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THE “FUTURE OF EUROPE” INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, 17th Edition
– FOE 2026 –

Topic: “Global Entrepreneurship: Political Economy, Financial and International Business Perspectives”

22-23 OCTOBER 2026

FoE 2026 – Agenda

FoE 2026 – Call for papers

Book of Abstracts

The Faculty of International Business and Economics at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies is organizing the 17^th edition of the FoE International Conference on 22-23 October 2026. The event aims to bring together academics, researchers, experts from the business environment, and government representatives for presentations and debates on topics in the field of international business and economics, with a focus on the European Union.

The Conference is centered around the following themes, but not limited to them:

– Global value chains and entrepreneurial integration in international markets
– Cross-border capital flows and entrepreneurial finance
– Institutional environments and comparative entrepreneurship
– Geopolitical risk and international business strategy
– Industrial policy and international competitiveness
– Digital trade, platforms, and global market access
– Sustainable entrepreneurship and global economic transformation
– Emerging markets as hubs of international entrepreneurship
– Macroeconomic volatility and entrepreneurial decision-making in open economies
– Risk, uncertainty, and resilience in global ventures

We warmly invite academics and researchers to submit their papers by October 1^st for the FoE International Conference 2026. Join us either in person or online. We look forward to your valuable contributions as both an author and an engaged participant!

Associate Professor Carmen-Elena DOROBĂȚ

Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

Keynote title: The More We Know: How entrepreneurial judgment matters in the age of infinite knowledge

Profile

Carmen-Elena Dorobat is a PhD economist and Associate Professor in Strategic Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she also serves as Departmental Undergraduate and Postgraduate Lead. Her research covers strategic management, entrepreneurship, international trade, and institutional and political economy. Her scholarship has appeared in journals including the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, and the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought. She is co-founder of the Entrepreneurial Judgment Society, a global community of scholars and practitioners advancing the judgment-based approach to entrepreneurship. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), a Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute (USA), and has received awards such as the O.P. Alford III Prize in Political Economy (2015, 2022) and the Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Excellence in Research and Teaching (2017).

Professor Nawazish MIRZA

Excelia Business School, France

Keynote title: Climate Change and Economic Systems: Risk, Resilience and Transition.

Profile

Dr. Nawazish Mirza is a professor of finance and the director of the Disruption, Greening, Innovation, and Technological Transformation knowledge center (DIGIT) at Excelia Business School, France. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Risk Finance, Review of Accounting and Finance, and Sustainable Finance Review. With more than two decades of experience in academia and consulting across four continents, Dr. Mirza specializes in sustainable finance, financial intermediation, and financial risk management. Before transitioning to academia, he held senior roles in investment banking, asset management, and credit ratings. Dr. Mirza frequently contributes to leading international media outlets, including Bloomberg, CNBC, and China Daily. He is a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA Australia) and a Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA).

Bella GALPERIN, Dana Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship

University of Tampa, United States

Keynote title: Sustainability Leadership in Entrepreneurship: A Constructive Deviance Approach

Profile

Bella L. Galperin, Ph.D. is Dana Professor of Management and Senior Associate Director of the TECO Energy Center for Leadership at the Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa. Her interests include cross cultural leadership (in Africa and the African diaspora), entrepreneurship, ethics, and workplace deviance- both destructive and constructive. She has published in the Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, and International Business Review, Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Journal of African Business, and other journals. She co-authored two books entitled: (1) “Essentials of Leadership in Africa [Nominated for the African Business Book of the Year 2025 by the Business Council For Africa (BCA)]” (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2025) with C. Scheepers; (2) LEAD: Leadership effectiveness in Africa and the African diaspora (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) with T.R Lituchy and B.J. Punnett. She is currently associate editor for International Journal of Comparative Management and Journal of Managerial Psychology and is guest editing a special issue with colleagues in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.

She currently teaches at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate level and enjoys supervising student projects. She serves as Deputy Treasurer for the Africa Academy of Management and served as past President of International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (ISSWOV), an international academic organization. She is a board member of The Sustany Foundation, a non-profit that is committed to economic, environmental, and social responsibility in the Tampa Bay area and the Nangodi Institute, non-profit research institute located in Nangodi, Ghana that specializes in research on rural African issues, and economic development. She has worked as a consultant to firms in the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and clothing industries.

Professor Peter G. KLEIN

Baylor University, United States

Keynote title: Economics of Entrepreneurship: Past, Present, and Future

Profile

Peter G. Klein is W. W. Caruth Endowed Chair, professor of Entrepreneurship, and chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. He also serves as director of the Baugh Center’s Free Enterprise Initiative.

Dr. Klein is co-editor of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and associate editor of the Independent Review. He was previously field editor for the Journal of Business Venturing and associate editor for the Academy of Management Perspectives. He was chair of the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division and also served as chair of the Institutional and Behavioral Economics Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Dr. Klein’s 2012 book Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment (with Nicolai Foss, Cambridge University Press) won the Foundation for Economic Education Best Book Prize and has been translated into Chinese, Polish and Persian. His 2010 book The Capitalist and the Entrepreneur (Mises Institute) has been translated into Chinese and Portuguese. His newest book, Why Managers Matter: The Perils of the Bossless Company (PublicAffairs/Hachette, with Nicolai Foss), appeared in 2022. He holds an Honorary Professorship at the Beijing University of Information Science and Technology.

He received his PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in economics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has held faculty positions at the University of Missouri, the Copenhagen Business School, the University of Georgia, and Washington University in St. Louis. He was a senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers in 2000-01.

Dan LECLAIR, Ph.D.

