Call for Proposals

The global economic landscape is increasingly defined by the emergence of complex ecosystems. From the rapid growth of digital public infrastructure to the rise of regional innovation hubs, firms no longer compete in isolation. Success now requires navigating a unique confluence of interorganizational networks, agglomerations, national and pan-national regulatory institutions and actors, academic institutions, R&D labs, and venture capital. The conference theme explores how strategy and entrepreneurial activity interacts with institutional contexts to create, sustain, and reconfigure competitive advantage in rapidly transforming competitive landscape. We invite researchers to explore how firms orchestrate internal and external resources to navigate institutional complexities and leverage these ecosystems for strategic advantage and entrepreneurial activity.

We hope through the India Strategy Conference 2026, we will be able to bring together researchers, educators, and managers to a common platform for discussing these issues and to enable the global community of strategy scholars and practitioners to engage with these phenomena.

We encourage submissions of proposals that are empirical (qualitative or quantitative), conceptual or purely theoretical in nature and employ strategic management and entrepreneurship theories to investigate the role and impact of ecosystems on strategy, entrepreneurship and strategic decision-making. We also welcome proposals to carry out simulations, systematic literature reviews or meta-analysis on the topic. Submissions aligned with the conference theme may address, but are not limited to, the following:

• How do firms interact with and shape their institutional environments to achieve sustainable competitive advantage?
• How do entrepreneurial ventures leverage local and global ecosystems to overcome institutional voids in emerging markets?
• What role do formal and informal institutions play in shaping the competitive dynamics and governance of platform-based ecosystems?
• How do firms reconfigure their business models and resource portfolios to integrate into emerging “green” or sustainable ecosystems?
• In what ways does the interaction between government policy (non-market strategy) and private entrepreneurship drive regional competitive advantage?
• How do incumbents adapt their corporate strategies when disrupted by agile, ecosystem-backed entrepreneurial entrants?
• What are the unique scaling and funding challenges faced by new ventures operating within nascent technological ecosystems?
• How does the orchestrator role in an ecosystem differ between traditional business groups and modern digital platforms?
• How do institutional shifts, such as regulatory changes or geopolitical alignments, necessitate the decoupling or realignment of global strategy ecosystems?
• What role does strategic human capital play in bridging the gap between entrepreneurial firms and institutional stakeholders within an ecosystem?

Scholars are invited to submit original manuscript proposals that have theoretical and/or empirical contributions which either address the conference theme or fall into one of the following tracks at the conference.