Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to announce that the 33rd EIBA Annual Conference will be held at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Catania, Italy from the 13th to the 15th of December 2007.

The EIBA Annual Conference offers all members a great opportunity for presenting and discussing on-going research in IB. This year’s conference theme will focus on “International Business, Local Development and Science-Technology Relationships” with the aim of reflecting on the role of public research institutions in helping to promote the processes of technological and economic catch up, development and growth, and of local policy in fostering local science-technology linkages with incoming foreign-owned multinationals. The issue will be addressed at the Opening Plenary Session by Maryann Feldman Miller Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at the University of Georgia (USA) and Gaetano Casalaina (Public (Public Affairs Director – Indesit Company).

A second plenary session chaired by Danny Van Den Bulcke (University of Antwerp - Belgium) will be dedicated to “The Eclectic Theory, the Multinational Enterprise and the Global Economy: John Dunning’s Magnum Opus” and will count on the participation of John Dunning (Universities of Reading – UK – and Rutgers – USA), Sariana Lundan (Maastricht University – The Netherlands), Robert Pearce (University of Reading – UK), Stephen Young (Glasgow University – UK) and Alain Verbeke (University of Calgary – Canada) .

This year’s EIBA Fellows session will be organized and chaired by Klaus Macharzina (University of Hohenheim – Germany) and discuss International Corporate Governance together with Shirley Daniel (University of Hawaii – USA), Lars Oxelheim (Lund University – Sweden), Marjan Svetlicic (University of Ljubljana - Slovenia) and Ans Kolk (University of Amsterdam – The Netherlands).

Two Special panel sessions will also be organized by UNCTAD on the WORLD Investment Report : Extractive Industries and TNCs in Infrastructure (including Anne Miroux (IAB/NCTAD), Hafiz Mirza (IAB/UNCTAD), Peter Buckley (University of Leeds – UK) and Axele Giroud (Manchester Business School – UK)) and on Data Issues (including Masataka Fujita (IAB/UNCTAD), John Dunning (Universities of Reading – UK – and Rutgers – USA), Jeremy Clegg (University of Leeds – UK) and Robert Pearce (University of Reading – UK)). A further special panel session will be organized and chaired by Karl P. Sauvant (Executive Director, Columbia Program on International Investment) on Is a backlash against FDI in the making? with the participation of Peter J. Buckley, (University of Leeds – UK), John Dunning (Universities of Reading – UK – and Rutgers – USA) and DeAnne Julius (Chatham House – UK).

Thanks to the great help of the track chairs and the efforts of the reviewers we intend to organize an academically and socially successful EIBA conference. The conference venue will be the XVIII century building of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Catania, which is located in the baroque city centre and at walking distance from many of the hotels advertised on the conference web page. For further details on the conference program, accommodation and other practical information please visit the conference web page:

http://www.fscpo.unict.it/eiba2007/

I am looking forward to welcoming you in Catania.
Kindest regards,

Grazia Santangelo
EIBA President 2007