AIB’s SIG on Emerging Markets

The purpose of the Shared Interest Group (SIG) on Emerging Markets is to strengthen Academy of International Business (AIB) offerings in emerging markets. It, therefore, seeks to make a targeted effort to enhance its impact of International Business on the emerging market regions that have always been the majority of the world’s population, and are rising in economic importance. It, hence, aims to: * Be a hub for scholars who are interested in emerging markets * Enable knowledge exchange between scholars in different emerging markets as well as scholars who are not located but interested in emerging markets about similar and/or complementary challenges and opportunities * Focus on capacity building in the range of scholarly activities, be it teaching, research, or engagement with policy or practice * Act as a resource for chapters in emerging markets * Cooperate and joint efforts with other AIB’s SIGs aiming to understand and apply their initiatives to emerging markets In defining “emerging markets”, the EM-SIG adopts an inclusive understanding that prioritizes building a community of members with related interests rather than potentially exclusionary scholarly definitions. AIB has long had a range of initiatives targeting scholars from and interested in emerging markets. For example, its long collaboration with UNCTAD has been motivated by a desire to understand development through international business as by the role of business across borders per se. As a result, there are chapters across a range of emerging markets, and the track on emerging markets during the annual conference typically attracts a large number of submissions. Yet, there has thus far not been a single group that could serve as the “intellectual center of gravity” of people sharing these interests. Moreover, having (geographically defined) chapters meant that AIB members shared challenges and opportunities across locations in other emerging regions could not easily