conference

Sinergie-SIMA 2019 Conference

Management and sustainability: creating shared value in the digital era

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Via del Castro Laurenziano, Roma

20-21 June 2019

 

 

The Conference

For more than 30 years, the Sinergie Italian Journal of Management has been organizing the annual conference of Italian management scholars to enable them to present and discuss their research within a collaborative and friendly environment.
Since 2016, the conference is held by SIMA and Sinergie jointly, and has evolved into the Sinergie-SIMA Conference. The main goal of the Sinergie-SIMA Conference is to create relationships among scholars, disseminate knowledge in the economic-managerial field, and promote the contribution of Italian scholars to the international debate on management issues.
The themes of the conference will be discussed in both plenary and parallel sessions.
In the plenaries, keynote speakers from the academic and business world will alternate, while in the parallel sessions, scholars will present their research about the topic of the conference or about the various thematic areas of the discipline.

Conference theme and objectives

Sustainability is no doubt a key-challenge of our times. The depletion of natural capital due to a growing demand of goods and services all around the world has shed a new light on the limit of the current economic model. A production and consumption system based on a linear logic where natural resources are extracted and transformed for producing goods that are wasted in the natural environment is clearly unsustainable. Additionally, social inequalities, poverty, and hunger are social problems that need to be faced globally.
Firms and management, on the one hand, are partly responsible for the worsening of the conditions of the natural context we are living in; on the other hand, they appear to be a key-player in contrasting the daunting scenario we are facing. Firms and management, in fact, are the most effective way to date available to harness human initiative and energies towards a goal. It could be said that this way they are not only part of the problem, but can also become part of the solution. Firms and management, thus, should cooperate with government and society in finding solutions for reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The era of the digital economy offers significant opportunities for removing potential conflicts among divergent logics and making sustainability principles fully internalized within an organization. Sharing platforms, industrial symbiosis, collaborative consumption, environmental and social footprint, eco-design, transparent and reliable accountability, are just some examples of initiatives fostered by the digital economy.
The Sinergie-SIMA 2019 Conference focuses on the contribution firms and management can bring to effectively tackle the vital challenge of sustainability. To this end, special attention will be devoted to business models and strategies based on the co-creation paradigm and on the opportunities delivered by digital technologies.

Organization of the conference

The main topic of the conference will be discussed by alternating plenary and parallel sessions that will take place between Thursday, June 20 and Friday, June 21 2019.
The plenary sessions, in particular, will be based on the contributions of well-known academics and professionals who will take part in the debate as key speakers, discussants, or interviewees.
During the parallel sessions, the full papers that have been selected by means of a double-blind peer review will be presented. One or more specific sessions dedicated to the extended abstracts will also be programmed, giving participants the chance to present their projects and benefit from the comments and suggestions of the chair person and other participants during constructive discussion sessions.
The official language of the conference is English. Full paper and extended abstracts in Italian will be welcome in specific sessions of the conference.

Topics

Sinergie and SIMA invite participants to present full papers and extended abstracts on the specific theme of the conferenceManagement and sustainability: Creating shared value in the digital era.” Below are some examples of topics that can be addressed, taking the managerial point of view:

  • Big and open data for sustainability
  • Business strategies for a low-carbon economy
  • Circular economy
  • Collaborative economy and co-creation solutions
  • Communication of sustainability
  • Digital solutions for resource efficiency
  • Eco-industrial parks and Industrial Symbiosis
  • Greenwashing and symbolic behaviour
  • Industry 4.0 and sustainability
  • Smart cities and smart communities
  • Sustainability and marketing
  • Sustainable business models and innovation
  • Sustainable consumption behaviour
  • The corporate contribution to Agenda 2030

The Conference will also host papers about the various areas of the discipline, represented by the SIMA thematic areas:

  • Entrepreneurship
  • Innovation and technology management
  • International business
  • Marketing
  • Operations and supply chain
  • Retailing and service management
  • Small and family business
  • Strategic communication
  • Strategic management and corporate governance
  • Tourism and culture management