CEO GBSN

Keynote title: Building Pathways to Prosperity: Why Business Schools Matter More Than We Think

Profile

Since 2019, Dan has been CEO of the Global Business School Network (GBSN), a Washington DC based non-profit strengthening the contributions of management education to the development needs of society. He also advises several education startups globally, as well as business schools in Brazil, Rwanda, Peru, India, Germany, and Finland.
Prior to GBSN, Dan helped transform AACSB from a US accreditor to a global thought leader and internationally respected quality assurance agency. His 19 years at AACSB includes three years as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, seven as Chief Operating Officer, and five as Chief Knowledge Officer.
Recognized globally as a business education thought leader, Dan has authored or co-authored more than 100 research reports, books, and articles and delivered more than 200 presentations in over 50 countries. He was officially recognized by the UN for pioneering efforts in the formation of its Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and is a fellow of the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) initiative.
Before AACSB, Dan was a tenured associate professor and an associate dean at the University of Tampa. He earned a PhD in economics from the University of Florida writing in game theory.

Associate Professor Matthew MCCAFFREY

University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Keynote title: On the Origin of “Knightian Uncertainty”

Profile

Matthew McCaffrey is a PhD economist and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on economics, entrepreneurship, institutions, public policy, and the history of economic thought. He is the author or editor of five books, including The Invisible Hand in Virtual Worlds: The Economic Order of Video Games (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and Frank Fetter’s Development of Economic Theory from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill (Mises Institute, 2026). His articles have been published in Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, European Management Review, History of Political Economy, and many other journals in management and social science. He is a fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, co-founder of the Entrepreneurial Judgment Society, and an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

Associate Professor Paulo Reis MOURÃO

University of Minho, Portugal

Keynote title: The Economics of Strategic Minerals: The World Learning from Central and Eastern European Economies

Profile

Paulo Reis Mourão is a Professor of Economics at the University of Minho, Portugal, with a distinguished academic and research career in Public Finance, Institutional Economics, and Economic Policy. He has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals and authored several books addressing the intersection of economics and society. His work is recognized for its analytical depth and policy relevance, particularly in the context of European economic governance. Professor Mourão is a frequent speaker at international conferences and contributes regularly to public economic discourse. His insights are especially valued in discussions on fiscal sustainability, governance, and the socio-economic challenges facing modern economies.

Professor Cristina NEESHAM

Newcastle University, United Kingdom

Keynote title: AI BigTech and the Rest of Us: New Questions for Political Economy

Profile

Cristina Neesham (PhD) is a business ethicist and a former Associate Dean and Professor of Business Ethics and Sustainability at Newcastle University Business School (UK). She is currently Adjunct Professor at Swinburne School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University (Australia). Cristina has also held academic positions at Monash Business School (Australia), University of Paris Nanterre (France), and University of Adelaide (Australia). As a scholar and public intellectual, Cristina applies philosophical methods to reshape academic and public thought about how global sustainability can be achieved, how responsible innovation in digital technologies can assist in achieving it, and how business schools can better educate ethical leaders for a sustainable future. A recipient of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) UK grant, she works in inter-disciplinary teams (with colleagues in computing and cybersecurity, finance and accounting, law, media and cultures, medicine, linguistics) to apply ethics and responsibility principles and frameworks in practical contexts of wide societal interest (global public health, smart homes, online media). Her work in artificial intelligence (AI) ethics addresses key policy issues in digital technology governance and regulation.

Canada–Romania Strategic Partnership Roundtable: “Transatlantic Cooperation in Innovation, Security and Trade”

How can Canada and Romania build a stronger strategic partnership over the next decade? This roundtable explores shared priorities in trade, investment, innovation, and security, bringing academic and institutional perspectives together to shape a forward-looking vision and identify concrete avenues for bilateral cooperation.

EU–MERCOSUR Research Roundtable: “Economic Opportunities, Challenges and Perspectives for International Cooperation”

Against the backdrop of evolving EU–MERCOSUR economic relations, this roundtable examines the implications for Romania and Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on trade opportunities, investment, technological cooperation, and global value chains. The event encourages international academic dialogue, knowledge exchange, and new collaborative research initiatives.

Educators Forum in Teaching international business and economics

The Forum provides a platform for academics and practitioners to exchange ideas on teaching, research, and innovation in international business and economics. Participants will explore new approaches to education and strengthen collaboration in support of a more resilient and inclusive global economy.

Workshop on Developing Academic Writing

The Workshop continues as a dedicated event for PhD students and early-career researchers interested in current topics in economics and business research.

Organized in collaboration with the Laboratory on the Social Acceptability of Natural Resources’ Exploitation (LASERN) at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), Canada, the workshop provides participants with the opportunity to refine their research ideas, receive expert feedback, and engage in international academic dialogue. The workshop aims to support the development of high-quality research and academic writing skills in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment.

Applicants are invited to submit a scientific project proposal by October 1, 2026. Interested persons may obtain additional details from the EAI Doctoral School.

European Citizens Agora

We continue the collaboration with the European Institute of Romania and the EUROPE DIRECT Centre Bucharest through a dedicated debate on a topical European Union issue of particular relevance to students.

Designed to encourage dialogue and active participation, the event will provide students with the opportunity to engage with experts and discuss current European challenges and opportunities. The debate will be conducted in Romanian.

Deadlines

Paper Submission Information

Template – Model paper with Instructions for Authors

Conference fees – Copyright Statement

Publication opportunities

Panels & Contacts

Scientific Committee and Organizing Committee

Review Policy

Call for Reviewers – Guide for Reviewers

FoE Past Editions

Book of Abstracts – Past Editions

ACADEMIC PARTNERS