The ESCA Africa Case Conference invites educators, researchers, practitioners, and doctoral candidates to submit case studies and case projects that reflect African business realities, entrepreneurial dynamics, managerial decision-making challenges, and innovation ecosystems.
The conference provides a developmental and collaborative space to strengthen case writing, case teaching, and case dissemination practices across Africa, while ensuring global teaching relevance.
Our new Global Business Student Changemaker program is designed to provide unique experiences for GBSN member students that
Catalyse international collaboration and virtual global mobility.
Contribute to sustainable development and community engagement.
Advance academic excellence and real-world problem-solving
Every selected student who participates in the program is formally recognised as a “Changemaker” (a recognition they can add to their CVs and LinkedIn), and gains access to:
an intensive, multi-university and interdisciplinary Global Sustainability Project Bootcamp run by How to Change the World
a series of curated, highly interactive global virtual events led by GBSN
In the first year, more than 200 students from 18 inaugural Changemaker partner schools have participated, with overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Looking to experience simulation learning? Marketplace Simulation invites business school faculty to join the upcoming Train the Trainer workshop in Knoxville, TN, USA, May 12–15, 2026.
These are immersive, hands-on workshops where professors play our simulations firsthand and discover new ways to teach, coach, and connect with students. You won’t just hear about experiential learning—you’ll experience it for yourself.
It’s a joy for us to bring educators together from around the world, and these events are some of the most meaningful things we do.
Attendees at the New Delhi workshop will get to play our best-selling Conscious Capitalism simulation and attendees in Knoxville will play our very popular Venture Strategy simulation. Those who stay for the fourth day will also get to play our upcoming Chocolate Simulation.
Both events are free to attend. We provide meals, materials, and time to think deeply about what great teaching can look like.
In coordination with Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, GBSN invites business schools from Africa and around the world to contribute to the emerging Logistics for Africa initiative, a Pan-African Logistics Education Hub.
The initial phase focuses on bringing institutional and faculty expertise together to co-develop an asynchronous, online graduate program in logistics designed to address the logistics and supply chain challenges facing Africa. The program will be supported and delivered through the Edinburgh Business School online learning platform, a world-class platform drawing on decades of experience in inspiring and empowering students globally through a flexible and accessible delivery model.
Opportunities to contribute include:
Program Partner – Preference for African institutions with expertise in logistics, supply chain management or transport and ability to contextualize learning through local cases, examples, etc.
You will work with the program design & technology teams to develop one or more courses for inclusion in the graduate degree program.
Knowledge Partner – Institutions anywhere in the world who wish to contribute expertise, support course design, strengthen academic and professional networks, and make a difference.
Delivery Partner – Institutions in Africa interested in providing local support to participating students [a Delivery Partner could also be a Program Partner]
Together, we will:
Bring business schools across Africa together to support each other in resolving real world problems with sustained and measurable societal impact.
Build communities of highly skilled logistics and transport professionals to meet the needs of health logistics, agro-logistics and other vital sectors across Africa
Many African business schools have been adopting research models that are popular in the United States and Europe. Demonstrating success with such models has many benefits, including increasing legitimacy (e.g., international accreditation) and reputation/rankings. But is it a good fit? Are there trade offs, especially when it comes to relevance and impact? This session will explore this question and offer insights to scholars and leaders of business schools for navigating the complex and changing research environment in Africa.
The mission of Africa Academy of Management (AFAM) is “to foster the general advancement of knowledge and scholarship in the theory and practice of management among African scholars and/or academics interested in management and organization issues in Africa”. This exciting organization brings together people with an interest in management in Africa. Membership in AFAM provides a platform for building collaborative and supportive relationships for and with African and other scholars in the Diaspora who engage in, or who have an interest in research on management and organizations in Africa.
The future of Fintech is arriving and it’s changing the world. New Fintech-related opportunities are being embraced across sectors, giving rise to innovative ideas and new needs for knowledge and skills. Business schools are increasingly looking to meet that need.
GBSN and the CFTE are bringing together representatives from business schools around the world who share an interest in the rapidly transforming world of financial technology and the important role of business educators in realizing the potential of this specialized and ever growing industry.
We invite educators and leaders who specialize in this area from around the world to join a two-part event:
First, hear from panelists discussing the current state of fintech at their school and in their region, as well as their perspective of opportunities and challenges.
Second, join a focused discussion of the potential for the Fintech & Entrepreneurship Impact Community to serve continued development in one of three key areas: masters level programs and curricula, executive education, and entrepreneurship programs and outreach.
Through this roundtable discussion, we hope to create and support a community that will cultivate the exchange of best practices, share resources, and foster collective action through collaboration as we move forward in building a better financial future for all of us.
Background
In 2022, the Global Business School Network (GBSN) and the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE) announced a partnership to form the GBSN-CFTE Center for Excellence in FinTech.
The Center for Excellence aims to bring together academics and practitioners from around the world to dissect and diversify digital technological changes impacting banking, insurance, and other sectors of the finance industry. The focus is to identify the challenges that developing countries face going from their traditional financial infrastructures, to a revolutionized one.
The Fintech and Entrepreneurship Impact Community operates as a network of academics focused on exchanging best practices, sharing resources, and fostering collective action to increase quality fintech education in all corners of the world.
