BiCAB 2027

Call for Papers: 6th Bielefeld International Conference on Applied Business (BiCAB 2027)

Navigating Geopolitical Change: Strategic Responses in Business, Policy, and Higher Education

14 May 2027, Hochschule Bielefeld (HSBI), Bielefeld School of Business, Germany.

The international environment in which companies, institutions, and societies operate is changing faster and less predictably than at any time in recent decades. Geopolitical conflicts, tariffs and trade disputes, new and renegotiated trade agreements, and a recalibration of economic relations with major powers are affecting supply chains, prices, market access, and international partnerships. Many assumptions that underpinned international strategy for decades, such as stable rules, open markets, and reliable partners, can no longer be taken for granted in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment.

BiCAB 2027 examines how organisations, institutions, and individuals respond to this environment and which strategic options are emerging. While geopolitical change creates substantial challenges, it also creates opportunities, such as new strategic relationships, diversified markets, or adapted value creation across borders. The conference deliberately takes an applied perspective, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

We invite contributions that examine responses to geopolitical change from multiple angles and that offer concrete approaches for navigating uncertainties. The submissions should engage with the conference theme from conceptual, theoretical, empirical, or practice-oriented perspectives. This can include work from scholars and practitioners in fields such as business and management (including international business, marketing, supply chain management, finance, HRM, and entrepreneurship), economics, political science and international relations, cultural studies, sociology, law, and communication studies.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Business strategies under geopolitical risk: market entry and exit, de-risking, near- and friend-shoring
  • Supply chain resilience, sourcing, and logistics in volatile and fragmented trade environments
  • Effects of tariffs, sanctions, and trade agreements on firms and consumers
  • Changing consumer perspectives: country- and region-of-origin effects, consumer activism
  • Security-relevant research: organisational and individual resilience, defence and security markets and new business models
  • Finance and investment decisions: FDI and securing international expansions
  • Corporate communications and stakeholder management in ambiguous environments
  • Technology, digital sovereignty, and AI in geopolitical competition
  • Higher education in a changing world: international partnerships, student and researcher mobility, universities as bridgebuilders

Submission

Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words (excluding references) in English as a PDF to bicab@hsbi.de. The abstract should outline the research question or practical problem, the approach or method, (expected) findings, and the relevance for business practice or policy.

Submissions will be evaluated and selected by the BiCAB scientific committee.

Please list all authors with their affiliations and indicate the presenting author. BiCAB is an in-person event; at least one author is expected to attend and present the accepted contribution.

 

Key dates

  • Abstract submission deadline: 30 November 2026
  • Notification of acceptance: by 21 December 2026
  • Conference: 14 May 2027, Bielefeld

 

International week

The BICAB Conference 2027 will take place during HSBI’s International Week (10 to 14 May 2027). Further information: https://www.hsbi.de/en/international-office/iw27

 

 

Best paper award

During the conference a Best Paper Award will recognize the best submission with a prize of €500. The selection will be based on the combined evaluation of the scientific committee and all conference attendees. The award will recognize outstanding contributions in terms of scientific quality, originality, and relevance to the conference.

 

Conference proceedings

All accepted contributions will have the option of publishing a full paper in the official conference proceedings. Authors are invited to submit their full paper by May 2, 2027.

 

Contact

bicab@hsbi.de

https://www.hsbi.de/wirtschaft/bicab/bicab-2027