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

A welcome message to the 36th IABS Annual Conference

Dear colleagues and friends,

It is with immense gratitude and excitement that I welcome you to IABS 2025, here in the heart of Europe—Maastricht. This city, known for the historic treaty that helped shape the European Union, feels like the perfect home for a conference focused on the common good. Maastricht invites us to think big and act boldly—across borders, across sectors, and across disciplines.

Being the first Conference Chair from Latin America makes this moment especially meaningful to me—both personally and professionally—as someone who has found a true intellectual and supportive home in this community. IABS has long been a space where people from all walks of academic and professional life come together to reflect, question, and reimagine the role of business in society. This year’s theme—Redesigning Business for the Common Good—feels particularly timely and urgent, as we collectively face the environmental, social, and political tensions of our time.

This conference is the largest in IABS history, with over 280 participants from 40+ countries. We’re welcoming 137 paper presentations, 90 discussion sessions, symposia, workshops, and innovative formats that touch on everything from climate change, AI, and human rights to social entrepreneurship, ethics, CSR, and sustainable business models. I’m especially proud of the strength of our doctoral and mentoring initiatives—made possible by the support of SAMS and the IABS Fellows. We have been able to support (financially) the participation of 40 doctoral students in this conference: 30 sponsored by SAMS and 10 by our Fellows!

None of this would be possible without the incredible team behind the scenes. To the local organizing committee, the staff at Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics and its Department of Organisation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, the IABS team; and the Maastricht University student volunteers: thank you. To our authors and submitters, keynote speakers, reviewers, pre-conference activities organizers, session chairs, and the great number of colleagues who have helped for days and days to organize this: your commitment has made this a rich and thoughtful gathering. And to my colleagues on the IABS Board—thank you for your trust, encouragement, and guidance. Many thanks also to the great support of many organizations, universities, and centers for their financial support of our conference.

The spaces where we’ll meet—from the Lecture Hall of Franz Palm at SBE to the historic Town Hall, and even a castle just outside the city—have been chosen with care to reflect the tone of this conference: thoughtful, welcoming, and forward-looking. Our shared journey in these coming days is not just about research—it’s about relationships, dialogue, lifelong mentors, and inspiration.

Let us take this opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet new collaborators, and reflect deeply on how we—as scholars, educators, and citizens—can help shape a future where business is not just profitable, but purposeful.

Welcome to Maastricht. Welcome to IABS 2025. Let’s begin, Let’s IABS.

Warmest regards,
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 

Our 2025 Call for Papers invited proposals 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.

  • This format offers authors the opportunity to receive early-stage feedback on their research ideas related to theoretical framing, methods, and potential publication outlets. There are interactive screens in all rooms, and participants can use a PPT presentation.

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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