Conference Tracks and Track Chairs 2026

2026 Conference Track Descriptions and Track Chairs

For more information concerning a specific track, please contact the respective track chair.

Accounting, Finance and Economics

Chair: Juan Pablo Dávila Velásquez, INALDE Business School, University of La Sabana (juan.davila@inalde.edu.co)
Co-Chair: Charles Hilterbrand, University of Mississippi (chilterbrand@bus.olemiss.edu)
Co-Chair: Anna Czegledi, Conestoga College – School of Business (aczegledi@conestogac.on.ca)

The round-table discussions in our friendly and supportive track welcome cases in all areas of finance, accounting, and economics dealing with decision dilemmas in companies or non-profit organizations in any country around the globe. Preference will be given to decision-focused cases based on primary sources (interviews and field visits). We will also consider decision-focused cases based on secondary sources (i.e., legal proceedings, SEC filings, conference calls, and annual reports). Although cases may be disguised, they must be based on actual events and real people in real organizations. Cases discussed concern large and small entities, including corporate investments, pension funds, mutual funds, commercial and investment banks, and personal finance and general economic issues. Finance cases typically focus on domestic or international topics, such as corporate finance, investments, capital markets, personal finance, banking, and wealth management. Accounting case topics generally focus on financial and managerial accounting, corporate and personal tax, ethics, fraud, and social responsibility issues. Economics cases tend to focus more on macro issues in the domestic and international economies.

Cases Written in Chinese Language

Chair: William X. Wei, Algoma University (weiw@algomau.ca)
Co-Chair: Shimin Chen, China Europe International Business School Case Centre (cshimin@ceibs.edu)
Co-Chair: Haibo Hu, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics (hbhu@jxufe.edu.cn)

The track invites all the cases written in Chinese that present contemporary management topics in China and international context. Issues from all areas are welcome: business innovation, e-commerce, investment, human resource, sustainable development, green economy, marketing, operation strategy, etc.

北美案例协会年会诚邀您投稿，主题为中国国有企业/中小型企业在新时代下的管理问题探讨，主题包括但不限于：商业模式创新，电子商务，投资，人力资源管理，可持续发展，绿色经济，市场营销，运营战略等。

Cases Written in Spanish

Chair: Lorena A. Palacios Chacon, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico (lapalaciosch@tec.mx)

The main characteristic of the Spanish track is its multidisciplinary nature. Just like other language tracks, the Spanish track receives cases from all the areas (marketing, business strategy, human resources, economy, finance, information technology,…). The feedback is also multidisciplinary, because the professors in this track come from each of the aforementioned disciplines. The result is that this track fosters an excellent environment as it provides experience of an enormous variety of academic and professional backgrounds that help authors to approach proposed cases with a wider vision than the area itself.

El track de casos en español tiene como particularidad principal su enfoque multidisciplinar. A diferencia de la mayoría de los otros tracks, que están centrados en las divisiones empresariales o en las funciones gerenciales, el track de casos en español recibe casos de todas las áreas (marketing, estrategia, recursos humanos, economía, finanzas, sistemas de información….). La retroalimentación es, a su vez, multidisciplinar dado que los profesores que componen el track proceden de cualquier de las disciplinas citadas. Ello convierte a este track es un excelente banco de pruebas porque permite reproducir la enorme variedad de experiencias académicas y profesionales que pueden encontrarse en el aula y así ayudar a completar los casos propuestos con una visión más allá de la propia área.

Corporate Governance and Ethics

Chair: Vijaya Zinnoury, University of Denver (vijaya.zinnoury@du.edu)
Co-Chair: Theresa Coates, Limestone College (coatestheresa@yahoo.com)

Ethical lapses and corporate scandals around the world continue to impact our business landscape prompting a renewed interest in the subject of corporate governance and ethics. We welcome you to submit your decision-oriented case/s that deal with the following and other pertinent corporate governance and ethics topics.

• Ethical lapses that demand corporate governance restructuring.
• Content, process, structure embedded in corporate governance and ethics decisions and issues.
• Corporate and/ or individual behavior in leadership or managers of organizations.
• Balancing the interests of various stakeholder groups, including shareholders, partners, suppliers, employees, community, local governments, customers.
• Issues pertaining to large for-profit organizations, small to medium family businesses, non-profit organizations, NGOs, and social enterprises.
• Cross-cultural dimensions of corporate governance, leadership, and ethics.

