Conference Agenda

Increasing international student mobility has led to the prevalence of multicultural classrooms in business and management education. In a multicultural classroom, where students come from different cultural backgrounds and may have different expectations, preferences and experiences, formative feedback can pose some challenges. Among other things, this concerns the content, the channels and the communication of feedback, and student responses to and engagement with feedback. In this Teaching Café, we will share experiences and discuss how we as educators can address the challenges of providing formative feedback in a multicultural classroom. It will be organized around two brief interventions by the facilitators, which will (i) introduce the recommendations of the current state of pedagogical research and (ii) summarise the first findings of the empirical research on the topic. The central part of the Teaching Café will discuss ideas and practical solutions to overcome the challenges associated with formative feedback in a multicultural classroom.

Multinationals face “The Rise of the National” - a return to policies advocated by Friedrich List (1841) (Tariffs represent investment in future Technology. National Systems of Innovation) and the introduction of Industrial Policies (including “Green” policies, and in the USA the Chips Act, Pure List, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)) . In response, multinationals are devising resilience strategies in the era of “slowbalisation”. This presentation examines these strategies using a time profile to cover - Immediate Imperatives Short- Term Strategies Long –Term Strategies Long Long-Term Strategies (N.B. Globalization not in reverse – slower growth in some areas. In others e.g., data transfers, globalization is accelerating.) MNE strategies must respond to policy changes and other challenges. Success will be dependent on flexibility and the capacity to innovate. Perhaps these characteristics are the ultimate long run “firm specific advantages.”

This panel will explain both the anatomy of ethics within the AIB and the operation of ethical processes. As AIB members, many of you will know that the Academy has three codes of ethics: the Member Code of Ethics, Leadership Code of Ethics and the Journals Code of Ethics covering its three journals. Our panel will kick off with an explanation of the nature of these three codes (to be found at: https://www.aib.world/about/policies/). We will also explain how AIB generates, revises and updates, its ethical rules and how it implements and enforces them. One thing that we all learn is that it is surprisingly easy, if not to transgress, then to come perilously close to transgressing. Understanding the pitfalls that are out there is particularly important today, given digitalisation and – dare we say it – the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Our panellists are right at the heart of the ethical dimension to the AIB. Rosalie Tung, as Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) is alerted to possible violations of the Journal’s Code of Ethics. Ari Van Assche has a parallel brief as EIC of the Journal of International Business Policy (JIBP), and Gary Knight, as President-Elect is knowledgeable of the ethical processes within the AIB, across each of the ethical codes, and how AIB handles ethical cases. Our panel will look at the relevant history of AIB’s codes, consider those types of instances that arise most frequently and that we all need to guard against, as AIB members, if we are AIB leaders (and who qualifies as a leader is broader than you might think) and when we submit to the journals. Examples of violations will highlight the salience of the codes today including potential breaches when making conference submissions, as well as to the journals. Beyond this, one increasingly sensitive area is manuscripts that introduce one’s political/ideological biases and opinions, other than evidenced-based findings. Our journals and our organization aim to adopt a politically/ideologically neutral stance.

In recent times, various academic fields, natural sciences, psychology and economics, have experienced scandals and negative publicity after several high-profile academic articles had to be retracted. One of the reasons was that their findings were not replicable. The implications of these events extend beyond academia, potentially eroding public trust and confidence in scientific discoveries. This panel will discuss: a) whether the field of International Business Research is immune to such developments, b) how the issue of replicability might affect future research in International Business, c) what steps IB journals take to tackle the issue and d) what are the lessons from other academic fields. Please join this panel in its attempt to address the questions raised above with an aim to contribute to the dialogue within the International Business academic community about the topic of replicability.

This is 12th edition from the series of panels organized by the Commonwealth Research Network on International Business (CRN-IB) at the AIB UK & Ireland conference. With the support of the AIB and leading academics from around the globe, the CRN-IB was established at a special session during the Annual European International Business Conference in Brighton in 2012. It aims to bring together and strengthen relationships and dialogue between academic, businesses and policymaking bodies working on and in Commonwealth countries.