2027 Organizational Frontline Research Symposium

11th Annual Young Scholar Research (YSR) Competition

This competition recognizes exceptional emerging research focused on organizational frontlines, where firms and customers interact to create value. We welcome submissions from any discipline that addresses organizational frontline issues.

Eligibility:

• The lead author must be a doctoral student or an assistant professor within three years of graduation.
• The paper must not be published or under advanced review.
• The submission must be no more than 15 pages, double-spaced and all-inclusive, plus a separate title and author page.

Awards and recognition: A cash prize will be awarded, with public recognition at the 2027 OFR Symposium. Winners will also receive priority access to the OFR network and future events.

Submission Email: todd.arnold@okstate.edu

Finalists must be able to present in person in New Orleans. For full details, see the official CFP using the link below or contact us with questions.

https://olemiss.box.com/s/mudaax3c27lufrktutsom9anjvmn8htk

Submission Deadline

November 19, 2026

2027 OFR Symposium: Call for Research Lightning Talks

We invite research papers for presentation at the 2027 OFR Symposium. The program will include two competitive research sessions. Presentations should fit this year’s theme, “Re-centering the Human in Organizational Frontlines Research.”

That is, we are particularly interested in research that:

• Examines themes related to the evolving role of humans and human touch in the organizational frontlines,
• Explores organizational frontline phenomena using novel types of human-centered data (e.g., natural language, videos, diary studies, observations), and
• Offers novel insights about organizational frontlines.

Submission Format

If you are interested in participating, we invite you to submit a brief PowerPoint proposal (max. 10 slides) that includes the following:

• Title Slide – clearly identify the title of the presentation and all co-authors and their affiliations
• Problem/Research Questions – identify the problem and why it is important for OFR
• Approach – outline your approach (e.g., framework, research design, data)
• Results – highlight your key results
• Implications for Practice – specify how your results can help practitioners make decisions

Presentation Format

We anticipate that final presentations will be no more than 7 minutes and designed to encourage lively discussion among OFR attendees. All presenters will have the opportunity to revise slides before the event. However, we plan to strictly enforce the 7-minute requirement as it will help bolster confidence that all presenters are committed to the spirit of a “lightning talk.”

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should include the names of all coauthors and their university affiliations. Submission to the conference does not preclude your work from being published by any journal. Submissions can be sent directly to this year’s OFR Symposium co-chairs: Nawar Chaker (nchaker1@tennessee.edu) and Andrew Crecelius (acreceli@iastate.edu).

Submission Deadline

December 1, 2026

Participants will be notified by mid-December, 2026