36th IABS Annual Conference
Maastricht, The Netherlands
April 3 to 6, 2025
Theme: Redesigning business for the common Good
Hosted by the School of Business and Economics
Maastricht University
Businesses around the world are under increasing demands to improve their social and environmental footprints. The past five years have also demonstrated to businesses that we need to develop new capabilities to navigate uncertainty, rapidly adapt, innovate, and quickly react to changing environments due to health crises, political instability, or social unrest. These challenges urge companies to reconsider their roles and strategies, leading them to seek innovations that balance growth with societal contributions.
The 36th annual conference of the International Association for Business and Society (IABS) calls for participants to meet under the theme 'Redesigning business for the common Good.' This invites a critical examination of how businesses can fundamentally shift their practices to achieve economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and social justice, aligning their operations with societal well-being. Our call for this conference edition is on the influential role and responsibility that businesses have in fostering the common good. This concept captures a state of balance where shared benefits and equitable resource distribution support both present and future generations. Achieving this requires businesses to integrate innovative and collaborative strategies. For instance, if we observe what is happening in Europe, we find initiatives like the EU Green Deal, which has been designed to harmonize businesses within ambitious sustainability goals.
From a business perspective, if we look ahead, much is needed to meet targets like the ones set up by the EU Green Deal or the SDGS and other initiatives. We have to be honest and think beyond regulations or business compliance: we need to seek and embrace new ways of conducting business, where collaboration goes beyond traditional stakeholders to deeply engage with the community. This involves creating spaces where the needs of diverse groups are heard, and priorities are co-created. Such an approach places greater importance on societal well-being and social justice, emphasizing the development of sustainable and equitable solutions. This is what IABS 2025 will be mainly about! As per our tradition, IABS annual meetings are developmental and encourage participants to submit their work on any topics from the broad field of business and society.
Our conference will be held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, a small yet vibrant, and culturally rich city in the south of the country, renowned for its significant contributions to European integration and cooperation. The event will be hosted by the Department of Organisation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship (OSE) at the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University. You can submit your contributions and other proposals through the five different formats that our conference covers (discussion sessions, paper presentations, symposia, workshops, and innovative sessions).
Looking forward to welcoming you to Maastricht in the spring of 2025!
Dr. Abel Diaz Gonzalez,
IABS Conference Chair, 2025
Assistant Professor, Department of Organization, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University (The Netherlands)
abel.diazgonzalez(AT)@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Proposals are invited for the following session types:
All proposals must be single-spaced and have numbered pages. They will undergo a peer-review process although symposia and workshop proposals will not be subject to blind reviews.
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This format offers authors the opportunity to receive early-stage feedback on their research ideas related to theoretical framing, methods, and potential publication outlets. No audio-visual (A/V) support is available for these sessions. Authors should bring 10 copies of a one-page description of their research idea for distribution among the audience and receive feedback during a roundtable discussion.
Submission requirements:
⦁ Submit a one-page, single-spaced abstract of a research idea in the early to middle stages of development but not yet paper-ready.
⦁ Abstracts longer than one page will be returned.
⦁ Do not include author names or affiliations on the abstract; abstracts containing author information will be returned.
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This is a standard presentation format with three or four presentations per session, with A/V support available. It is suitable for research projects that are closer to a completed paper than are discussion sessions.
Submission requirements:
⦁ Submit a 3 to 5 page, single-spaced abstract of your research briefly describing the topic, research questions, methods, and results. The page limit is not inclusive of references, figures, and tables.
⦁ Include page numbers.
⦁ Abstracts exceeding the page limit will be returned. Note that we do not accept full papers.
⦁ Do not include author names or affiliations; abstracts with author information will be returned.
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A symposium can focus on a particular area of business and society research or a specific teaching-related topic. Symposia submissions are suitable when there are several papers with a common theme that could be presented as part of a cohesive session or when a group of presenters would discuss a broad topic, such as the future of business & society research or teaching CSR.
Submission requirements:
⦁ Submit a 3 to 5 page, single-spaced abstract describing the symposium’s focus.
⦁ Include presenter names, proposed session duration (usually 90 minutes), information on each participant's presentation, and an outline of how organizers will use the time.
⦁ Indicate whether A/V is needed for the session.
