AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy

It was an honor, a privilege, and great fun to lead and interact with the first cohort of the Academy of International Business (AIB) #CIBER #Doctoral Academy. My course "#International #Connectivity and MNE #Strategy" forms the basis of my ongoing book that I hope to submit to publishers over the next few months. I learned so much from all the participants - as they say, in this digital age, the old must learn from young!

We are proud to announce that the AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy has received the largest endowment in its history from the Jean Boddewyn Endowment. This generous contribution honors the legacy of the late Jean Boddewyn, a distinguished scholar and dedicated member of the AIB for over five decades. https://ow.ly/JEQ150SJbff

What a magnificent season of attending conferences I was privileged to have this year (AMAGMSig, AMA-Sheth DC) and wrapping it up with the #AIB2024Seoul - my first Academy of International Business (AIB) conference, and accessing a new community that already feels like a home! Couple of reflections for the past week in #Seoul: (1) First and foremost, the biggest highlight for me is meeting my "second academic family" (Alexander; Mimisha; Marleth; Theuns; Khaled) from the AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy for the very first time in person - and it felt like we knew each other for ages now. A special gratitude for Prof. S. Tamer Cavusgil for giving us the spotlight on several occasions and the tremendous honour to be invited guests at the #AIBFellows Dinner! Also, along with Hanna, Ausrine and Ahmet to enable us share how the Academy enhances our PhDs in the session on succeeding and excelling our doctoral studies.The Doctoral Academy is more than a training programme - it's an academic family that we are lucky to have the opportunity to be part of it and nurture the community in the years to come. (2) The level of intellectual stimulation of all these workshops, Fellow's cafés and sessions has been so refreshing, and once again proved the essence and relevance of #InternationalBusiness as discipline that can't be decoupled of any aspect on researching the company and it's micro and macro environment. Big shout-out to the programme chair Catherine Welch and the team of track-chairs, reviewers and authors. (3) As #InternationalMarketing scholar myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the superb #masterclasses on publishing and methods in the IM field by Kelly Hewett and Daekwan Kim , and catching up with #IM colleagues. (4) The organization of the conference was beyond perfection - with a record number of nearly 1500 participants, all 5 days ran smoothly, mostly thankful to the wonderful team at the Academy of International Business (AIB) Secretariat, the hosts and the dozens of volunteers that work hard ( proud volunteer????!) (5) Last but not least Seoul really has a soul! The city wowes me with its cleanliness, the amusing history and culture, the politeness of the people, the safety, the versatile cuisine and liveliness throughout the day and night! It grows to one's heart immediately! ( Fun fact , 29 year ago the #AIB1995Seoul took place exactly here and it was fascinating to hear their reflections on how much the city has evolved since then). (6) It was once again an honour to be the only representative of Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd and Cardiff Business School at the most distinguished yearly gathering of International Business scholars in the world! As I said at the beginning, the #AIB community really felt like home and hoping to have the annual meeting on my list of regular visits in the years to come - next year Louisville Kentucky. ( those 5/10/20 consecutive visits badges are indeed a motivation and incentive! ??)

What a fantastic Academy of International Business (AIB) Annual Meeting 2024 in Seoul! Katerina Boncheva noted the biggest highlight quite nicely: Meeting our ?second academic family“. Big shoutout to Mimisha Gadhia, Khaled Shukran, Theuns Mans, Marleth Morales, Katerina Boncheva and the whole AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy for the fantastic conference experience. I am pretty sure that I have found friends for life here (and hopefully colleagues and co-authors ??) Special thanks to S. Tamer Cavusgil, Ausrine Silenskyte, Hanna Gajewska-De Mattos, Ahmet H. Kirca of the AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy as well as Ieva Kule, CMP, CTA and AIB president Gary Knight of the Academy of International Business (AIB) for your constant support and the tremendous welcoming experience into the AIB family. Paul M. Vaaler thank you for the super open and humorous discussion & feedback during the doctoral consortium, and Sumit Kundu for the inspiring and deep conversation during the AIB fellows dinner to which we were invited as special guests. Luis Alfonso Dau it was really cool that you joined us for a spontaneous dinner that lasted longer than expected. By surprise, Xiaoxu Renee Zhang and I were sitting in the same ethics session without knowing that we were both attending the conference (this is actually quite funny, because we both work at the same institute).