The burst of financial and housing bubbles in 2008 set the world on the course toward the tail end of globalization. The last three to four years expressly were punctuated by reverse trends such as de-globalization and de-internationalization. Recent trends in Europe, US, and globally have demonstrated that the world has continued to innovate and there is a lot of power to innovate out there, but most of the time with a negative sign. Recent new global responses in the fields of politics (Brexit, the election of the USA president), science and technology (GM crops, nuclear energy, fracking, global warming, AI, big data, bitcoin), health (eating disorders, immunisation, anti-biotic resistance), social (mass migration, extremism and terrorism, nationalism, sovereignty, slavery) are just handful examples of such innovating powers. In a society of rapid change, seeking to cope with complex, large scale challenges to economic, social and political developments, there is an urgent need for new perspectives and effective ways to improve our understanding and interpretation of complex data, new ideas and innovations. The 2018 ISMD conference is dedicated to exploring such new perspectives and effective ways, aiming to generate interesting, beyond-state-of-the-art research questions and agendas, as well as to convey and effect change and coherence in policy development nationally, regionally, internationally and globally.
The call for papers may be downloaded here.
Conference tracks
We invite submissions of full and working papers; poetry, art and musical submissions are also welcome. All papers should be submitted via the submission system to one (and only one) of the conference tracks. Go to submission guidelines to learn how to prepare your paper. The submission deadline for working and full papers is April 7, 2018.
Track 1: Late-globalization, Neo-globalization in Post-Brexit, Trumponomics era
Chair: Nikhilesh Dholakia, University of Rhode Island
Brexit and the Trump electoral triumph – two major political phenomena of 2016 – are intersecting with the shifting course of globalization. The ISMD online journal MGDR featured some of these issues in a 2017 special issue titled “The Globalization Hiccup”. This track invites papers analysing and interpreting these late-global and/or neo-global phenomena, from political, economic and cultural perspectives; and especially from the developing-transitioning country perspectives.
Track 2: Economic nationalism, protectionism, public policy
Chair: Finola Kerrigan, University of Birmingham
National governments veer between protectionism and seeking free trade agreements. There are many arguments for and against free markets, market protection and hybrid economies. These debates are grounded in fundamental social, economic and political perspectives; and this track invites the contributors to unpack such perspectives. Papers from a range of broad perspectives are welcomed in order to generate debate.
Track 3: Critical Perspectives of (Post) Development in the Age of Markets
Chair: Fuat Fırat, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
The definition of development as economic growth based on capital accumulation has endured, despite multiple critiques. This track seeks theoretical as well as empirical papers that look critically at how markets and marketing shut down critique or perhaps open up promising spaces for alternative paths of development. In particular, it invites critical development work imagining alternatives to the mainstream discourse of Western capitalist developmentalism and proposing a role for the market that liberates it from ideological clutches that operate at national and global levels.
Track 4: De-globalization and de-internationalization
Chairs: Michael McDermott, Lancaster University and Romeo V. Turcan, Aalborg University
After 1945 the United States and its allies led the way in creating international institutions and promoting national policies to promote globalization. The success of these policies is evident in the transformation of national policy from import-substitution to export promotion. Furthermore, it resulted in the emergence of new competitors from an increasingly diverse number of countries. After decades of enjoying the benefits of globalization, several developed countries are experiencing the downside of globalization and now seek to retreat from globalization. Similarly, MNCs headquartered in the West have belatedly recognized the negative consequences of internationalization in terms of neglecting the ‘domestic’ market for futile expansion in Emerging markets. Ironically, those such as China that were once passively hostile or lukewarm to globalization are now the chief proponents of this trend. In this new climate of marked tension, de-globalization and de-internationalization has profound consequences at the state and corporate levels. Significant foreign divestment by some presents unique acquisition opportunities for others (e.g. GM’s divestment of European auto operations and acquisition by France’s PSA). This track invites papers exploring the benefits and downsides of de-globalization and de-internationalization. The track would examine policy issues of whether nations should oppose globalizing, opt for protectionism, embrace de-globalization; or, instead, continue opening up, embrace globalization and integrate fully into global economy. Papers could also explore impacts of such ‘reverse’ processes on institutions, markets, industries, global value chains, and on individual and collective mindsets.
Track 5: Country branding in the age of de-globalization
Chair: Gina Pipoli, Universidad del Pacífico
Country brand strategies gain importance as ways to build and shape the image of a country so that it can achieve a consistent and effective positioning: as a destination (for tourists, investments, and more) as well as a source (of products, people, ideas, investors, and more). The task of building a strong and positive country image is challenging for any nation because it combines the elements of the overall national image as well as the country-of-origin effects. This track invites papers exploring such challenges, especially for emerging nations.
Track 6: Technological challenges in developing markets
Chair: Janet Ward, University of Sunderland and Diane Rojas, Universidad de Manizales
Within the context of developing nations, the adoption and appropriation of new technologies have followed very idiosyncratic and surprising trajectories. Digitization is happening worldwide but with diverse, oft divergent, mechanisms. Countries, regions and cities vary in terms of Internet penetration, broadband access, mobile apps and services, and more. For example, developmental models based on information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been proposed for areas such as Asia-pacific, Iran and e-retailing in India. Have these models been successful? Have new models emerged in the era of social media and virtual communities? What are the roles of traditional telecom-computer-based and new-media-based models in the developmental process? This track aims to highlight inspirational research demonstrating how digital technologies are contributing especially to the development of emerging economies. It also encourages exploration of nuanced socio-historic contingencies that ultimately shape what and how technologies are appropriated and used. Conceptual and empirical submissions are invited that deal with the conditions that account for the acceptance, adaptation or rejection of different aspects of digitization of markets, marketing and consumption in developing contexts.
