ICMM-2022: International Conference on Management of MSMEs Indian Institute of Management Amritsar Amritsar, India, January 22-23, 2022 |
Conference website | https://icmm.iimamritsar.ac.in/ |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icmm2022 |
Abstract registration deadline | January 10, 2022 |
Submission deadline | January 10, 2022 |
About ICMM 2022
MSMEs are responsible for more than two-thirds of all jobs globally and contribute significantly to economic growth and development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, together with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets, was adopted by United Nations in 2015, to free humanity from poverty, secure a healthy and sustainable planet, and build peace and inclusive societies that promote prosperity and dignity for all. The United Nations has recognized the importance of encouraging the formalization and growth of MSMEs in international, regional, and local markets, including thorough access for all to capacity building and financial services. Likewise, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development duly underscored the important role of MSMEs in job creation and innovation for sustainable development in developing countries. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda also advocates for the concerted support of national governments, financial institutions, and development banks to support MSME growth by providing a conducive regulatory framework, innovative financing solutions, and systematic entrepreneurship training programmes.
The challenges faced by MSMEs are poor infrastructure, inadequate financial instruments, technology knowledge gaps, lack of innovation, lack of proper skill and training, inability to attract a suitable workforce. On the contrary, large enterprises have the financial capability to invest more in technology and training. They pay higher wages and provide better working conditions while leveraging economies of scale to gain cost leadership. Because of the relative disadvantage MSMEs suffer from low-income generation and poor growth performance. MSMEs are caught in a vicious cycle of poor finances and lower productivity. Digitisation of industries has accentuated the intensity of this vicious cycle. There is a need to understand the functioning of various dimensions of problems faced by MSMEs to bridge the gap between productivity and financial capabilities of large corporations and MSMEs.
The problem of MSMEs has been recognised globally and a strong commitment to their growth has been made by the nations. Despite the constant efforts by global bodies such as the United Nations, World Bank, etc., the wave of digitisation has put immense stress on MSMEs. For example, the companies such as Uber and Ola have put many small rental service providers out of their business. Further, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the MSMEs are vulnerable to external shocks such as natural disasters. The reverse migration of the labours has led to the shutdown of operations in many MSMEs. There is a growing concern that MSMEs, which are the source of employment and livelihood for a large section of the population have not caught up to the speed of the current economy.
Despite the disadvantages and vulnerability, MSMEs continue to be relevant in the economy because of their connections to the grassroots. MSME entrepreneurs come with in-depth knowledge of the demands of local communities. They possess the ability to take up inside-out innovations that can be transformed into sustainable development solutions. Their connections with the local communities make MSMEs the best option for rapid adoption and adaptation of digital innovations, thus allowing the extension of the principles of frugal innovation further to the current economy.
In view of the constraints that MSMEs face in this era of disruption and their continued relevance to sustainable development, IIM Amritsar announces the 1st International Conference on Management of MSME with a theme of Realigning Business Practices in the Era of Disruptions to be held on 22nd-23rd January 2022 in Amritsar, Punjab. The conference will be a platform that will bring together policymakers, professionals, academicians, and researchers to share and discuss the knowledge and research ideas enabling MSMEs to take advantage of various emerging trends in this era of disruption.
Submission Guidelines
All submissions should be made electronically via EasyChair. It is mandatory that at least one author of all accepted papers register for, and present the paper at, the conference. As a reminder, papers are reviewed following a double-blind process; reviewers will not know who authored the papers, nor will authors know the names of their reviewers.
Extended Abstract
Prepare and submit an electronic document of Microsoft Word on extended abstract of your paper with a text of up to 1500 words (approximately 3 pages) for review; references do not count against the word limit. [Please note that submissions with text longer than 1500 words will not be reviewed]. The document should clearly state your research question, objective, methodology (not applicable for nonempirical papers), a summary of findings, and key contributions to the theory and the practice.
Remove the author identifying information from the document’s file properties. In Word, this can be done by using/clicking on the “Properties” feature (use Word’s Help resource for further details on how to use it). To assure a blind review, authors must avoid revealing their identities in the body or reference section of the paper. Further, do not include a front-page with author-identifying information. At the time of submission via EasyChair, the submitter will be asked to provide complete contact information for all authors including name, mailing address, phone number, and email. Please use the following link for submitting the electronic document (Mention link). Confirmation that your paper was submitted successfully will be sent via email to the submitter.
Full Paper
Authors who are interested to participate in Best Paper Award and Best Paper Student Award, are requested to submit full papers for the review process. A paper is eligible for the best paper student award if the first author is a full-time student. This must be indicated in the submission process. Each author on each of the selected papers will receive a certificate or plaque with the name of the award, the name of the paper, and the names of the authors of the paper, to be awarded at the Conference.
While submitting the paper, authors must declare that the paper has not been published, under consideration for publication, or accepted for publication anywhere. Prepare and submit an electronic document of Microsoft Word of your paper with a text of up to 8000 words, with an abstract of 250 words, and 5 keywords. Copyrighted materials, including those taken from any website, should be identified, and the copyright holder’s explicit permission to reproduce it must be submitted separately. No changes will be allowed in the paper title, abstract, and authorship after the submission.
Formatting Instructions
Use 12-point Times New Roman font and 1.5 spacing. References may be single-spaced. For figures, graphs, tables, appendices, and references, follow either the American Psychological Association (APA) or HARVARD guidelines.
