The 17th International Conference on Business Excellence
Rethinking business: Sustainable leadership in a VUCA world

23 – 25 March 2023

 “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln

Mini Track Chair:

  • Narciz Bălăşoiu, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania

  • Gregory Simons, Uppsala University, Sweden

The interdependencies between the economy and security have become indissoluble, while the ability to decipher the security environment is a fundamental prerequisite for anticipating regional or  global economic trends. Security is an increasingly complex, sophisticated and dynamic concept that has undergone a real metamorphosis in the last decade. Assymetric and hybrid challenges have taken the place of conventional threats, making the new means of waging a war increasingly difficult to anticipate and counter. Information warfare, economic warfare, cyber warfare or hybrid aggression can cause as much damage as a full-scale war, but without a single bullet being fired. The technological revolution, the acceleration of digitization and the automation of systems have created opportunities and risks alike. The pandemic was a catalyst that accelerated many evolutionary processes, generating vulnerabilities on the other hand. Globalization, in addition to the multiple benefits, has led to an internationalization of crises, so that by relativizing geography, distant crises generate effects as if they were unfolding on our doorstep. All these phenomena must be fully understood in order to be able to anticipate and respond accordingly.

The main topics covered by the hereby call for papers are related to:

  • Global security

  • Economic warfare

  • Hybrid warfare

  • Covid-19 geopolitics

  • USA – China rivalry

  • EU global posture

  • Energy security

  • Trans-Atlantic sinusoidal relationship

  • Black Sea security: the Russian factor

Narciz Bălăşoiu currently holds a lecturer position in the department of International Economic Relations of the Academy of Economic Studies. He is also the Director of the Center for Conflict Prevention and Early Warning, a think tank active in the areas of security, defence and foreign policy. He holds two PhDs, in national security and intelligence from the National Defense University, and in economics and international affairs from ASE. Narciz Bălășoiu held several positions in the public administration, such as advisor to the Minister of Defense and advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. His last book is entitled “Prospective Studies in the Wider Black Sea Region”, and was published by the Institute of International Relations of the Romanian Academy.

Associate Professor Greg Simons has a PhD from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and is currently a researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES) at Uppsala University in Sweden. His research interests include: changing political dynamics and relationships, mass media, public diplomacy, political marketing, crisis management communications, media and armed conflict. He also researches the relationships and connections between information, politics and armed conflict more broadly, such as the GWOT and Arab Spring.

Publication Opportunities:

The conference is organized by Society for Business Excellence and Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages on the 23-25 of March 2023 at The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages (FABIZ) in partnership with the Romanian Academy, the University of Bucharest and the Sapienza University from Rome, Italy. The papers accepted at ICBE 2023 will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration, payment and presentation. The papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings volume under the German Publishing House De Gruyter and they will be indexed in EBSCO, Proquest, ExLibris, OCLC, Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, CELDES, CNPIE, Naviga, and will be submitted to Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science (WOS) Conference Proceedings Citation Index (https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/picbe/picbe-overview.xml

Submitted papers will be also considered for publishing under Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, series indexed by Scopus and ISI. Here you can access the last the edition published following ICBE2020: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030599713

In addition, the best three Papers (Best paper Award Management&Marketing) will be published in the international journal Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society by De Gruyter Open, indexed in Web of Science- Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Proquest, Cabell’s Directory and more than 20 other international databases (www.degruyter.com/view/j/mmcks).

Selected papers will be published, subject to review, in a Special Issue of Sustainability journal (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/Post-Industrial_Design_Sustainability_Development_Goals).

A selection of the submitted papers will be published, subject to review, in the Romanian Journal of Economic Forecasting (https://ipe.ro/rjef.htm).

At the final ceremony, based on a selection of the international committee, there will be granted three Best Paper Awards Management&Marketing (https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/mmcks/mmcks-overview.xml, indexed in Web of Science) and two Excellence Awards.

Submission Details

Submission of full paper due for review February 1st 2023
March 1st 2023
March 10th 2023
Notification of paper acceptance (incl. requests for changes) March 7th 2023
March 15th 2023
Final paper due (with changes implemented) March 10th 2023
March 18th 2023
Final Author registration date March 12th 2023
March 20th 2023

Registration and payment*

EARLY BIRD – by December 31st 2022
Academics 170 euro 850 lei
Student (PhD or Post-doc) 125 euro 625 lei
REGULAR – By February 28th 2023
Academics 250 euro 1250 lei
Student (PhD or Post-doc) 200 euro 1000 lei
LATER – After February 28th 2023
Academics 350 euro 1750 lei
Student (PhD or Post-doc) 300 euro 1500 lei
Supplementary paper 100 euro 500 lei
  • The conference fee includes one conference attendance, publication, conference folder and acces to the online events during the conference.

*Please be aware that a late payment involves the possibility not to be present in the printed version of the materials (agenda, booklet).

Do you have any questions?

Do not hesitate to contact us!