Our theme of the 6th Vietnam-Japan International Business Conference (VJIBC#6) “Building Capacity and Connectivity in Time of Polycrisis: Resilience, Demographic Shifts, and Micro-Macro Dynamics in International Business Relations” addresses the issues for building business capacity and connectivity in an uncertain world, or a world of “Polycrisis” – a state of multi-layered, multi-faceted crises where geopolitical, economic, and technological shocks intersect and deepen one another. This conference invites scholars to explore how local capacity and connectivity are built and navigated in an age of growing volatilities. We seek empirical (both qualitative and quantitative), theoretical, and comparative contributions that examine how business capacity and connectivity respond to uncertainty within and across different contexts.
Key Questions
Contributions may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:
- How does the “Polycrisis”, the intersection of geopolitical, economic, and technological shocks, reshape the nature and practice of leadership and international business strategy?
- How do family businesses leverage their unique governance structures and long-term orientation to build capacity and resilience amidst global disruptions?
- How can organizations effectively manage a multi-generational workforce that spans five generations, leveraging demographic differences between aging nations and emerging economies?
- What are the “microfoundations” (cognitive biases, emotional resilience, and cross-cultural intelligence) that drive managerial decision-making in volatile environments?
- How do institutional, political, and organizational contexts condition leadership responses to uncertainty, and how do leaders manage trust and cross-cultural communication in times of heightened risk?
Suggested Topics
Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:
- Leadership and Governance in the Polycrisis: Leadership under systemic shocks, political leadership in uncertain environments, and adaptive or distributed leadership models.
- Family Business Dynamics: Succession, governance, and adaptation strategies of family-owned enterprises in response to global volatility.
- Cross-Cultural Communication and Human Capital: Managing the multi- generational workforce, expatriate management, and addressing “us vs. them” biases in cross-border collaboration.
- Global Value Chains (GVCs) and Geopolitics: Friendshoring, reshoring, and non-market strategies to navigate geopolitical rivalry and protectionism.
- Digital Transformation and AI: Digital leadership, AI-driven internationalization, and the integration of algorithmic decision-making in HRM.
- Sustainability and Ethics: Corporate responses to climate risk, social sustainability in supply chains, and ethical challenges for leaders in times of ambiguity.
Submission Guidelines
- Papers should be submitted in PDF format.
- Abstracts should be approximately 150 words.
- Submissions should clearly state the research question, theoretical framework, hypothesis, methodology, and contribution.
- Early-stage research and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.
Authors are requested to submit their extended abstracts/full papers via https://forms.gle/LrXxv4ugtfqhFUgZ8 by November 16, 2026, including the following information:
- Title of the paper
- Abstract (150 words)
- Keywords (maximum five)
- Author(s) and affiliation(s)
- Contact information
Conference Format
The conference will take place in person at the venue, featuring paper panels, roundtable discussions, and keynote lectures by leading scholars in business studies. There will be no registration fee. No online participation is expected.
The conference will be held at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. https://kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/access/
Contact Information:
For inquiries, please contact: vjibc@vjcc.org.vn