The Second IB Conference at Reading

More than 100 delegates, including many of the world's leading International Business scholars, attended the Second Reading IB Conference on March 30 and 31, 2009. Hosted at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, attendees were welcomed by the University's Vice Chancellor Professor Gordon Marshall, Henley Business School Dean Professor Chris Bones and conference organiser Professor Rajneesh Narula, Director of the John H. Dunning Centre for International Business.

Following the success of the First Reading IB Conference in 2007, the Conference again acted as a hub for leading scholars to identify emergent research questions, re-evaluate the extant literature and search for distinctively new directions for future research. Consistent with the traditions of the Reading School of IB scholarship, delegates were invited to challenge orthodoxy and explore new, inter-disciplinary approaches to the field.

The overall theme was 'Do new and emerging trends in IB require new theoretical and conceptual approaches?' and the Conference was centred on four panel debates on the following themes:

Where do ownership advantages come from?

• Does corporate social responsibility affect development?
• Déjà vu all over again? What's really new about emerging markets? An economics/country perspective and a management/MNE perspective

A keynote address was given by Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Marks and Spencers. He spoke on 'Sustainable business: The challenge of global markets and supply chains' and, by doing so, contributed to the broader Conference debate on corporate social responsibility by offering a distinctive practitioner perspective.

Professor Ravi Ramamurti (Northeastern University, Boston, MA), one of the world's leading IB researchers, commented that he, 'thoroughly enjoyed time spent at the Reading IB Conference.' He added that, 'out-of-the-box thinking can only come from out-of-the-box formats like the one used here. I am leaving with many new questions and even a few new answers.'

Leading IB scholar and Reading alumnus Professor Jeremy Clegg (University of Leeds) commented that, 'this popular conference, held at the UK birthplace of international business as an academic discipline, gave each participant a rare shared experience, through its format of extended plenary panel sessions, redolent of the early days of the subject.' He added that, 'its focus on both the economic and ethical impacts of multinational enterprises on the world in which they operate is timely and forward looking,' and predicted, 'the conference will be remembered for bringing issues together, and stimulating a debate on how research in international business can contribute to the major challenges of our day.'

It was fitting that, following the death in January 2009 of University of Reading Emeritus Professor John H. Dunning OBE, the Conference was a forum for tributes to the world-renowned father of IB scholarship. Prior to the Conference dinner, delegates took the opportunity to share their thoughts and memories of Professor Dunning's life and work. Tributes were led by Professor Chris Bones, Professor Lorraine Eden (Editor, Journal of International Business Studies), Professor Alan Rugman and Professor Robert Pearce (both University of Reading). Lorraine Eden presented to Christine Dunning, John's widow, a bound volume to commemorate the JIBS Decade Award which John received in 2008 for the most influential article to be published in the Journal of International Business Studies volume ten years prior.

Professor Dunning, the first Head of the University's Economics Department at its establishment in 1964, was the founder of the Reading School of IB scholarship and was a world-leading figurehead for academic research in the economics of international business for more than four decades.