30 June 2026
Research and Policy: A Day of Cross-Cutting Dialogue
New Frontiers for International Business Research in a Diverging World
Venue: Manchester Metropolitan University Business School
Coordinated by the AIB UK & Ireland Chapter and Open to all AIB-2026 Conference Delegates
Coordinated by the AIB UK & Ireland Chapter and Open to all AIB-2026 Conference Delegates
International business is being rewritten in real time —by geopolitical fragmentation, technological disruption, sustainability pressures, and shifting global governance. This flagship day brings together international business (IB) scholars with senior policymakers, industry leaders and international organizations to connect frontier research with the policy choices that will shape our futures. Designed as a high-level, two-way forum, the day makes audience contributions part of the exchange with insights from policy challenges sharpening research agendas, and cutting-edge IB scholarship informing policy debate and action.
PROGRAMME
(subject to change and further panellists may be added)
10.15 - 10.45
Welcome Refreshments
10.45 - 12.15
Welcome, Keynotes and Debate
Unprecedented challenges confront the international community. This opening session sets the intellectual and policy agenda for the day. It links the most pressing policy dilemmas facing IB stakeholders at the regional, national and international levels to cutting-edge research and ahead-of-the-curve thinking from the IB research community.
Keynote Speakers:
Keynote Speakers:
- Lucian Cernat, Head of Global Regulatory Cooperation and International Procurement Negotiations, European Commission
- Senior Official (TBA) from United Nations Trade and Development – UNCTAD
- Ulrich Hoppe, Director of the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
- Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester (TBC)
12.15 - 13.30
Lunch
13.30 - 14.45
The Past, Present, and Future of the Multinational Enterprise:
Implications for International Business and Policy
In honour of the 50th Anniversary of Buckley and Casson’s “The Future of the MNE”
The panel examines which insights from the Future of the Multinational Enterprise are relevant, enduring, and applicable to present day international business and public policy contexts, and those perspectives that require updating, adapting, or abandoning in the present-day global environment. It further projects 50 years into the future, asking what we expect the role of MNEs, governments, and other international organizations to be and how they would compare to the perspectives from the book published a century prior.
Panellists:
Jonathan Doh, Villanova University (Chair)
Peter Buckley, University of Manchester
Mark Casson, University of Reading.
Sarianna Lundan, Aalto University
Philip McCann, University of Manchester
The panel examines which insights from the Future of the Multinational Enterprise are relevant, enduring, and applicable to present day international business and public policy contexts, and those perspectives that require updating, adapting, or abandoning in the present-day global environment. It further projects 50 years into the future, asking what we expect the role of MNEs, governments, and other international organizations to be and how they would compare to the perspectives from the book published a century prior.
Panellists:
Jonathan Doh, Villanova University (Chair)
Peter Buckley, University of Manchester
Mark Casson, University of Reading.
Sarianna Lundan, Aalto University
Philip McCann, University of Manchester
14.45 - 15.15
Coffee Break
15.15 - 16.30
Parallel Panel Sessions
* = Chair
1. International Business and the SDGs in an Age of Global Disruption: A Policy Dialogue
With less than four years until the 2030 deadline, the UN SDGs are “woefully offtrack”. How can international business activities help when global disruptions shift attention away from the sustainability imperatives? Looking forward, how can IB research help shape the SDG-related policy landscape?
2. Transnational Economic Blocs – Is a Transformed Global Order Emerging?
Are transnational blocs redefining the rules of international business? As global fragmentation intensifies, blocs are reshaping MNE strategy, emerging market integration, supply chains, and technological standards. This panel engages core IB debates on institutions, geopolitics, and the evolving architecture of globalization, and is relevant amongst others to scholars and practitioners working on IB policy, MNE strategy, geopolitics, and global value chains.
3. Migration in a Fragmenting World Order: Can We Talk Policy Without International Business?**
As geopolitics fragments the world order, this panel brings together leading scholars, policy experts, and business leaders to rethink the role of multinational enterprises and IB scholarship in shaping a forward-looking migration policy. The questions we will address should be of interest to most IB domains, especially those working on social sustainability and human rights, IB policy, global value chains, and human resource management.
4. Beyond Borders, From Theory to Thrust: International Business Policy and the Commercialization of Outer Space
Space is no longer science fiction. Who governs this new frontier market, and who profits? This panel examines how international business policy and governance shape the commercialization of Space under extreme constraints, and what lessons return to Earth. The panel is of particular interest for academics, policymakers, and industry practitioners engaged in innovation and global regulation.
5. Challenges for Inward Investment Attraction Strategies in a Turbulent Global Environment: Regional, National and International Perspectives
The key challenge for inward investment attraction policies is to adjust to the radical realignment of MNE investment strategies under geopolitical pressure, especially techno-nationalism and protectionism. Employment, skills, and innovation policies at all levels must be urgently re-imagined. Inward investment attraction agencies need to set clear development goals that can incorporate the new reality of volatile MNE strategies.
6. Rethinking Globalization: What's Changed? What Hasn't? And What to do about It?
Globalization is widely portrayed as fragmenting under geopolitical rivalry, economic security policies, and supply chain restructuring. Yet empirical evidence shows that interdependence persists in reconfigured forms. This panel brings together diverse perspectives to examine what has fundamentally changed in terms of economic interdependence, what structural continuities remain, and what governments, firms, and institutions should do to navigate an era of contested globalization.
7. United Nations - UNCTAD 2026 World Investment Report
This panel is organized by UNCTAD. Further details on panel TBA
1. International Business and the SDGs in an Age of Global Disruption: A Policy Dialogue
With less than four years until the 2030 deadline, the UN SDGs are “woefully offtrack”. How can international business activities help when global disruptions shift attention away from the sustainability imperatives? Looking forward, how can IB research help shape the SDG-related policy landscape?
- Axèle Giroud, University of Manchester*
- Noemi Sinkovics, Newcastle University*
- Rashmi Banga, Chief of Development Research Branch, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs – UNDESA
- Christoph Ernst, Lead Structural Transformation, International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Rhiannon Bearne, Deputy CEO and Executive Director of the North East Chamber of Commerce
- Martin Wermelinger, Head of Sustainable Investment Unit, OECD
- Hinrich Voss, University of Bristol
2. Transnational Economic Blocs – Is a Transformed Global Order Emerging?
Are transnational blocs redefining the rules of international business? As global fragmentation intensifies, blocs are reshaping MNE strategy, emerging market integration, supply chains, and technological standards. This panel engages core IB debates on institutions, geopolitics, and the evolving architecture of globalization, and is relevant amongst others to scholars and practitioners working on IB policy, MNE strategy, geopolitics, and global value chains.
- Surender Munjal, Aston University*
- Klaus Meyer, Western University, Ontario
- Alain Verbeke, University of Calgary
- Arif Zaman, Bloomsbury Institute and Commonwealth Trade & Investment Group
- Sangeeta Khorana, Aston University
3. Migration in a Fragmenting World Order: Can We Talk Policy Without International Business?**
As geopolitics fragments the world order, this panel brings together leading scholars, policy experts, and business leaders to rethink the role of multinational enterprises and IB scholarship in shaping a forward-looking migration policy. The questions we will address should be of interest to most IB domains, especially those working on social sustainability and human rights, IB policy, global value chains, and human resource management.
- Aida Harjo, University of Leeds*
- Milda Zilinskaite, Vienna University of Economics and Business*
- Jason Gagnon, Senior Policy Advisor and former Head of the Migration and Skills Unit, OECD
- William Kerr, Harvard Business School
- Rachel Cowburn-Walden, Strategic Business and Human Rights Consultant, former Global Head of Human Rights at Unilever and former Head of International Relations of the UK Labour Party
- Philip McCann, University of Manchester
- Auret van Heerden, Founder & CEO at Equiception Business and Human Rights Consultancy, and the former President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association.
4. Beyond Borders, From Theory to Thrust: International Business Policy and the Commercialization of Outer Space
Space is no longer science fiction. Who governs this new frontier market, and who profits? This panel examines how international business policy and governance shape the commercialization of Space under extreme constraints, and what lessons return to Earth. The panel is of particular interest for academics, policymakers, and industry practitioners engaged in innovation and global regulation.
- Bo Nielsen, University of Sydney and Aalto University*
- Kazuhiro Asakawa, Keio University
- Expert from industry (TBA)
- Sven Modell, University of Manchester
- Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Universidat EAFIT Colombia
5. Challenges for Inward Investment Attraction Strategies in a Turbulent Global Environment: Regional, National and International Perspectives
The key challenge for inward investment attraction policies is to adjust to the radical realignment of MNE investment strategies under geopolitical pressure, especially techno-nationalism and protectionism. Employment, skills, and innovation policies at all levels must be urgently re-imagined. Inward investment attraction agencies need to set clear development goals that can incorporate the new reality of volatile MNE strategies.
- Nigel Driffield, University of Warwick*
- Sean Duggan, Director and lead consultant on location strategy and investment, ILSA Consulting Ltd and former Regional Program Coordinator – Pacific Region at the World Bank Foreign Investment Advisory Service
- Ana Teresa Tavares Lehmann, University of Porto and former Secretary of State of Industry, Portugal
- Joe Manning, Managing Director of the Manchester Investment Development Agency (MIDAS)
6. Rethinking Globalization: What's Changed? What Hasn't? And What to do about It?
Globalization is widely portrayed as fragmenting under geopolitical rivalry, economic security policies, and supply chain restructuring. Yet empirical evidence shows that interdependence persists in reconfigured forms. This panel brings together diverse perspectives to examine what has fundamentally changed in terms of economic interdependence, what structural continuities remain, and what governments, firms, and institutions should do to navigate an era of contested globalization.
- Ari van Assche, HEC Montreal*
- Steven Altman, New York University, Stern Business School*
- Lucian Cernat, Head of Global Regulatory Cooperation and International Procurement Negotiations, European Commission
- Jun Du, Aston University
7. United Nations - UNCTAD 2026 World Investment Report
This panel is organized by UNCTAD. Further details on panel TBA
Conference Co-chairs
Professor Matthew Allen
Professor of International Business Manchester Metropolitan University |
Dr Mohammad (Moe) Roohanifar
Reader in Strategy and the Head of the Strategy Group Manchester Metropolitan University Business School |