AIB South Asia Conference 2026: AIB South Asia Conference 2026 Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Kolkata Campus Kolkata, India, January 4-5, 2026

Conference website	https://www.iift.ac.in/aibsac2026/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aibsouthasiaconferen0
Poster	download
Submission deadline	November 30, 2025

AIB South Asia Conference 2026

Changing International Trade Environment in South Asia: Impact on International Business

The transformation of the international trade environment worldwide has posed a challenge to businesses in the South Asian region. The firms in this region have made a considerable impact in the global arena in the fields of agri-produce, apparel, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and similar sectors. Businesses need a comprehensive understanding of the volatile world order and take steps to flourish in this uncertain and complex environment. Regional initiatives, bilateral agreements, and sustainability imperatives are reshaping patterns of market access and investment flows, while also presenting regulatory and compliance challenges. This conference aims to gather ideas, innovations, and thoughts on how firms can steer their way towards adapting to the changing best practices and focusing on sustainability.

About Academy of International Business (AIB)

Academy of International Business (AIB) is a Premier Global Community of International Business Scholars. Academy of International Business (AIB) was founded in 1959 by a close knit group of like-minded scholars looking to share the ideas and resources that would help define the emerging field of international business. AIB has over 3,200 members in 98 different countries around the world. Members include scholars from the leading academic institutions as well as consultants and researchers with an interest in international business. The Academy also has 13 chapters established around the world to facilitate networking as well as the facilitation and exchange of knowledge at a more local level.

About AIB South Asia Chapter

The South Asia Chapter of the Academy of International Business (AIB) is the leading association of scholars and specialists in the field of International Business in South Asia. It organizes an Annual Conference, Workshops and also International Business Reading Seminar

About IIFT Kolkata

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) was established in 1963 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry to contribute in the skill building for the external trade sector of India. It has come a long way to successfully develop into a unique institution involved in imparting knowledge through research and training in international business and trade. The Institute was granted “Deemed to be University” status in 2002.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has recognized IIFT as Grade ‘A+’ Institution. Over the years, IIFT has emerged as a national university with focus on International Business Management and Strategy, and such focus is reflected in all three major activities of the Institute: Research, Training and Education.

Conference Tracks

1. Internationalization Processes, Family Business & International Entrepreneurship

This track focuses on how global entrepreneurs adapt and identify business opportunities in a changing world. It covers the creation of new ventures, expanding businesses, and driving innovation across borders, with a special emphasis on digital technologies and social/economic challenges. This track examines the role of entrepreneurs in expanding the International Business as well as family business entities becoming multinational corporations

2. International Marketing and Consumer Behaviour

This track explores how international marketing managers and consumers respond to challenges like digitalization, technological advances, geopolitical risks, and sustainability pressures. It aims to understand how cross-national/cross-cultural similarities and differences, as well as global technological and institutional changes, affect firms and customers.

3. International Finance, Accounting, and Corporate Governance

This track emphasizes investment choices, financial reporting, and risk management in multinational firms. It covers governance approaches, legal and financial institutions, ESG practices, and the influence of international investors on firm strategies.

4. Global Strategy and Organization

This track examines the strategies and organizational responses of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to global challenges and competitive threats. It covers international strategies in a changing world, HQ-subsidiary relationships, mergers and acquisitions, foreign exit and divestment strategies, platform strategies, global organization, and the creation and transfer of knowledge across borders within the MNE and its subsidiaries.

5. Global Value Chains, Networks and Operations

This track focuses on managing global value chains and operations. It covers supply chains, managing global operations and logistics, reshoring and backshoring strategies, relocation (of production, marketing, HQ or innovation centers), global networks and alliances, managing R&D clusters, and global crowdsourcing.

6. International HRM, Global Leadership, and Cross-Cultural Management

This track covers global talent management, cross-cultural leadership, multicultural teams, and international HR activities. It includes recruitment, training, performance management, compensation, and leadership development.

7. Gender and Diversity

This track explores diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) across all aspects and levels of international business. It covers gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, neurodiversity, ancestry/origin and other social identities, as well as their intersectionality. It addresses both social justice and business performance perspectives, paying particular attention to underlying power dynamics and issues regarding structural inequality and inequity.

