professor Raghunath. He discussed how international business has remained the most under-experimented area in the business segment. Appreciating the theme for the conference – South-to-South FDI, he noted that usually trade equations are compared only between north and south countries.
‘With reference to a few researches made recently, south to south trading has been emerging in international business segment. The global trade in south has increased from seven to eighteen percent in the last twenty years. Most of this has been in minerals and fuels, unlike north to north trading which include technology’, he mentioned. Professor Raghunath mentioned that engaging in community which includes researchers and scholars of the same interest would help in exploring the south to south trade pattern in a better way. He concluded by appreciating the efforts put in by AIB and IIM Indore for the conference.
Professor Rose then gave a brief talk on the AIB and its various functions. She mentioned that AIB aims to reach out the potential members who would create an environment to enhance research in similar fields and help connect people with similar interest. She then congratulated the participants for being a part of the conference.
The programme concluded with the details given by Professor Prashant Salwan, Conference Co-Chair, wherein he mentioned about the sessions, panel discussions and various themes of paper presentations to take place during the next three days.
The second day of the conference would witness 40 paper presentations and 12 poster paper presentations. There would be two experts talk by Mr. Siddhartha Sengupta, Managing Director, SBI India International Business and Professor Elizabeth Rose, University of Otago. The first panel discussion of the conference would also take place on the topic ‘International Competitiveness of Firms From India: Is it Human Capital, Innovative Capacity or IT Enabled Services?’.