The 16th ICBM will tackle key issues to encourage the economic transformation of Sri Lanka

The 16th International Conference on Business Management ( ICBM) will take place from December 11 to the 15 at the Monash University premises in Australia.

The conference is organised by the University of Sri Jayawardenapura’s Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, the Monash Business School of Australia and the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration.

The theme of the conference is ‘Transforming Knowledge into action: Towards Sustainable Development in Emerging Economies’.

The conference is the outcome of the MoU signed by the Monash Business School and the University of Sri Jayawardenapura in 2017. The MoU facilitated student exchange programmes and fostered research and development in emerging economies.

Many emerging economies have weak institutions and a low resource base, which pose challenges for knowledge production as well as transforming knowledge into action.

The conference will address these issues and will attempt to explore the possibilities which could enable emerging economies to create knowledge and transform knowledge into action.

This will be beneficial for sustainable development. Knowledge transformation goes beyond the tradition of using knowledge gained in one context. It attempts to contextualise the knowledge gained from developed economies, to suit the conditions and needs present in emerging economies.

The conference will focus on research in areas and current trends such as democratic governance, entrepreneurship, disaster management, human resource management, managing sustainable organisations, supply chain management, organisation studies, ethical organisations, health policy & health care management and spirituality & management.

A local edition of the conference, with the objective of widening the participation capacity of researchers, was held on November 28, at Sri Jayawardenapura University.

A forum took place as a part of the conference, and many members of the corporate sector, as well as columnists and academics participated. It was followed by a research session and a doctoral colloquium.

The collaboration that brought about ICBM 2019 was strengthened further by academics from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura and Monash University, including Sri Jayawardenapura Univeristy Vice Chancellor Professor Sampath Amaratunga, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce Dean Dr U. Anura Kumara and Proffesor Gary Magee and Associate Professor Ramanie Samaratunge from Monash Business School, who are members of the Conference Executive Committee.

The organising committee includes Dr Mahesh Fernando, Dr Dushan Jayawickrama, Dr Upuli Perera and Dr Chamari Jayasinghe from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura. They hope and expect that the 16th ICBM will play an influential role in the economic transformation and sustainable development of Sri Lanka and the South Asian region.