Track 7: Creation and legitimation of new markets, sectors and industries
Chairs: Norman M. Fraser and Romeo V. Turcan, Aalborg University
While international development organizations invest in capacity building to stimulate the emergence of new markets, sectors and industries, the evidence suggests there is little discernible correlation between the amount invested in capacity building and the emergence of new markets, sectors or industries. The missing ingredient is what we call ‘legitimacy building’: deliberately articulating and promoting understanding of why a new market, sector, or industry makes sense, as well as how it adds value to the community. We invite papers that explore the emergence – creation and legitimation – of new markets, sectors, or industries especially from the developing-transitioning country perspectives.
Track 8: Business models for sustainable value creation
Chair: Pia Polsa, Hanken School of Economics
This track welcomes papers that explore business models and business model innovation in Cause NGOs that provide public services, such as health, education, and environment, and Sector NGOs that advocate for business needs of private companies located in a sector of an economy. Papers are also welcome that explore positive and negative relationships, which are forged between NGOs and large multinational enterprises and other key stakeholders, especially in the context of developing and transitioning economies.
Track 9: Bubbles, runaway sentiments and collective behaviour
Chair: Nikhilesh Dholakia, University of Rhode Island and Romeo V. Turcan, Aalborg University
While asset bubbles are seen largely as financial matters, there is evidence that interacting consumer and investor sentiments – individual and collective – shape such bubbles. This track seeks papers that analyse and interpret processes that lead to runaway sentiments, in bubble build up as well as bubble burst and collapse. In particular, the track seeks papers that explore such sentiment-dynamics in globally interconnected settings.
Track 10: Art & Culture
Chair: Victoria Rodner, University of Stirling
This track welcomes papers within the broad spectrum of arts, heritage, culture, leisure and creative industries marketing, examining the production, dissemination and consumption of culture from across the globe and unpacking the challenges and opportunities inherent in this field. Topics of interest to this track cover a wide range: audience development, corporate sponsorship, brand-level aesthetics, government policies, fundraising, enculturation of the arts, aesthetic entrepreneurship, co-creation of value, ethical issues pertinent to non-profits, arts and heritage marketing, and general aesthetic marketing strategies. Alongside research and conceptual papers, we also welcome methodology papers that foreground the visual and other arts-based research as a means of collecting and/or analyzing data.
Track 11: Konst-Fest: Poetry, art, music
Chairs: Pia Polsa, Hanken School of Economics and Finola Kerrigan, University of Birmingham
Arts based research has been an established form of qualitative inquiry. Art can be used to collect data or analyze it. This track is aesthetic, period. It calls for submissions of artworks – poetry, photos, paintings, music, plays and more – related to the topics of development, human flourishing, business and society, consumer transformation and so on. Please submit artworks in form of photos and brief explanation of how the artwork is related to the topics of the conference and how art illuminates the topics in a different way than traditional conference papers and presentations.
Track 12: Peace Marketing
Chair: Cliff Shultz, Loyola University Chicago
Can markets, marketing, culture, socioeconomic development and policy be understood and/or administered to affect and to sustain peace and prosperity? In this track, scholars, policy analysts and others with interest in social-conflict resolution; societal violence cessation, prevention or mediation; war cessation or recovery; and/or related interests in peace-making at local, regional, national, international or global levels are invited to submit abstracts, manuscripts, working papers, cases, or proposals for panels, roundtable discussions and special sessions. For a guide to such issues, see the MGDR paper: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/vol1/iss2/2/
Track 13: Insurgency, Exploitation, Development and Marketing in Developing Countries
Chair: Anayo Nkamnebe, Nnamdi Azikiwe University
Whether in its physical or symbolic mode, violence manifesting in the forms of insurgency and neoliberal exploitation is scuttling progress already made in some countries of the world, especially the developing countries. Adding to the misery of direct human violence are natural environmental disasters in the form of tsunami and hurricanes, often linked to anti-ecological practices and policies. This track seeks conceptual and empirical papers, including case studies, that examine the nexus and overall dynamics of violence (broadly defined) in the role of market and marketing to promote development in developing as well as advanced countries.
Track 14: Imagining Alternatives
Chair: Finola Kerrigan, University of Birmingham
This track invites papers that report on alternative models of ‘development’, models beyond the mainstream context of corporate globalization and predatory capitalism. Through everyday praxis, various alternative economies, bottom-up organizations and broader “here and now” experimentations with doing things differently are cultivating their own vocabulary, foregrounding ideas around de-growth, small scale, solidarity, and socio-environmental justice. Stepping outside the global neoliberal rhetoric of free trade deals and mega international partnerships that benefits MNCs, this track invites explorations of alternative visions of well-being and development being enacted around the world.
Track 15: Meet the editors
Chair: Deniz Atik, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
In this session, conference participants will have the opportunity to meet with the editors of the selected journals, including the ISMD journal MGDR, to familiarize themselves with the aims and scopes of the journals and publication opportunities. MGDR can be accessed via this link: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/. Journal editors are encouraged to propose their journals as candidates for this session.
Track 16: Special Session
Chair: Pia Polsa, Hanken School of Economics
We recognize that there is no way we can capture all the issues of markets and development in the tracks listed above. Thus, we encourage your papers and proposals on topics that do not fit these tracks. We encourage both orthodox and unorthodox submissions that connect markets and consumers, capitalism, entrepreneurship, financial markets and business in general to the broader theme of socioeconomic development.
Technical University of Moldova is proud to host the 15TH ISMD Biannual Conference. The ISMD conference will bring state-of-the art research of the impact of technology, markets, development and sustainability on globalization. We look forward to receiving your submissions.