ICGS CONFERENCE 2023 - Call for papers

ICGS CONFERENCE 2023

Sustainable Corporate Governance

21-22 October 2023

The 9th annual conference of the International Corporate Governance Society will be held at IE University in Madrid, Spain, from Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 October 2023. As this has been the case for past conferences, the 2023 conference will act as a forum for academics, policymakers, and practitioners from across the globe to share and debate the latest corporate governance research findings and best practices.

The increasingly visible consequences of climate change and the economic fallout from the pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war have moved sustainable corporate governance to the forefront. Sustainable corporate governance is not only about making businesses more sustainable from an environmental point of view, but it is also about ensuring that they operate in harmony with the broader economic and social system. In turn, businesses should be run in such a way to avoid future waves of corporate failures. This would require a shift towards business models focusing on the creation of long-term rather than short-term value.

While some argue that businesses should focus on the maximisation of shareholder value and that the costs of making businesses sustainable may be prohibitive, there is an increasing consensus that the creation of long-term shareholder value is not incompatible with looking after the interests of a broader range of stakeholders. Ultimately, the resilience to shocks and the long-term survival of a company will benefit both itsshareholders and other stakeholders.

We especially welcome submissions about how to make businesses more sustainable and the role of corporate governance in achieving this transition. This would also include submissions studying the enablers and inhibitors of this transition, such as specific characteristics of the members of the board of directors. As usual all other submissions that relate to the following conference tracks are welcome:

• TRACK B: Board Dynamics and Strategic Leadership. In this track, we explore the roles of boards of directors concentrating in particular on diversity and group dynamics in boards. Studies that examine the role of women and internationals on board are particularly welcome. The track will also feature behavioural studies about board members and their interfaces to CEOs and the executive team.

• TRACK C: Ownership. This track explores the antecedents and outcomes of different types of owners. The track also encourages papers on non-traditional means of raising capital that give rise to ownership changes, such as equity crowdfunding and other forms of alternative investment, and their implications for corporate governance.

• TRACK D: External Corporate Governance Mechanisms. This track seeks to understand how firms’ strategic objectives and outcomes are influenced by external governance mechanisms, including (but not limited to) the role of external auditors, cultural norms, and media. It also welcomes studies that investigate how these external factors are related to the firms’ nexus of contracts and incentive structures.

• TRACK E: Self Governance and Internal Corporate Governance Mechanisms. This track focuses on company goals and the alignment of these goals with managers. Topics can include (but are not restricted to) goals and executive compensation arrangements, particular goals structures or family firms and their consequences for corporate governance, socially-responsible behaviour and executives’ internal moral compass that translates into ethically-sound decisions and actions.

• TRACK F: Comparative Corporate Governance. This track explores corporate governance in a (de)globalizing economy. We want to discuss how transnational nongovernmental institutions shape corporate governance across nations. Furthermore, it is interesting and useful to compare governance practices across national economies. Multi-level governance interactions between multiple governance environments are also considered.

The conference will be held at IE Tower, which is located in Madrid’s financial district. IE Tower was built in accordance with the values of IE University, which are sustainability, technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, diversity, and a focus on the humanities.

Submissions can be made between 1 March and 30 June 2023. The pre-conference paper development workshop (PDW) will be held on Friday 20 October 2023. More information will be made available soon via the ICGS website (https://icgsociety.org/).

Conference Programme Co-chairs

Patricia Gabaldon Quiñones, IE University

Marc Goergen, IE University

Juan-Pedro Gomez, IE University