8th International Conference on
Management and Organization
(ICMO 2026)
"Sustainability is not an endpoint, but a principle of design for the future."
About the Conference
The 8th International Conference on Management and Organization, with the theme “Sustainability by Design: Rethinking Strategy, People & Digital Futures,” will be held from June 3–6, 2026, at Hotel Maestral, Pržno, Montenegro. The conference aims to provide an international platform for critical debate, cross-disciplinary engagement, and collaborative exploration of how strategy, people, and digital futures can shape a more sustainable world. It seeks to advance management and organization research that informs, inspires, and impacts society at large.
The quest for sustainability has become one of the most pressing imperatives of our age. It transcends environmental concerns to reshape how organizations strategize, how people work and thrive, and how digital futures are imagined and governed. Sustainability by design calls for a fundamental rethinking: it cannot remain an add-on to existing systems, but must be intentionally embedded into the way strategies are conceived, human potential is organized, and digital technologies are deployed.
This integrative perspective calls for moving beyond familiar trade-offs between economic, social, and environmental goals. Sustainable design embraces paradoxes and complexity—long-term versus short-term, efficiency versus resilience, global integration versus local responsiveness, innovation versus stability—inviting both/and solutions that are not only viable today but regenerative for tomorrow.
Conference Organizers
- Montenegrin Academy of Management (MAOM)
- Slovenian Academy of Management (SAM)
- Croatian Academy of Management (CroAM)
- University of Montenegro, Faculty of Economics Podgorica
- Supported by the Academy of Management (AOM)
Conference Theme
SUSTAINABILITY BY DESIGN: RETHINKING STRATEGY, PEOPLE & DIGITAL FUTURES
The quest for sustainability is a pressing imperative that transcends environmental concerns, reshaping how organizations strategize, how people work and thrive, and how digital futures are imagined and governed. Sustainability by design calls for fundamental rethinking, embedding it intentionally into strategies, human potential organization, and digital technology deployment. This involves reconciling economic success with ecological responsibility and societal legitimacy, emphasizing human-centered approaches to work design, engagement, inclusion, and well-being, and governing technological transformations (AI, automation, platform economies, data-driven innovation) for long-term human and organizational flourishing. The theme also addresses challenges in distributed, fluid, and boundaryless work contexts, where sustaining connection, purpose, and trust is crucial. It advocates for moving beyond trade-offs and linear thinking, embracing paradoxes and complexity (long-term vs. short-term, efficiency vs. resilience, global integration vs. local responsiveness, innovation vs. stability) to seek both/and solutions that are regenerative for tomorrow. It also focuses on managing the human side of organizing—balancing demands and resources to sustain energy, learning, and well-being. This intentional, reflective approach draws from creative design thinking to address complex, evolving challenges with purpose, reconciling desirability, viability, and profitability for innovative, responsible, feasible, and enduring sustainability solutions.
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE AND PLENARY SPEAKERS, OR WORKSHOP CONVENORS
- Peter Bamberger – Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, Israel (AOM Past President)
- Carin Isabel Knopp – Harvard Business School, USA
- Arnold B. Bakker – Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Chet C. Miller – University of Houston, USA (AOM Discoveries, Editor-in-Chief)
- Evangelia Demerouti – Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (EAWOP President)
- Dana Minbaeva – King’s College London / Copenhagen Business School
- Oliver Baumann – University of Southern Denmark
- Amitabh Anand – Excelia Business School, France (Co-Editor in multiple entrepreneurship journals)
- More distinguished speakers will be announced soon.
Important Dates
- November 2025: Formal announcement of the conference and call for papers.
- December 2025: Launch of the online submission and registration system (including hotel registration at preferential rates, and submission of abstracts and full papers).
- February 1st, 2026: Submission deadline for extended abstracts or full papers.
- March 10, 2026: Decision on extended abstracts and full papers.
- March – April 2026: Registration period.
- June 3–6, 2026: Conference dates.
Academy of Management Community Sessions
The conference will include sessions organized in collaboration with the Academy of Management (AOM), the world’s preeminent organization dedicated to advancing the field of management and organizational research and education. As a global community with nearly 20,000 scholars spanning over 110 countries, AOM provides an inclusive platform for the exchange of ideas and nurturing connections among academics worldwide. AOM publishes seven business, management, and education journals. These sessions offer a distinctive opportunity for local and international scholars to engage with AOM’s global network and resources, catalyzing collaboration, promoting integration, and establishing groundwork for cooperative research initiatives, professional development workshops, and other scholarly pursuits. These interactions set the stage for collective involvement at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting in 2026 (July 31 – August 4, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA).
