by Bang College of Business, Zagreb School of Economics and Management
in Collaboration with UN PRME
“Creating Sustainable Value in the Digital Era: Disrupting the Status Quo”
17-18 APRIL 2026
CALL FOR PAPERS
The 23rd KIMEP International Research Conference (KIRC) will be held offline on 17-18 April, 2026 (Friday – Saturday). This conference is dedicated to promoting knowledge on issues relevant to business and social sciences that impact all of us. KIRC facilitates the exchange of ideas, research, and experiences among scholars, business leaders, policymakers, and regulators in all academic fields, including Business, Economics, Management, Taxation, and Social Science. The language of the conference is English.
Conference Theme: “Creating Sustainable Value in the Digital Era: Disrupting the Status Quo”.
CONFERENCE STRUCTURE & SCOPE:
The conference consists of concurrent presentation sessions of research papers as well as guest speeches, panel discussions, and workshops. Presentations will be organized in multiple tracks, such as Accounting and Taxation, Economics, Finance, Marketing, Management, Information Systems, Operations Management, etc.
PAPER SUBMISSION
All submissions should be made electronically and in English. Prospective authors are requested to submit the full paper/extended abstract via our Online form. Please submit your full paper (up to 10 single-spaced pages) and/or extended abstract (up to 3 single-spaced pages) by 30 March, 2026. All submissions must be original in nature and clearly state the research objectives/questions, literature, methodology, summary of key results and/or conclusions. Papers plagiarized to any extent will be automatically excluded from the Official Proceedings.
A peer review committee will review all papers/extended abstracts.
If necessary, please submit your revised full paper/extended abstract by 25 April, 2026 for publishing in Official Proceedings.
Authors have the option to choose not to include their papers in the proceedings.
IMPORTANT DATES:
- 21 December 2025: Submissions open
- 30 March 2026: Submission deadline of full papers and/or extended abstracts.
- 4 April 2026: Notification of Acceptance
CONFERENCE WEBSITE:
Format and Guidelines: Those articles that don’t follow the structure and the format will not be accepted, please download the template for the article=>Download
- Please fill out the form in order to register your full paper/abstract: Fill out the form
- Proceed with registration by uploading abstract/ extended abstract / full paper: UPLOAD
CONFERENCE PROGRAM: will be provided later.
RECOMMENDED HOTELS:
Kazakhstan (3 minutes walk distance to conference site)
Novotel Almaty City Center (3 minutes walk distance to conference site)
Other will be added later.
CONTACTS: Conference Chair, Prof Dr. Dr. Jocelyn Grira (Bang College of Business, KIMEP University), Email: kirc@kimep.kz
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 1:
Professor Jonathan Batten
(Finance)
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
Jonathan A. Batten is Professor of Finance at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), Melbourne, Australia. He was previously the Deputy Dean Research and Innovation, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT. Prior to these positions he was a Professor in Finance at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Monash University, Australia, Seoul National University, Korea, and University Utara Malaysia. Over the past decade he has also held Honorary Professor positions at the University of Sydney, Australia, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai, China and most recently, at the University Sains Malaysia. He is currently co-editor of the highly ranked Finance Research Letters, and advisory/senior editor of Elsevier’s Journal of International Financial Markets Institutions and Money and Emerging Markets Review. Prior to working in academia, he held senior treasury and risk management consulting positions with the Bank of Tokyo, Credit Lyonnais, IBM Consulting and Reuters Ltd.
Jonathan A. Batten – Google Scholar
Jonathan Batten – RMIT University
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 2:
Professor Virginia Bodolica
(Management)
American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
Virginia Bodolica is a Professor of Management and Strategy at The American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the UAE. She is also Head of the Department of Strategy, Management and Entrepreneurship, and holder of The Said T. Khoury Chair of Leadership Studies. Prior to joining AUS, Virginia Bodolica taught in the areas of strategic human resources, compensation management and corporate governance, assumed consulting roles in private and public organizations and delivered customized executive programs for a number of companies in Europe, North America and the Middle East. Her research interests are related to executive compensation, board of directors’ dynamics, behavioral governance and innovation and knowledge management. Her research work has been published in top academic journals such as the Academy of Management Annals, Strategic Management Journal and Journal of Business Ethics.
Virginia Bodolica – Google Scholar
Dr. Virginia Bodolica | American University of Sharjah
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 3:
Professor Sabri Boubaker
(Finance)
EM Normandie Business School, Paris, France
Sabri Boubaker is Professor of Finance at EM Normandie Business School, France. His research focuses on corporate finance, corporate governance, and green and environmental finance. He has published extensively in leading international journals, including the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of International Money & Finance, Financial Management, and Journal of Business Ethics. Professor Boubaker currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting and is a Subject Editor or Associate Editor for several top-tier, peer-reviewed international journals. He is the co-founder and co-chair of the Paris Financial Management Conference, the Vietnam Symposium in Banking and Finance, and the International Society for the Advancement of Financial Economics (ISAFE). In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has received multiple distinctions and is regularly invited as a keynote or invited speaker at leading academic conferences and institutions worldwide.
Sabri Boubaker – Google Scholar
Sabri BOUBAKER Professor-researcher at EM Normandie
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 4:
Dr. Đuro Njavro
Founder and President of the Board of Trustees
Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM)
We are honored to welcome Đuro Njavro as a keynote speaker for our conference. As the founder of ZSEM, Croatia’s highest-ranked business school and the first AACSB-accredited institution in the country, Đuro has played a pivotal role in advancing education and economic policy in Croatia. He has served as an advisor to the President of Croatia for economic issues, head of the Institute of Economics, and a two-term member of the Croatian Parliament, where he led significant reforms in state finance and budgetary policy.
A prolific author and educator, Đuro has written over 40 scientific articles and books and co-founded the Luxembourg School of Business. He is also a member of international organizations, including the AACSB’s Initial Accreditation Committee and the American Economic Association (AEA). Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from a visionary leader in economics and education!