IMP2013

Building and Managing Relationships in a Global Network:
Challenges and Necessary Capabilities

Friday, August 30 – Monday, September 2
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Conference Co-chairs: Wesley Johnston, Naveen Donthu, Tamer Cavusgil

Since the first IMP Conference, held in Manchester in 1984, the IMP Conference has brought together an informal network of researchers interested in topics related to complex business networks. The IMP Conference is the largest international gathering of academics and practitioners in the field of business marketing and purchasing, drawing participants from all continents.

Success for all organizations depends on the ability to interact effectively with those around them and to effectively combine their own skills and resources with the capabilities of customers, suppliers, and development partners. Organizational actions and interactions are channeled and constrained through structured resources and through networks of relationships. A company’s relationships are its prime assets and the management of its relationships is a major task for management. The networks in which companies operate have reached global proportions and marketing and purchasing for most organizations are conducted on an international level. However, most of our knowledge of building and managing relationships in a global network is built on studies conducted in Western economies in times of relative prosperity. Today’s environment is more challenging. The 29th IMP Conference in Atlanta will open up a discussion on the challenges and necessary capabilities for building and managing relationships in today’s more difficult conditions. These conditions are characterized by pervasive change and conflict with a greater number of confounding variables.

As in previous editions, the 29th IMP Conference will have a friendly, informal, and supportive atmosphere that facilitates the exchange and sharing of ideas and research perspectives. Once again the IMP Doctoral Consortium will precede the main Conference and provide a valuable international resource for research students.

For general information about the conference, please visit

robinson.gsu.edu/IMP2013.

The IMP Group

The IMP Group was formed in 1976 by researchers from five European countries. The first work of the group was a large-scale comparative study of industrial marketing and purchasing across Europe. Since then the Group has carried out a large number of empirical and conceptual studies of the complex relationships between buying and selling companies and of the structure and process of complex business networks. A selection of the books based on this research may be found on the Group’s website, impgroup.org, together with over 1000 academic papers and a large number of the theses that have been carried out within the IMP Research Theme. In addition to its Annual Conference, the IMP Group also holds a biennial IMP Asia conference.

IMP2013 in Atlanta

Call for Papers

The papers will be selected on the basis of quality, originality, and relevance to the development of ideas within the IMP framework. Papers may be submitted as work-in-progress papers or as competitive papers.

Deadlines for Submission

• Submission of the abstracts: 14th January 2013
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 4th February 2013
• Submission of full papers: 5th March 2013
• Notification of outcome of review process: 22nd April 2013
• Final paper submission: 1st June 2013

Tracks in 2013

1. Supply Chain Management and Purchasing
2. Global Key Account Management and CRM
3. Innovation in Industrial Networks
4. Emerging Markets and Cultural Issues in Global Industrial Networks
5. Interaction and Actors in Turbulent Times
6. Applications and Managerial Implications of IMP Research
7. Managing Industrial Networks
8. Teaching Industrial Business and Networks

Submitting Abstract

Abstracts are submitted as an email attachment, imp2013@gsu.edu, by January 14, 2013. A template is provided here. The abstract should be 1-2 pages and it should be structured as follows:

Purpose of the paper and relevant literature
Research method
Research findings
Contribution
Keywords (4-5)

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