8. Teaching and Education

This track promotes best practices in teaching international business (IB) education at all levels. It focuses on innovative teaching methods, curriculum design, student engagement, pedagogy, and the use of digital tools to enhance learning.

9. Research Methods and Theorizing

This track highlights advanced research methods and theorizing approaches in international business. It encourages innovative methodologies, interdisciplinary research, and context-sensitive theories.

10. Emerging markets and emerging market MNEs

This track explores the dynamics of emerging markets and the strategies of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). It covers innovation, sustainable development, and market/non-market strategies of emerging market MNEs.

11. MNE-State Relations and International Business Policy

This track examines the interactions between multinational enterprises (MNEs), governments, and society. It focuses on non-market strategies, geopolitical risks, social challenges, and the impact of tariffs and subsidies, industrial policy, trade policy and regulation.

12. Sustainability in International Business

This track addresses how international businesses engage with sustainability challenges like climate change, poverty, and inequality. It explores sustainable development goals, stakeholder engagement, and corporate social responsibility.

Call for Papers:  

The Conference format is combination of competitive paper sessions, interactive paper sessions, plenary speaker sessions and workshops. We invite papers for Competitive Sessions, Interactive Sessions and Panel Discussions which are at more advanced stages of development and need more focused.

We welcome three forms of submissions:

Submissions

We welcome three forms of submissions:

Competitive Sessions

All submissions to Competitive Sessions must be fully developed papers and require giving a formal presentation at the conference. Papers submitted to a competitive session may be accepted for a such a session or for an interactive session, depending on the quality of the paper, available space, or fit in the conference program. Please see additional submission guidelines below.

Interactive Sessions

Submissions to Interactive Sessions typically are shorter manuscripts or works-in-progress that can benefit from informal feedback from other participants. They may also include fully developed papers that could not be accepted for a Competitive Session, as explained above. Interactive Sessions are held in a round table discussion format and feature shorter oral presentations that allow for engaging interaction with other scholars with similar interests (please note, the format for interactive presentations may be significantly different in a virtual conference). Please see additional submission guidelines below.

Panel Discussion Sessions

Panel Discussion Sessions are forums for issues of contemporary interest to IB scholars. Panels are organized as a single submission by a panel chair around a common theme. Panels may have various formats –round table discussions, keynote and discussion with senior scholars not normally involved in the AIB, pro and con debates, or professional development workshops

A panel session must allocate substantial time to a genuine interchange among the panelists, and/ or between panelists and the audience. When designing the panel, keep in mind you will have 75 minutes for the session

 • To facilitate sufficient time for genuine interchange and discussion, panels should constitute no more than 4 people presenting on a specific theme, and the total time for presentations should not exceed 2/3 of the total session time (i.e., 50 mins for a 75-minute session)

• Panel submissions that simply feature a series of paper presentations will be rejected.

 We recommend the following approach when developing the panel:

1. Identify a theme and create a detailed abstract that summarizes the theme and issues the panel aims to address;
2. Recruit scholars or other experts and request they identify thematic topics that are consistent with the abstract;
3. Based on the identified topics, create a program that is coherent, meaningful and which follows a logical order of the expected presentations and discussion;
4. Request panelists to present and discuss their topics accordingly;
5. Request each panelist to formulate at least two questions that they would like to ask one or more other panelists about their topic, during the panel discussion;
6. The chair or other participant might serve as moderator or timekeeper to keep the panel on track and ensure sufficient time for substantive interaction and discussion.
7. This approach is intended to create a panel that features substantial discussion and Q&A among the Panelists and with the audience, comprising a significant portion of the total session time.

Please see additional submission guidelines below

Additional guidelines for submissions to Competitive Sessions and Interactive Sessions

• Papers must be fewer than 12,000 words inclusive of all materials, including appendices and references. Papers exceeding these limits may be returned to the author(s).

• Papers must contain no information that identifies the author(s) on the title page or elsewhere in the document. Submitter should clean the paper’s File Properties to remove identifying information.

• Papers must follow the JIBS Style Guide.

• Submissions that consist only of abstracts, extended abstracts, or research proposals will not be accepted.

