The vision of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) is to provide world-class academic degrees and professional qualifications that are nationally entrenched, regionally recognized and globally relevant. One of the functional areas of UPSA is Research and Community Service.
Service in the UPSA community means recognizing social needs and applying our strengths and knowledge to address those needs. One of those channels is the establishment of the International Conference on Business Management and Entrepreneurial Development (ICBMED).
The ICBMED is the flagship conference of the UPSA. The conference is designed by the technical experts of the University, and other local and international affiliate institutions with an aim to cover all relevant and critical areas of the subject of Entrepreneurship Development, Management and Marketing.
The 2023 edition of ICBMED is the 8th in its trail with the theme: “Business Growth, Structural Change and Economic Development in Periods of Economic Crises.”
Thus annually, ICBMED selects a relevant challenging issue and provides a forum to interrogate the issue and propose research-based solutions.
ICMED thus seeks to enable the university to expand the frontiers of knowledge in a way that ties into its vision. ICBMED focuses on scholarship (the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge) through scientific research processes and methods, as well as Professionalism (the application of knowledge for development in an ethical way) for the competitiveness of firms and industries, both locally and internationally.
The global economy has recorded its weakest growth profile since 2021, which is largely attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Such economic crisis periods may require countries (especially, highly import-dependent economies) to exploit opportunities for structural change to drive economic development in an attempt to provide an enabling environment for business growth and sustainability.
Structural reforms are thought to stimulate productivity and growth by improving the efficiency of markets and the broader economic environment.
Against this background, how firms respond to volatile and unstable market conditions with limited resources for survival and successful business continuity in times of economic uncertainty and recovery is imperative. Hence, exploring how firms respond in periods of economic crisis, and providing managerially relevant implications is timely and critical.
It is also important for scholars and researchers to explore potential structural changes that could drive economic development and business growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For this purpose, the 2023 ICBMED conference provides an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, business practitioners, policymakers and educators to discuss and explore the issues relevant to the conference theme.
The general public is invited.
The 8th edition of the ICBMED 2023 takes place on April 26-27, 2023 via virtual. For further information, contact: conference-ICBMED@upsamail.edu.gh, +233 244 291 579. Kindly visit www.upsa.edu.gh on how to participate freely in the conference.