Date & Time
Thursday, 17 November
Singapore: 10:00 PM
Hong Kong: 10:00 PM
Sao Paolo: 11:00 AM
Washington DC: 9:00 AM
Lagos: 3:00 PM
Cape Town: 4:00 PM
Dubai: 6:00 PM
Mumbai: 7:30 PM
Agenda
9:00
Opening Segment (2 minutes) Introduction to the session and housekeeping Julie LaBelle, Member Engagement Coordinator, GBSN
9:02 – 9:04
Welcome & Introduction (3 minutes) General intro about Impact Communities Dan LeClair, CEO, GBSN
9:04-9:06
General introduction about the panelists Juliane Iannarelli, Senior Advisor, GBSN
9:06 – 9:10
Share a few words about the partnership & Center for Excellence (4 min) Tram Anh Nguyen, Co-Founder, CFTE
Panel Presentations (30 min, 10 min each)
9:10 – 9:20
Seen-Meng Chew, Director at ASPA and Associate Dean for External Engagement, The Chinese University in Hong Kong (10 min)
9:20-9:25
Ayman Ismail, Associate Professor Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship & Founding Director at AUC Venture Lab, American University in Cairo (5 min)
9:25-9:30
Lina Zalat, Associate Director at AUC Venture Lab, American University at Cairo (5 min)
9:30-9:40
Markos Zahariadis, Professor and Chair in Financial Technology & Information Systems, Alliance Manchester Business School) (10 min)
GBSN Impact Communities bring together scholars and business practitioners to address management and entrepreneurship challenges relevant to emerging economies. This creates knowledge, experiences, and relationships. Interest in forming learning communities is growing, with new ones emerging in human rights, sustainable energy, healthcare, and community-engaged learning.
The task of universities and business schools is “to prepare graduates for jobs that do not yet exist.” These jobs of the future are being created right now by leading businesses worldwide.
In the second session of this Innovation Series Korn Ferry and GBSN are excited to host Esina Alic, CEO of Res Novae Group and former President and CEO of Insitu Inc, an unmanned aviation company, to explore the urban air mobility jobs that don’t exist yet. We will discuss how this industry developed, the current landscape of the unmanned industry, and how companies are continuing to innovate. Additionally, we will consider the hard and soft skillsets business schools need to equip their student with to help them be competitive in the urban air mobility sector. We encourage business students and alumni, as well as the staff and faculty who are helping them navigate careers in a rapidly changing world to join us for this interactive session.
Principal, Regional Account Lead and Program Director Korn Ferry USA
Date & Time
Wednesday, 27 July
9:00am – Washington DC 8:00am – Lima 2:00pm – London 3:00pm Geneva /Cape Town 4:00pm Nairobi 6:30pm Mumbai 9:00pm Singapore 10:00pm Tokyo
About the Partner
About Korn Ferry
Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm that works with its clients to design optimal organization structures, roles, and responsibilities. Korn Ferry helps them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward and motivate their workforce while developing professionals as they navigate and advance their careers.
Its 10,000 experts in more than 50 countries deliver on five core areas: Organization Strategy, Assessment & Succession, Talent Acquisition, Leadership & Professional Development and Total Rewards.
War and conflict are a reality of life throughout the world. While much is written about the impact of violence and disorder, how people and organisations adapt to these environments is still poorly understood. This seminar will look at the often hidden story of organisational actors managing through and beyond violent conflict, building businesses, delivering services and navigating change processes in environments of violence and peacebuilding. In this, it argues that ethno-political conflict and war are organisational as well as a political processes, and that moving beyond conflict cannot be successfully achieved without a recognition of organisational actors as key to that resolution process. The seminar will draw on data from three cases: Northern Ireland, The Basque Country and Bosnia.
Moderator
Dr Christina Bache, Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science, IDEAS Chair, United Nations, Principles for Responsible Management Education, Working Group on Business for Peace
Speaker
Dr Joanne Murphy, Reader in Leadership and Organisational Change and Co Director of the Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Organisation, Queen’s Management School, Belfast.
Dr Joanne Murphy is a Reader in Leadership and Organisational Change and the Co-Director of the centre for Leadership, Ethics and Organisation, Queen’s Management School. She is also a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and a Senior Fellow of Northern Ireland’s policy Think Tank – Pivotal. Her research explores leadership, change and organisational development in political volatility, including environments affected by ethno-political conflict. She has worked extensively with business, government, not for profits and police and security organisations to build leadership capacity, management change and achieve resilience. Her new book – Management and War: How Organisations Navigate Conflict and Build Peace, was published in August 2020. Joanne’s full profile can be accessed here.
Join Kislaya Prasad, academic director of the Center for Global Business as he hosts Emmanuelle Ganne of the World Trade Organization to discuss the “Global Trade During COVID 19: WTO Response.” Topics to be discussed include how global trade has been impacted by the pandemic, WTO’s responses worldwide, tools it has to support the economic recovery, and how countries are thinking about the future of trade, through the lens of an expert from the WTO.
Emmanuelle Ganne is a senior analyst in the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO) where she leads WTO work on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and blockchain and conducts research on MSMEs, global value chains, services, and digital technologies. She is the author of a recently published WTO book entitled “Can Blockchain Revolutionize International Trade?”. Prior to this, she held various positions at the WTO, including as counselor to Director-General Pascal Lamy, and in the Accessions Division where she assessed trade policies of governments wishing to join the WTO and advised them on how to improve their business environment. From 2015 to 2017, she worked as vice-president and managing director for Europe at the Allam Advisory Group (AAG), a team of former C-level executives and senior diplomats that specializes in helping businesses expand their operations globally. Ganne is a 2009 Yale World Fellow.