Guidelines for submissions to Panel Proposals

• Panel proposals should be no more than 6,000 words inclusive of all materials, and must be submitted by the panel chair. All panel proposals must include:

• A Title Page that includes the panel name, the session format (e.g., pro and con debate, moderated round table discussion, keynote and commentary, professional development workshop, etc.) and the panel participants.

• The name, affiliation, email address, and role of each participant in the panel (chair, discussant, and/or panelist). All panelists listed in the submission must appear and present at the conference. Each panel must specify a chair. A second chair and/or a discussant are optional.

• A detailed overview of the main issue(s) addressed or arguments to be made in the panel.

• Any special technical setup that the panel may require (only if beyond a standard video conferencing setup: i.e., need for breakouts, polling, and other advanced features). The feasibility of any special requirements will be part of the evaluation criteria.

• Copies of emails or letters from each participant stating they agree to participate in the panel if the proposal is accepted. Failure to include these confirmations will count against the proposal.

General Rules for All Submissions

• All submissions to the conference must have a focus on international phenomena. • All submissions must be in English.

• Each submission must state on its front page at the top right, the requested Track (number and title) and the Session format (Competitive, Interactive, or Panel Discussion).

• Each submission must include an abstract, not to exceed 200 words, that summarizes the manuscript or panel discussion. This abstract will appear in the Conference Proceedings, if your submission is accepted to the conference.

• Only submissions made through our official online submission portal will be reviewed for potential inclusion in the conference. Only PDF and Word files will be accepted.

• Authors will be notified about the acceptance of their paper(s) via email, after which the process of registration will begin

• Each author is allowed a maximum of three submissions, irrespective of their position in the author list

 For any issues not addressed in this submission guidelines, please write to aibsac@iimb.ac.in

AIB SOUTH ASIA CONFERENCE 2026: Junior Faculty Consortium

• The 2026 Academy of International Business (AIB) South Asia Junior Faculty Consortium will be held on Monday, January 5, 2026. The consortium is designed to facilitate and further the personal and career development of early-stage (post- PhD) academics whose research touches, at least in part, on international or comparative business broadly defined. The consortium will provide plenty of opportunity for interaction, both among junior faculty participants and between junior and senior faculty. There will also be time for junior faculty to discuss their research program and/or a specific research project, and teaching development and career plans.

• All junior faculty members who are active in research and teaching in the broad field of international business are invited to participate. Although preference will be given to those who have obtained their PhD no more than three years ago, the consortium aims to be as inclusive as possible.

Registration

Note: To participate in the AIB South Asia Conference 2026 it is mandatory to obtain AIB membership. To become an AIB member, kindly register at: https://www.aib.world/membership/ new-members/ and obtain the AIB membership ID. Note that residents of South Asia are eligible for the US$25 /US $ 30 electronic membership Registration will be confirmed only after the payment of the registration fee.

Registration fee is non-refundable and includes access to all plenary sessions, paper presentation tracks, the Junior Faculty Consortium and is also inclusive of meals (tea, breakfast and lunch). Participants are requested to remit the necessary registration charges. After remittance, kindly send the screenshot of the bank transaction reference number to aibsac@iimb.ac.in / WhatsApp: +91 6380338272.

Registration Fees		Delegates from South Asian Countries	Others
Doctoral Students	Early Bird (until	INR 5000	$70
	18 December 2024)
	Regular	INR 6000	$80
Faculty/ Researchers	Early Bird (until	INR 8000	$100
	18 December 2024)
	Regular	INR 9000	$120
Industry Practitioner	Early Bird (until	INR 10,000	$140
	18 December 2025)
	Regular	INR 11,000	$160

Key Dates

Paper Submission Window	1 September 2025 – 30 November 2025
Last date for Paper Submission	30-Nov-25
Notifications of Paper Acceptance Decisions	10-Dec-25
Last date for Early Bird Registration	18-Dec-25
AIB South Asia 2025 Conference	4-5 January 2026

 

Potential Publication Opportunities:

All the abstracts of the papers submitted and accepted for the conference will be published as a digital compilation of abstracts.

Best Paper Awards:

The best paper in each track will be recognized and awarded a certificate.

In addition, the conference has instituted the best paper award (winner/ runner up) in select tracks.