Introduction

In an era characterised by rapid technological advancement, shifting consumer demand, and increasing environmental uncertainty, businesses face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Navigating these dynamic landscapes requires more than traditional approaches, which necessitate a commitment to innovation, sustainability, and adaptability. Organisations must embrace new paradigms that not only drive profitability but also promote social responsibility and environmental stewardship. By fostering a culture of innovation, organizations can discover creative solutions to complex problems, thereby ensuring that they remain competitive in an ever-evolving marketplace. Simultaneously, integrating sustainability into business strategies is no longer optional. It is a critical component of long-term success and global responsibility. The forward path involves rethinking traditional business models, leveraging cutting-edge technologies, and meaningfully engaging stakeholders. The primary objective of this conference is to establish an impactful platform for promoting connections, collaboration, and the exchange of diverse research findings and problem-solving methodologies in the business field. We invite you to submit papers that align with various tracks of the conference.

Conference Structure

The conference seeks to attract a wide range of contributions, both scholarly and industry experts. As such it will include the following: Research Paper presentations; Poster Exhibitions; Post Graduate Symposium and Paper-a-thon; Panel Discussions; and Workshops/Masterclasses.

Conference Subject Areas

The conference covers a variety of business areas, including Marketing; Business Management; Accounting & Finance; Information Systems; Hospitality Management; Tourism Management; Supply Chain Management; Entrepreneurship; Business Theories and Research Methods.

Conference Tracks

The conference focuses on a wide range of cutting-edge topics in today’s dynamic and fast-changing business environment. While it remains open to different topics, specifically it hopes to attract papers on resilience and sustainability; innovation and value creation; new strategies and business models; digital technologies; emerging markets; leadership & governance; opportunity recognition and entrepreneurship; all within the subject areas outlined above.

Special Themes

The conference will also run special themes on:

a)     Youth entrepreneurship. Botswana youth suffer from high unemployment and entrepreneurship can be a gamechanger. Discussions will focus around using entrepreneurship as an economic empowerment tool for youth.

b)     Special economic zones and hubs. To diversify the economy away from mining, Botswana has adopted a special economic zones (SEZ) strategy among others, building sector hubs to facilitate an export-driven economy. Selibe-Phikwe SEZ has been recognised as a mixed base-metal beneficiation city focusing on iron and steel production, agro-processing, pharmaceutical and medical devises, garments and textiles.

c)     Citizen beneficiation. At the heart of the Botswana’s ambitious journey through Vision 2036 is reaching a high income themed “Achieving prosperity for all”. Several citizen economic empowerment initiatives including diamond beneficiation have gained momentum. Successful approaches to beneficiation will be explored.

Keynote Speaker:

Luke Pittaway

Director of Innovation, Copeland Professor of Entrepreneurship

University of Ohio

Athens, Ohio, United States

Key Dates:

Publication

All conference proceedings shall be published with an ISSN.

High quality papers will be selected for publication in the special issue of the Botswana Journal of Business. The conference will also award best papers.

Conference Fees

• Early bird registration: US$ 300
• Late registration: US$ 350
• Graduate early registration: US$ 100
• Graduate late registration: US$ 150
• Accompanying persons: US$ 100
• Business Community: US$ 200

For more information on templates, editorial, bookings, etc. please visit the link below:

https://conferences.ub.bw/index.php/fobconference2025/ICBIG6. For enquiries please email: fobconference@ub.ac.bw.

Mr. Thuso Mphela Prof. Jaloni Pansiri

Conference Chair                                                                              Acting Dean

University of Botswana                                                                      University of Botswana

Faculty of Business                                                                            Faculty of Business

Gaborone, Botswana                                                                           Gaborone, Botswana