4th International Conference on Global, Sustainable Innovation: Towards Sustainable Business, Energy and Society

InnoLab is hosting the annual conference of the trilateral research network between Innolab, CIMR (UK), and Kogod School of Business (US) on sustainable innovation. The discussion will centre on sustainability transitions and the role universities and other ecosystem actors can play in preparing and enabling them.

This year’s meeting  brings together researchers through a range of special sessions, paper development sessions, and a proposal development workshop (on the 11th of June). At the proposal development workshop participants are invited to present ideas and proposals for project applications aimed at securing international EU funding. Please indicate your interest to participate in the proposal development when registering to the conference and let us know which projects or tenders you would like to bring forth.

At the core of the conference are the paper development sessions, where researchers can present their work-in-progress and benefit from the input of senior scholars and journal editors as discussants. These sessions are open to everyone, with a particular encouragement for early-career researchers and doctoral candidates to participate and gain valuable feedback and experience in a supportive and welcoming setting. 

We welcome contributions that broaden our understanding of the processes advancing sustainable business, energy, and society. This includes wide range of disciplines, for example business, technology and industrial management, economics, administrative sciences and communications, while contributors from other fields and domains are equally welcome. We seek to enable inclusive multidisciplinary discourse and sharing. Relevant thematic areas include, for example: Society & Systems; Transformational Innovation and Industrial Renewal; Consumer and User Innovation; Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency; Digitalization and Decarbonization; and Sustainable and Green Finance, ESG Reporting. 

You can register to present at the conference through this link. Registration will close 25 April 2025 and the submission deadline for papers or presentations will be 25 May 2025, so your discussant can provide effective feedback. You can find more details through the attached flyer or by getting in touch with Martin Meyer (martin.meyer@uwasa.fi) or Ella Tolonen (ella.tolonen@uwasa.fi).  

Confirmed contributors and participants 

Practice perspectives

Representatives from our industrial partners will offer practice perspectives via impulse lectures and a scene-setting panel to open the conference. Juha Kytölä, Director of R&D and Engineering at Wärtsilä, CTO of the year 2023,  will share his perspective in the opening session in an interview with our keynote speakers. 

Opening and closing keynote speakers 

• Gary Knight, Willamette University, President, Academy of International Business
• Helen Lawton Smith, CIMR, Birkbeck University of London, UK
• Darren Dalcher, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University UK; will offer closing remarks to the conference

Plenary speakers and confirmed contributors   

• Filippo di Pietro, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, & Kevin Campbell, Stirling Business School, Scotland, “Factors affecting the pace of transition to low carbon energy systems”
• Jie Wu, University of Aberdeen, Africa-Asia Centre for Sustainability, “Innovation Strategies for New Capabilities and Sustainability in the Digital Age”
• Jouni K Juntunen, University of Vaasa, InnoLab, “Configuring partnership portfolios for enhanced ESG performance: A QCA analysis”
• Martin Meyer, University of Vaasa, InnoLab, “Absorptive capacity for international talent – towards a research agenda”
• Tomasz Mroczkowski, American University, Kogod School of Business, “The Multipolar world economy of 2035”
• Tommi Lehtonen, University of Vaasa, School of Marketing & Communications and InnoLab, “Ethics of genetically modified biofuels”
• Anupam Dutta, University of Vaasa, InnoLab, School of Accounting & Finance, and InnoLab, “Climate risk and clean water investments: Implications for sustainable development”
• Zaheer Khan, University of Aberdeen & University of Vaasa, “Entrepreneurial ecosystems as boundary spanners in supporting internationalisation”
• Julio Serrano; Ausrine Šilenskytė, Rodrigo Rabetino, University of Vaasa, School of Management, “Addressing sustainability challenges by utilizing advanced technologies in the era of deglobalization”
• Andrius Bartminas & Ausrine Šilenskytė, University of Vaasa, School of Management, “Blockchain-based business models and sustainability in international business” 

See the whole programme: