While wishing you a wonderful 2015 I am glad to share the 2015 Italian Academy of Management Conference call for papers.
It will be held in Piacenza, very close to Milan, during the 2015 Expo event.
It will be a further opportunity to continue the discussions on topics, issues and papers that we will be having in Vancouver...
I look forward to meeting you all in Piacenza as well.
AIDEA (Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale) is pleased to invite Italian and international
Accounting, Business and Management scholars to its Conference, which will be held in Piacenza on
September 10 – 12, 2015, on the topic: "
Growth, Sustainability and the Competitiveness of Firms and
Public Institutions: the Contribution of Accounting, Business and Management Scholars".
The current scientific debate about economic growth and social development requires a careful
consideration of the contribution that business administration and public management scholars can
provide to the identification balanced evolutionary paths. Such reflection is made in order to enable
companies active in national and international contexts to generate processes of sustainable growth and
competitiveness.
The Universal Exposition to be held in Milan in 2015 (EXPO) is focused on the topic "Sustainability", in its
multiple meanings, as central element to guarantee a world-wide growth. As a matter of fact, critical or
proactive analysis on system principles and rules (on a global, regional or, as in the EU context, national
and local level) has been predominant so far. However, rules can produce different effects depending on
the way private firms and public institutions, and people working there, interpret them.
AIDEA has called on all the Italian scientific societies dealing with business administration in defining the
specific objectives and contents of the various conference sessions: ADEIMF – Italian Association of
Scholars of Economics and Management of Financial Institutions and Markets, SIDREA – Italian Society
of Accounting and Management, SIM – Italian Marketing Society, SIMA – Italian Society of Firms
Management, SISR – Italian Society of Accounting History, WOA – Organization Studies Society. Thus
also for its 2015 Conference, AIDEA considered a strong participation of these Scientific Societies (and
similar at international level) of Accounting, Business and Management fields essential to the definition
of goals and contents to be assigned to the different sections into which the conference works will be
structured. In particular, the following sessions have been defined and, although related to the
Conference general theme, welcome research contributions dealing with the various fields and areas
according to which business and management studies are structured:
Session 1 – Management Control and Information Systems
Session 2 – Managing the firm to overcome the crisis and pursue sustainability
Session 3 – Organization design and workplace relationships
Session 4 – Banks and financial markets. Strengthening firm growth and competitiveness
Session 5 – The Role of Public Institutions between competition and cooperation Session 6 – Marketing as support to the competitiveness of firms
Session 7 – Firms strategy for value creation and distribution
Session 8 – Accounting and Business Economics theories and cultures throughout history and modernity
Journal of Management and Governance Symposium – The Strategic Governance of New Businesses:
Startups, Entrepreneurial Firms and Quasi-Organizations
AIDEA invites all Italian and International academics to submit their papers focusing on these aspects of business administration and public management (in their multiple aspects and analysis dimensions).
For any further information on the Conference contents, we kindly invite you to check the documents
attached, in which a specific call for papers is outlined for each session as well as for the Symposium
organized by the Journal of Management and Governance.
Information and deadlines
Opening of paper submission............................................................................. 16 February 2015
Deadline for paper submission........................................................................... 20 March 2015
Notification of Conference Acceptance.............................................................. 8 May 2015
Deadline for authors' registration (for the inclusion in the program)................ 15 June 2015
Communication of final program........................................................................ 10 July 2015
Early bird deadline.............................................................................................. 20 July 2015
Deadline for submission of final text.................................................................. 20 July 2015
Conference dates................................................................................................ 10-12 September 2015
Procedure for the submission of papers Anyone interested in presenting their new and unpublished paper (even in a preliminary version to be
fine-tuned for later publication) to the Conference is invited to submit it by midnight (Italian time)
March 20th, 2015, by following the online procedure available on the website www.aidea2015.it (under
construction). The authors of accepted papers for the presentation are asked to submit the final text of
their contributions to be presented at the Conference – also taking into account the reviewers'
comments – by midnight (Italian time) July 20th, 2015.
