Conferences
Global Manufacturing Conference, Hangzhou, China
Simon Collinson, Yufeng Zhang and a strong contingent of PhD students represented the Business School in Hangzhou, China at the biannual Global Manufacturing Conference (GMC13) held in collaboration with the Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) and the School of Management at Zhejiang University, in early September. Simon gave the lead keynote presentation on “Micro-level Learning, Firm-level Innovation and Regional Industrial Competitiveness”. Yufeng led a plenary on “Innovation in Fast-Changing industries: High Value Engineering Networks” focused on his EU-funded programme of research and one of our top-class PhD students, Ali Esfahbodi won the student best paper prize.
The 14th Cigar Biennial Conference - September 2013
The University of Birmingham hosted the 14th Biennial Conference and PhD Symposium of the Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR) Network from 2nd to 4th September. The University became the first institution to be ‘revisited’ by the CIGAR-Network community having previously hosted the Conference in 1991. This year’s Conference attracted over 120 delegates from more than thirty countries.
The headline theme of the Conference was ‘Public Sector Accounting, Financial Crisis and Austerity’ and a set of papers was scheduled into the conference to support this theme. A special edition of Financial Accountability & Management is to be edited by Irvine Lapsley (Edinburgh) and Ron Hodges will include papers from the CIGAR Conference.
The Conference programme included presentations from three eminent keynote speakers. Ian Ball, a PhD graduate of Birmingham, who is now a principal advisor with the International Federation of Accountants after a period of ten years as IFAC’s Chief Executive Officer, argued that the techniques of accrual accounting needed to be integrated into governmental budgeting and financial management reforms to provide the full information benefits of improved governmental accounting systems. Klaus Lüder, Professor Emeritus of Public Financial Management and Business Administration at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, discussed the Hessian ‘New Administrative Management (NVS) project which he linked to his Financial Management Reform Process model. Jane Broadbent, Professor of Accounting at Royal Holloway, University of London considered the detrimental consequences of the never-ending move away from relational controls to transactional approaches to control in the public services, based upon her paper to be published soon in Public Money & Management.
There was an excellent PhD Symposium on the Wednesday with ten scholars each making a presentation of their proposals or work completed and acting as a discussant to one of the other presenters.
The social side of a conference is, of course, an important ingredient towards its success. On the Monday evening, a buffet and drinks reception was held at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and delegates were a tour of the Institute by two highly knowledgeable volunteers. Birmingham City Council House was the venue for the Conference Dinner on the Tuesday evening. Entertainment was provided by the Carnival Band, described as ‘Henry VIII’s rock ‘n roll band’ playing music from medieval chants to the Spice Girls.
I wish to thank the contribution of a number of people here, as without their support, the Conference would not have been successful. Thanks to Rowan Jones for chairing the Scientific Committee and for putting together the parallel sessions of the programme; to Karen Hanson and Dan Herbert for their many months of work on conference organisation; to David Morris for constructing the CIGAR Conference website; to Kirsty Hardwick for sorting out room before and during; to the College for financial support and to Jacquie Ward for financial administration; and to our PhD students Vima Putriana, Josette Caruana (main conference) and Lauren Ellul (PhD symposium) for the presentations of their work.
European Trade Study Group conference 12th-14th September
International trade, foreign direction investment and international business topped the agenda when the Birmingham Business School hosted the 15th European Trade Study Group conference at the University from the 12th -14th of September. The European Trade Study Group conference is the world's largest meeting of trade economists and more than 350 participants from leading Universities and institutions across Europe, Japan, China, the US gathered to hear over 280 research papers on a large range of international topics. The ETSG conference hosts both theoretical and empirical contributions on any issue related to the economics of international trade. The conference is well known for its friendly and collaborative atmosphere.
In addition to the academic papers the WTO presented their latest trade report to a packed room whilst on the Friday night delegates were invited to an evening at at ICC where Business Birmingham hosted a panel debate about inward investment and how Birmingham is performing relative to its international competitors. At the event delegates got to meet site selectors from the US and Europe, who advise some of the world’s biggest companies on where they should locate.
The conference organisers gratefully acknoweldge received support from the School (through CREW), the Royal Economic Society, Circles of Influence and Marketing Birmingham, which made this conference possible.
For further information see:
News article: Birmingham Post
Conference website: www.etsg.org/conferences/
Local website: www.birmingham.ac.uk/etsg
The American Academy of Management
Several members of the Departments of Management and Marketing participated in the Academy of Management Annual Meeting in August in Orlando, Florida. Scott Taylor began his 5-year term as co-chair of the Critical Management Studies division by organizing the Professional Development Workshop part of the division programme. This included the Doctoral Consortium at which Paul Edwards, as editor-in-chief of Human Relations, gave an editor's perspective on publishing. Edwards also hosted a meeting of the journal's editorial board and a reception for reviewers and friends of the journal. Rory Donnelly presented a paper to the Management Consulting Division on the role of agency and national context in shaping the career behaviour of consultancy contractors. Isabelle Szmigin presented as part of a Showcase Symposium critically examining Michael Porter's Shared Value concept.