• HOSTED AND CO-ORGANISED WITH
• BACKGROUND
• THE CONFERENCE
• WHO COULD ATTEND?
• THEMES AND AREAS
• CALL FOR PAPERS - PAPER REQUIREMENTS - PUBLICATIONS
• COMPETICON CONFERENCE: REVIEW PROCESS
• CONFERENCE PROGRAMME, ADDRESSES AND MAPS
• IMPORTANT DATES FOR AUTHORS
• BEST PAPER AWARD
• CHAIRPERSONS - ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
• LOCATION
• ACCOMMODATION IN COPENHAGEN
• TRAVEL RECOMMENDATIONS
• PRACTICALITIES
• LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
• DOWNLOAD ACCEPTED PAPERS

The raison d’être for this conference originates from the current debate on competitiveness in both the international academic field and among politicians and managers. Globalization that has gradually intensified in the last decades is threatening the competitiveness of many Western firms. Some of the previous advantages of European and other firms and their home countries as locations for production activities are eroding as new competition from emerging economies appear on the global scene. This has spurred intense debate about the competitiveness of European and other Western firms in both the business press and among researchers. This is orchestrated with major headlines like: If we move our production, what is next? Will the innovation activities go the same way? What would we in our countries live off? Is closeness to customers a sufficient source of competitiveness? In the public debate the competitiveness of European and other Western firms has mainly been scrutinized in two parallel discussions: One under the heading of offshoring that focus on the re-location of activities away from Europe and the consequences of this and another one under the heading of productivity that focuses more on how we can improve the value added of those activities remaining in Europe.

In the academic fields there are annual conferences in accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing, production, supply chains, to name a few central areas. However there is no conference on competitiveness. While competitiveness cuts across the different management fields and thus is partially covered by some conferences, there is no academic outlet for focused, cross-discipline discussions and development of competitiveness.
The goal of this conference is to pool all the knowledge on firm competitiveness and its management and to make this essential knowledge visible both in academia and in industry. We acknowledge a number of challenges facing European firms which we wish to address at the conference, such as, but not limited to:
 

• What factors actually lead to a firm’s competitiveness and how should it be measured and developed? This may be investigated in a global perspective and for different specific industrial sectors. 
• There is a need to address the obvious dilemma found between productivity improvement as increased capacity utilization (to decrease cost) and productivity improvement as increased customer value and margin. 
• What are actually the production capabilities that create competitiveness and how to deal with the dilemmas and trade-offs between operational capabilities; e.g. quality, dependability, speed, flexibility and cost efficiency. 
• Traditional production companies increasingly compete with so called “Servitization”, meaning that the physical product to a large extent of the business is delivered together with services often with higher revenues than the actual product. This leads not only to increased revenue but also to both customer relationship that develops from supplier to strategic partner and product/service improvements built upon better understanding of customer needs.
• Rather than competing only by improving the current business model firms develop or create new business models. Hence business model innovation has become an important strategy for creating competitive advantage. 
• Firms engage in so-called commercial excellence programs for improving their frontend activities such as sales (including value pricing and negotiation) and marketing (e.g. customer communication). What is the interplay between and relative importance of such commercial focus and product and process innovations?

The conference will consist of plenary presentations, concurrent sessions and a special track for PhD students.

The Scientific Committee will encourage selected authors to submit their papers for review to a special issue of a potential collaborating journal.

The conference is jointly organized by EIASM and Copenhagen Business School. A special and substantial initiative at CBS for developing research, education and dissemination in the field of managing competitiveness is organized as the CBS Competitiveness Platform. The platform is hosting this event. www.cbs.dk/competitiveness  
 

The conference is a unique opportunity for researchers of different backgrounds, but with a common interest in competitiveness, to update and exchange views. The conference will provide ample opportunities for both formal and informal discussions of the work presented, as well as opportunities for discussions about future international and interdisciplinary research co-operation.

Participants are encouraged to present results of their research, although presenting is not a requirement for attendance and active participation. The focus of the conference is on management issues. The theoretical base must be made clear, and references to already-existing research in the field must be made explicit.
 

