Welcome

Dear Colleagues and friends,

We would like to invite you to participate in the 11th Iberian International Business Conference, in Porto, Portugal, which will bring together an active group of IB researchers. The conference will take place on October 2-3, 2015 in Porto (Portugal) and it will be hosted by the School of Economics and Management (campus Foz) from the Catholic University of Portugal (Porto).

Participants will find opportunities for presenting their latest research findings, brainstorm new research ideas and networking in the welcoming atmosphere of Porto in the early Fall.

The main theme of the 2015 IIBC will be “Iberian Diaspora and internationalization processes”.

Diaspora is a concept associated to a large group of people exiting the home country to live abroad and therefore is normally associated with adversity and difficulties at home. However, we have been witnessing the emergence of a more positive facet of this phenomenon, with the identification of a stream of economic advantages resulting from nationals living and working abroad. Remittances, contribution to inward foreign direct investment, financing entrepreneurship in the home country, building networks of knowledge workers and technology transfer, providing business intelligence about foreign markets, access to valuable local resources and instruments of cultural diplomacy are but a few of the potential gains. These benefits explain why companies, national governments, foreign trade agencies and international development institutions started to give more attention to Diasporas as an important resource for international competition, growth, development and diplomacy.

This conference provides a privileged forum to discuss this theme, building on your latest research on such an important subject. Research papers using interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. In addition, we welcome papers on traditional IIBC topics related to Multinationals, Foreign Direct Investment, Internationalization and Exporting with regard to both large firms and SMEs. Although as a general rule most papers will focus on the cases of Portugal and Spain, other cases/countries are also welcome.

We believe this conference can be considered as an important instrument to strengthen cooperation among Iberian IB researchers and to build an increasingly active IB research community. We hope you will consider this meeting as a great opportunity to share with us your research and your time.

Susana Costa e Silva
On behalf of the Scientific Committee