Conference Highlights
- Attractive keynote speakers and workshop conveners
- Support by the global Academy of Management association, AoM community sessions
- Research method workshops
- Practitioner outreach sessions
- Active breaks
- Doctoral colloquium
- Best junior researcher (doctoral, masters) paper award
- Academic scavenger hunt
- Find new collaborators – idea speeddating
- Conference gala dinner
- Social event
- Sightseeing
Track Themes and Topics
We encourage discussion around the paradoxical challenges in organization and management through the following track themes and related (non-exclusive) list of topics:
- A. Theory and Practice of Sustainability by Design
- Regenerative systems
- Circular organizing
- Embodied sustainability
- Design justice
- Temporal design
- Human–AI symbiosis
- Sustainable materialities
- Multispecies organizing
- Systemic coherence
- B. Strategy & Sustainable Organization
- Strategic choices under uncertainty
- Sustainable business models
- Organization design
- Paradox management
- Impact-oriented KPIs
- Portfolio design for resilience and growth
- Business models addressing climate change
- C. People, HRM & Well-being
- Engagement, burnout, psychological safety
- DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)
- Rewards
- Sustainable careers and skills
- People analytics
- Unethical behavior
- Human-centered work design
- Distributed, gig, and fluid forms of work
- The future of work
- D. Digital Futures: AI, Data & Tech Governance
- GenAI at work
- Human–AI teaming and communication
- Data governance & privacy
- Cybersecurity
- Platform governance
- Responsible AI and evaluation
- E. Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Ecosystems
- Open/corporate innovation
- University–industry collaboration
- Deep-tech & funding
- Regional ecosystems
- Mission-driven innovation
- F. Governance, Ethics & ESG Integration
- Board oversight of AI/ESG
- Responsible finance
- Investor engagement
- Impact measurement & assurance
- Compliance and anti-corruption
- G. International Business & Resilient Supply Chains
- Re/near-shoring
- Geopolitics
- Sustainable trade
- Standards & interoperability
- Risk analytics
- Emerging markets
- Cross-cultural analysis
- H. Public Sector, NPOs & Cross-sector Partnerships
- New public management
- Policy implementation
- Digital government
- Social innovation
- PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships)
- Collaborative governance and service design
- I. Methods, Open Science & Replication
- Causal identification (experiments/quasi-experiments)
- Longitudinal modeling
- Multilevel research
- Computational text/network analysis
- Qualitative methods
- Preregistration
- Data/code sharing
- J. Teaching & Learning
- Transformative pedagogy
- Experiential and reflective learning
- Learning ecosystems
- Digital and immersive education
- Design thinking in management education
- Lifelong and intergenerational learning
- Sustainability literacy
- Learning from failure
- AI-assisted learning and assessment
Submission Guidelines and Publication Opportunities
Submission Guidelines:
Papers and discussions are not restricted to the aforementioned topics; manuscripts connecting different track themes are also invited.
Papers from organization science, strategic management, corporate governance, human resource management, organizational behavior, organizational and work psychology, sociology of work and organizations, computer science, information systems, and other fields are welcome, promoting an interdisciplinary approach, but should relate to business issues.
Theoretical and empirical papers employing qualitative or quantitative methods, work-in-progress, PhD research, and practical cases are welcome.
Authors are encouraged to submit extended abstracts (500-1000 words, excluding title, authors’ information, and references).
The first page of the extended abstract should include the title, authors’ affiliations, track theme of preference, and a provisional indication of the presenting author and whether the presenting author is a PhD or Master student.
Use Times New Roman font, size 12, single line spacing.
Extended abstracts will be published in an online “book of abstracts” available to conference participants.
Authors can also submit a full paper (5000-12000 words all-inclusive); in this case, it will be published in online full paper proceedings with an ISBN number.
Abstracts or full papers may be submitted as a .pdf file, .doc file, or .docx file.
Submission Deadline: February 1st, 2026.
The submission process will be fully electronic. The online submission system will be available in December 2025 at MAOM.ORG.
Authors who wish to submit their abstracts or papers earlier may send them by email to info@maom.org.
Publication Opportunities:
Abstracts of accepted papers for the conference are to be published in the online conference proceedings of abstracts.
High-quality abstracts will be encouraged to be developed and considered for publication in:
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal (Scopus-indexed, published by the Slovenian Academy of Management (SAM))
Economic and Business Research (published by the School of Economics and Business University of Ljubljana)
Invited to contribute as a book chapter in an edited book (monograph) published by Springer or Edward Elgar.
Poster sessions might be organized if a larger number of high-quality submissions are received.
High-quality abstracts will be encouraged for development and consideration for publication in:
Download First Call for Papers
Conference Venue
Hotel Maestral Resort & Casino, Pržno, Montenegro
We encourage authors to submit extended abstracts (500-1000 words, excluding title, authors’ information, and references) or full papers (5000-12000 words all-inclusive).
The conference will be held at Hotel Maestral Resort & Casino, a modern seaside venue offering top-quality facilities and accommodation in the coastal area of Pržno (near Sveti Stefan and Budva, and just a short drive from Kotor), Montenegro. The venue provides an inspiring setting that combines professional conference infrastructure with the natural beauty of the Adriatic coast.
Contact Details
For further information or any inquiries, please contact the Organizing Committee at info@maom.org.
The organizers look forward to welcoming attendees in June 2026 at ICMO 2026 — Sustainability by Design: Rethinking Strategy, People & Digital Futures, in Montenegro.