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Workshops are working meetings that address specific research or teaching challenges. Workshop submissions are suitable when participants will be doing something during the workshop, such as discussing each other’s ongoing research projects (e.g., the annual Business and Human Rights workshop, during which participants get feedback on research in progress) or developing teaching tools.
Submission guidelines:
⦁ Submit a 3 to 5 page single-spaced abstract describing the workshop's content.
⦁ Include participant names, proposed session duration (usually 90 minutes), and an outline of how organizers will use the time.
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These sessions feature activities/experiential exercises that facilitate creative reflection on the relationship between business and society, applicable to both research and teaching. Innovative sessions might take advantage of the location of the annual meeting to hear from speakers who otherwise would not be available to conference participants. Innovative sessions might also place-based or include an experiential exercise.
Submission requirements:
⦁ Submit a 3 to 5 page single-spaced abstract describing the session's content.
⦁ Please include the names of the participants, the amount of time you are proposing for the session (traditionally, innovative sessions have 90 minutes allocated), and a plan for how the organizers will use the time for the session.
April 2 - 3, 2025
Contact person: Brad Agle, bradagle(AT)byu.edu
Join us for the 8th Annual Donna J. Wood Writing Camp from Wednesday, April 2 to Thursday, April 3, 2025, featuring two days of intensive writing sessions. Each day, participants gather for breakfast and lunch as a group, fostering discussions about their research, providing mutual encouragement, and ensuring accountability for writing progress. Whether you're aiming to complete a draft, finalize an outline, address a revise and resubmit (R&R) request, or simply start a new project, this camp is designed to support you in achieving your writing goals. More details about the writing camp will be shared once we are nearing the conference. The registration fee for participation in the writing camp is $50, which includes breakfast and lunch for the duration of the event.
April 2 -3, 2025
Contact person: Jegoo Lee, jegoolee(AT)uri.edu
Application Due: 11:59 pm (CET), February 18, 2025
Join us for the Doctoral Consortium (DC), a cornerstone event of the IABS conference. This unique opportunity allows doctoral students to connect with peers from around the globe and engage with esteemed faculty scholars. The consortium features a series of sessions focusing on key themes such as conducting high-quality research, publishing in leading journals, navigating the job market, and leveraging professional associations. Each participant will be paired with an established scholar for personalized 1:1 mentoring.
Doctoral students registered for the conference can participate in the Doctoral Consortium free of charge. Additionally, a social dinner, scheduled for April 2 and sponsored by IABS, is included as part of the Consortium experience. Breakfast and lunch are also provided during the event.
How to apply for IABS 2025 Doctoral Consortium: To submit your application, you can use our Conference Submission System (ConfTool) and select the “Doctoral Consortium” option to submit your application package. Please have a look at the guidelines below for more information about the requirements.
PRE- CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
8th Annual Donna J. Wood Writing Camp
Doctoral Consortium
Our conference location: The School of Business and Economics (SBE), Maastricht University, The Netherlands
SBE is an international School of Business and Economics with a broad scope. Our areas of expertise reside in economics, international business, management, public policy, governance and sustainability. We offer high-quality research and research-based education for adult and lifelong learners. SBE has been awarded three prestigious accreditations, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, resulting in what is known as the Triple Crown accreditation. Only 1% of business schools worldwide can boast this honour, many of which are SBE partner institutes.
The conference will be hosted by the Department of Organization, Strategy and Entrepreneurship (OSE) of our school.
Conference venue: Tongersestraat 53, 6211 LM, Maastricht.
More information about SBE, please go here.
IABS 2025 in Maastricht
Due to its central location, Maastricht is easily accessible by train, car, and plane. You will easily reach and fall in love with this city. Looking forward to welcoming you to the heart of Europe in the spring 2025.
Maastricht is ideally accesible by train. We understand that some of you will have to fly frist, and then take a train. There are several options of nearby airports in The Netherlands, Germany, or Belgium. For more information about how to get to Maastricht, please visit here.
We have also 3 recommended hotels in Maastricht (with discounts for IABS attendees) plus other options of nearby properties you can use for your stay. Please visit this link for more information about where to stay.
For other aspects and general information about visiting Maastricht, click here.
2025 Conference Sponsors
Supporting our Doctoral students, the next generation of Business and Society Scholars:
Sponsoring our
doctoral consortium
Providing financial assistance to doctoral students to attend our conference:
Our 2025 conference is possible thanks to the generous contribution of the following institutions and partners