The papers, of a length between 5,000 and 8,000 words, must be submitted as Word documents, using
the following options: margins 2,5, font Times New Roman 12, single line-spacing. Session 5 The Role of Public Institutions between competition and cooperation Contact person: Luca Anselmi (
luca.anselmi@unipi.it) and Elio Borgonovi (
elio.borgonovi@unibocconi.it)
There is unanimous agreement on the need for a new set of relationships between economy and
society, able to overcome contradictions characterizing the last century: market versus public
regulation, profit targets versus social targets, private interest versus general interest, market
competition versus planning. Many say that this goal can be accomplished with the definition of clear
and transparent rules, able to reward merit and ability to compete, especially in the public sector.
Moreover, more in depth analysis highlights the need for a cultural change guided by a rethinking of the
concept of competition and the ability to combine competitiveness with cooperation. Competitiveness
understood as a strive for perpetual improvement, and cooperation understood as behavior guided by
win-win logics and not win-lose logics, like the one, often applied, of the competition ruled by individual
interest objectives and the market "invisible hand".
Keeping this double perspective in mind, a redefinition can and must be done for what concerns the role
of public administrations, institutionally and mostly aimed at accomplishing the goal of sustainable
growth, intended as general interest of local, national and international communities. This AIDEA 2015
Conference session calls for papers dealing with the working principles of public interest administrations
and not for profit institutions, no longer considered as "black boxes" driven by general policies and
respecting constraints dictated by a public regulator. Public agencies are no longer self-contained
entities, since they are only able to but pursue their social and economic goals through winning
relationships with other public administrations (public system) and with private administrations.
This session welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers aimed at pinpointing how the elements of
general interest, of the institutional, political and social context impact on internal performance, on
results evaluation and on the nature of the relationships among private and public economic
institutions. Papers also aiming at underlining how the knowledge of these specific classes of
administrations promotes the development of business and management studies. This session includes
the following tracks:
1. Local, national and international public administrations.
The peculiarity of administrations referring to economic processes occurring in the context of
representative bodies of local, national and international communities can be identified in the strong
interdependence with political, institutional and social processes. This track will include papers dealing
with:
- Decision-making processes and performance evaluation;
- Relationships between elected administrators and bureaucrats-managers-public servants;
- Planning-Programming-Budgeting-Control (Performance Evaluation);
- Impact of New Technologies (e-government, e-administration, e-democracy);
- Public Administrations, Public Utilities e Regulation Bodies;
- Public Sector Accounting, Accountability and Governance.
2. Healthcare and welfare.
The evolution of the modern government in the last century has been undoubtedly characterized by the
introduction of welfare systems, in which particular relevance is given to healthcare, social services,
pensions, public employees guarantees. These systems are mostly based on the gradual extension of
public intervention, but during the last century they have progressively fallen into a crisis, determined
by sustainability on economic sustainability and equity.
This track will include papers dealing with:
- Structure of welfare and healthcare systems;
- performance evaluation using outcome, output, input, appropriateness indicators;
- economic evaluation logics and instruments (cost-benefit, cost-efficiency, etc.);
- relationships between policy maker-manager and professionals (medical doctors, nurses, other...);
- innovative models of services management foreseeing the Welfare Society, the Big Society and net
relationships.
3. Non-profit organizations and social enterprises
The peculiarities of not for profit institutions can be identified in the private dimension of motivations
and economic resources employed and the general/public interest nature of the targets. The mission of
these firms is the altruistic objective (interest for others) and not the egoistic objective (self-interest).
This dual nature determines implementation models of management principles and criteria. This track
will include papers dealing with:
- different models of non for profit institutions and NGOs;
- Social Enterprises and Community Interest Enterprises;
- Impact evaluation systems (social impact investment institution);
- Models of social entrepreneurship financing (microfinance, social bond, etc.).
4. Public-private partnership
The complexity of a more and more interdependent society has strongly reduced the possibility of any
individual organization to pursue their goals. For public administrations, this means overcoming the selfsufficiency
logic – deriving from public powers and from the collection of financial resources through
taxes – and an opening to the contribution of private profit and not for profit institutions. This track will
include papers dealing with:
- motivations, objectives and implementation contexts of Public-Private Partnership (PPP);
- models of PPP (nonprofit public-private);
- sustainability conditions of PPPs and performance evaluation systems;
- partnership between public and private (for profit and not for profit) and between private
institutions, for profit and not for profit.
Publication of papers
The best papers presented at the Conference could be submitted for a review to the following journals
which agreed on a fast track:
- Financial Accountability and Management
- Health Policy
- International Journal of Public Administration
- International Public Management Journal
- Journal of Management and Governance
- Public Management Review
- Value in Health