• A - Competitive contexts, industrial policies
• B - National competitiveness, multifactor analysis
• C - Competitive cultures, contextual variables
• D - Competing with innovation, solution providers
• E - Competing with sales, innovative sales
• F - Competing with new offerings, servitization
• G - Competing with production, lean
• H - Competing with design, design clusters
• I -  Competing with productivity, managing performance
• J - Competing with global supply networks
• K - Competing with technology, managing the knowledge base
• L - Competing with concepts, new business models
• M - Competitiveness in teaching and other educational activities

The call for papers is closed !

In case of acceptance, full papers will be requested by December 19 (instructions are in the acceptance letter)

All accepted papers must be presented by at least one of the authors.
 

Final Papers must fulfil the following requirements: 



1. The theoretical base must be made clear, and references to already-existing research in the field must be made explicit.


2. Priority is given to research which has an empirical basis. This means that conceptual discussions without empirical tests or basis will be accepted only exceptionally.

3. The focus of the conference is on management issues, so we request that papers include managerial implications.
Publication of papers:

Publication of papers:

After the Conference selected authors will be encouraged to submit their papers for review to the Global Strategy Journal.

The scientific committee and the journal editors in collaboration will select papers for invitation.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2042-5805  

The goal of the review process is to select a number of papers that will stimulate discussion and the development of new knowledge, with preference given to empirical research. Some of the papers will inevitably be more fully developed than others; however, it is hoped that each author will gain insights during the conference that will strengthen their research and introduce them to other scholars who share their interests.

Authors are required to submit an extended abstract of about 500 words in length. This abstract should identify the central research question, introduce the most important references and describe the methodology, empirical base, analysis, results and the proposed contribution to theory and practice. Each abstract is evaluated by two or three members of the scientific committee. All are senior professors who are well positioned internationally in the field.

The committee responds to the author(s) with an overall assessment. The overall assessment scale of the extended abstract is graded using the following scale: Rejected or Accepted.

Authors of accepted abstracts are expected to submit final papers.
Conference participation (full registration) is a further condition for publication in the conference proceedings.
 

Please click H E R E to download the conference final programme, addresses and maps.

The Winners of the Best paper Award are:

Christophe GRIMPE, Wolfgang SOFKA, Mukesh BHARGAVA and Rabikar CHATTERJEE

With the paper entitled :

"NOVEL BUT TOO COMPLEX? THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING INNOVATION FOR NEW PRODUCT PERFORMANCE"

Conference Chairs :

Christer KARLSSON - Copenhagen Business School, Denmark,
Thomas RITTER, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 

Copenhagen Business School (CBS) was established in 1917. Today, with 20,000 students and 1,500 employees, CBS is one of the largest business schools in Europe and one of the 8 Danish universities. CBS has been accredited by EQUIS, by AMBA and by AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) as the first school in Scandinavia. Each year, Eduniversal, which is part of the French consultancy SMBG, ranks the world’s 1,000 best business schools. In 2013, for the 6th time, CBS got an excellent ranking – number three in the world after Harvard and London Business School, with INSEAD on the third position in Europe. The focus of this ranking is on the institutions’ international significance and prestige.

The city of Copenhagen was founded more than 800 years ago, and is known for combining the old-world charm of its medieval origins with the vibrant life of a modern European metropolis. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, but with merely 1.5 million inhabitants, the city is human in scale. A network of car-free pedestrian zones and cobbled squares creates a lively and attractive downtown area with cafés, cinemas and museums. The high quality public transportation system, consisting of the metro, buses, and trains connects the centre with its suburbs and the airport (a 20-minute ride).

Click HERE for information about the city of Copenhagen. 

 

A list of hotels is available HERE

Please click HERE to find travel recommendations.

FEES

The fees include participation to the conference, conference documents, lunches, morning and afternoon refreshments. 
The dinner is optional and you are requested to register separately to it.

Cancellations made before December 25, 2014 will be reimbursed minus 20% of the total fee. No reimbursement will be possible after that date.

Payments should be made by :

• The following credit cards: Visa or Eurocard/Mastercard/Access

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