Call for Papers
IIM Amritsar calls for extended abstract submissions in the form of case studies, conceptual, empirical, and practitioner papers consistent with but not necessarily limited to the conference theme. The tracks are listed below.
- Economics & Public Policy
The importance of MSMEs to the economy has once again come to the fore because of the pandemic. Specifically, the enterprises took a serious blow because of the lockdowns and their employees, who were majorly migrants, had to undergo deep distress because of the pandemic. The track invites quality research papers that address the challenges and prospects in the MSME sector. The following topics are illustrative, but not exhaustive list, of topics that are invited: government policies, policy support during pandemic, MSMEs and economic growth in the post-pandemic era, migration and employment, impact of fiscal and monetary policy, inflation, labor issues, GST compliance, challenges in conducting research on MSMEs, make in India and MSME, and constraints on MSME growth. We encourage submissions from a breadth of methodological approaches and perspectives.
- Finance & Accounting
This track invites submissions dealing with accounting and financial aspects of corporate decision making. Papers are likely to introduce problems and prospects of SME IPO listing, quality of financial reporting, financial risk management, investment decisions, financing choices, family businesses, institutions, regulation, corporate governance, and ownership structure. This track is open to both empirical and theoretical papers.
- Information Systems & Technology
Digital transformation is sweeping the world of businesses. The track invites research that focuses on contributing new insights to this rapidly growing field. Contributions may include but are not limited to, business value of IS in MSMEs, ICT adoption, IT and sustainable development, ICT4D perspectives, digital transformation, e-governance, innovation and knowledge network, digital innovation, entrepreneurship and new business models, user behaviour, engagement and consequences of IS, emerging technologies, digital platforms, fintech adoption and consequences, blockchain and modern supply chains, ICT and migrant workforce, social technologies and urban market spaces. This track welcomes both empirical and conceptual papers and is open to a variety of methods, including qualitative methods, surveys, observation, experiments (lab or field) as well as econometric methods, social network analysis, text mining, machine learning, deep learning, and other non-traditional techniques.
- Human Resource Management & Organizational Behaviour
The track invites academicians, research scholars, and practitioners to submit research papers that will contribute to an ongoing and constructive dialogue on the role of human resource management in MSMEs. In today’s dynamic environment, MSMEs must manage the changing work environment, technological advancements, generational cohorts in the workforce, engage in continuous improvement processes, etc. Thus, the track invites conceptual, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research papers on topics including, but not limited to, high-performance work systems; designing a digital organization; challenges for HR in the age of disruption; organizational agility; organizational innovation; resilient workforce and workspace; diversity, equity and inclusion challenges; entrepreneurial leadership; entrepreneurial behaviour; human and social capital; HR bundles; employee well-being; and role of socio-economic conditions, and cultural variables in determining HR practices.
- Marketing Management
The track invites research aiming to understand the marketing for MSME products and services from the following themes centered around, but not limited to, marketing capabilities and competitiveness, digital technologies and digital disruptions, data driven decision-making, designing and developing advertising and promotion strategies, branding, consumer behavior, sustainable relationship with consumers, international/global marketing, new product development, ethical and sustainable, digital marketing and social media marketing, role of AI in marketing, social marketing, pricing, retailing, sales and distribution, service channels. This track welcomes both empirical and conceptual papers and is open to a variety of methods, including qualitative methods, surveys, observation, experiments (lab or field) as well as econometric methods, social network analysis, text mining, machine learning, deep learning, and other, non-traditional techniques.
- Operations Management & Decision Sciences
The track invites submissions that investigate the theoretical and practical aspects of operations management and decision sciences. Topics may include, but are not limited to, redesigning the value chain in times of disruption, inventory and warehouse management, humanitarian operations, environmental disruption, logistics and transportation, behavioural operations, healthcare operations, sustainability and risk management, service operations, dynamic pricing and revenue management, multi-objective optimization, resource allocation and scheduling, performance measurement and productivity analysis, machine learning and or applications, supply chain resilience, lean and agile manufacturing, optimizing business processes using artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0, IOTs, and blockchain technology, project management, operational challenges and strategies in MSMEs, decision making under uncertainty. The track is open to both empirical and conceptual papers.
- International Business & Strategy
This track considers papers that study forward-looking business activities involving the formulation, evaluation, selection, and implementation of strategies that assist a company to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage and fulfil business objectives. Also, we seek to address the large-scale environmental, social, and economic problems to advance our understanding of ethics from business perspectives. We invite submissions that can expand our knowledge and understanding of decision making in this exciting and relatively underexplored area of research. All theoretical, disciplinary, and empirical work that adapts extant theories or introduces new perspectives on business problems are most welcome in this track.
- Business Communication
The track invites submissions aiming to understand the role played by various aspects of business communication. Topics may include but are not limited to crisis communication, risk management, digital communication, perception, and reputation management, liaising and negotiation, and cross-cultural communication. The track is method-agnostic: all quantitative and qualitative approaches are welcome.
Conference Patron
Prof. R. Nagarajan, Ph.D
Conference Leadership
Dr. Aswathy Ashokan Ajitha
Dr. Harpreet Kaur
Dr. Ravishankar V. Kommu
Dr. Sunil Reddy Kunduru
Dr. Surender Rao Komera
Venue
The conference will be held at the Indian Institute of Management Amritsar
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to
Dr. Aswathy Ashokan Ajitha ( aswathya@iimamritsar.ac.in)