Digital Technologies and Operations

Chair: Redwan Siddiqui, University of Waterloo (redwan.siddiqui@uwaterloo.ca)
Co-chair: Fatih Yegul, Conestoga College (Fyegul@conestogac.on.ca)

This track invites cases in two major fields:

• Digital Technologies focuses on transformation technologies (e.g.: artificial intelligence, mobility, cloud, IOT, blockchain, big data, etc.) and its impact on today’s organizations. We encourage interdisciplinary research related to how digital technologies can improve operational performance in an organization.
• Operations focuses on the management of processes for producing and delivering goods and services within an organization. Decision topics include, but are not limited to, capacity planning, data analytics, demand forecasting, facility layout, lean systems, process design, process improvement, process optimization, operational excellence, project management, quality management, supply chain management, logistics, purchasing, innovation and scheduling.

Entrepreneurship, Family and Small Business

Chair: Sonia Mehrotra, S.P. Mandali’s Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (sonia.mehrotra@welingkar.org)
Co-chair: Sarah Holtzen, Missouri Southern State University (holtzen-s@mssu.edu)

This track is composed of two research streams:

• The first research stream is family business. In the family business stream, we welcome cases focusing on the heterogeneity of family businesses, including differences arising from intergenerational intentions, family ownership / management involvement, and family ownership dispersion. Cases involving the professionalization of family businesses, exit strategies, the internationalization of family firms, and copreneurship issues are also welcome. Family business cases that focus on areas such as knowledge transfer, stakeholder management, environmental and sustainability practices, corporate social performance, financial performance, strategic choices, and innovation are also appropriate for this track.
• The second research stream centers around entrepreneurship and small business management. In this second stream, we welcome cases that exemplify the role of prior knowledge and social ties in entrepreneurial awareness, entrepreneurial intentions, opportunity recognition, and new venture performance. Cases focused on entrepreneurial failure are particularly welcome. We also encourage submissions of cases analyzing entrepreneurship and small business management by members of minority groups including as military service veterans, women, ethnic minority, and immigrant entrepreneurs. Cases based on the Lean LaunchPad or cases with an emphasis on entrepreneurship and small business management education and teaching strategies are ideally suited for this research stream.

Hospitality and Tourism

Chair: Vijaya Zinnoury, University of Denver (vijaya.zinnoury@du.edu)
Co-Chair: H.G. Parsa, University of Denver (Haragopal.Parsa@du.edu)

Recent U.S. tariffs on trading partners have unleashed chaos in global markets. Geopolitical tensions and wars continue to wreak havoc causing major disruptions to established plans for growth and prosperity in trade and business across the Hospitality and Tourism industries. Companies, small and large, are facing unprecedented challenges in navigating supply chain shortages, changes in immigration rules, increased cost of doing business, and a decline in consumer spending. We welcome you to submit your decision-oriented case/s to our track. Below is a suggested list of topics.

• How are companies in the Hotel & Tourism sectors navigating the new normal?
• Identifying pertinent strategies and adopting new decision-making processes to ensure continuity.
• Role of AI in attracting and retaining customers.
• Enhancing communication with stakeholders and combating the spread of misinformation.
• Balancing the interests of internal and external stakeholders, including the community, and governments.
• Sensing and seeking new opportunities in the context of global warming.
• Instituting mechanisms to deal with policy and cross-cultural issues that multinational companies in the Tourism Hospitality industries encounter.

Marketing

Chair: Silvia Cacho Elizondo, IPADE University (s.cacho@ipade.mx)
Co-Chair: Michael Goldman, University of San Francisco (mmgoldman@usfca.edu)

The Marketing track is focused on understanding, acquiring, retaining, and growing customers within domestic and international markets. We welcome cases set in B2B and B2C contexts, exploring the wide range of possible Marketing learning outcomes. Typical topics include the marketing environment, value creation process, consumer & buyer behavior, product, branding, pricing, channel, and communication strategies & metrics. Given the rapidly changing technology, media, and consumer contexts, we look forward to receiving quality cases exploring emerging digital and social media marketing topics.

International Business

Chair: Grishma Shah, Manhattan College (grishma.shah@manhattan.edu)

The International Business track seeks cases exploring a wide range of topics including, but not limited to foreign market entry, international mergers and acquisitions, global strategic alliances, global product adaptation and management, market entry failures and exit strategies as well as cross-cultural management and issues related to the global political economy.

Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Chair: Jasmin Lin, Robert Morris University (lin@rmu.edu)

There are two research streams for this track:

• First, cases in this track center themselves in the scholarship of organizational behavior. This includes attitudes and perception, emotions and moods, decision-making, personality, motivation, leadership, conflict management, organizational culture, organizational change, group and team dynamics, communication, negotiations, organizational power and politics, diversity, job satisfaction, and stress management.
• Second, cases under the umbrella of human resources include topical materials on human resources laws / regulation, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, performance management, compensation, safety and health, employee and union relations, discipline, training, development, and the integration of AI tools such as automated screening, predictive analytics, and performance monitoring systems. Cases can incorporate legal and ethical dilemmas as these pertain to the fields of organizational behavior or human resources.

Pedagogy & Research

Chair: Kristy Williams, College of Business, Jackson State University (j01041383@jsums.edu)
Co-Chair: Daisy Wang, East Stroudsburg University (dwang2@esu.edu)
Co-Chair: Bruce Thomson, MacEwan University (thomsons2@macewan.ca)

The case method has evolved significantly in recent decades, expanding beyond traditional written cases to include short cases, video cases, graphic cases, live cases, and raw cases. These innovations create new opportunities for experiential, interdisciplinary, and globally relevant learning while also presenting challenges for case authors, educators, and researchers. Such challenges may include interpreting diverse socio-economic, cultural, political, and geographic contexts, ensuring cases reach global audiences, and designing cases that translate across disciplines and learning environments.

This track invites submissions that examine the practice and scholarship of case teaching and case-based research in global business education.

The submissions are invited in two clusters:

Group #1: Scholarship of Case Teaching and Learning – research on case pedagogy, innovative case formats, classroom implementation, and learning outcomes across diverse contexts.

Group #2: Conducting Case-based Research – research using case methods to investigate business phenomena and contribute to theory building, theory testing, and theory extension through qualitative or mixed-method approaches.

The track also welcomes submissions on innovative and globally relevant case development and teaching approaches, including emerging technologies such as AI-supported case development, digital case formats, and technology-enabled case teaching.

Social Impact and Sustainability

Chair: Maria A Ballesteros-Sola, California State University Channel Islands (Maria.Ballesteros-Sola@csuci.edu)
Co-Chair: Stephanie Raible, University of Delaware (sraible@udel.edu)

Participants in this track offer and receive developmental feedback on teaching cases that relate to socially and environmentally responsible organizations, including but not limited to, social entrepreneurship, social impact, social business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), non-profit organizations, impact investment/ESG, micro-finance/micro-credits, social crowdfunding, social innovation, certified B Corps, and related legal structures such as benefit corporations among others. The cases can be related to any functional area (Marketing, Finance, Accounting, HR, Operations, etc.) and to any vertical industry. We also encourage submissions from different geographical perspectives as NACRA keeps growing its international presence. Feel free to reach out to the Chair if you want to discuss with her if this track is the right fit for your submission.

John Seeger Start-Up Case Workshop

Chair: John Varlaro, Johnson & Wales University (john.varlaro@jwu.edu)

The workshop is appropriate for newer case authors wishing to learn how to develop effective teaching cases and instructor manuals, as well as experienced authors looking for advice on a new case approach. Start-up cases may deal with any topic in an academic discipline where dynamic classroom discussions would be useful. Although most cases presented at NACRA address business functional areas, case ideas are invited and encouraged from other areas and disciples, including education, law, social work, and healthcare administration and policy. Like start-up businesses, these cases are in an early stage of development, similar to research-in-progress papers or posters at many academic conferences. Whereas a typical completed case is 8-10 pages of single-spaced text plus 5 or more pages of exhibits, a start-up case is no longer than 2 pages, single-spaced. Start-up cases must be original work based on real events, real people, and real organizations, and must not have been previously published or accepted for publication elsewhere (in journals, books, or online). By submitting a two-page start-up case, you are committing to having at least one author attend the NACRA conference and participate in the start-up case workshop. Workshop authors will also be invited to participate in the roundtable tracks.

Strategy and Policy

Chair: Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, University of Nebraska Omaha (erinpmiles@unomaha.edu)
Co-Chair: Terry McGovern, University of Wisconsin-Parkside (mcgovert@uwp.edu)
Co-Chair: Lief Lundmark, University of Nebraska Omaha (llundmark@unomaha.edu)

The Strategy and Policy track is focused on understanding how organizations compete and win in today’s global environment. Cases explore how firms can develop, implement, and evaluate strategies that allow them to achieve superior firm performance and sustain it over the long run. Typical topics include identifying industry environments, recognizing geo-political shifts that impact the strategic direction of organizations, the identification of resources, capabilities and organization structure, the role of the general manager, identification and evaluation of strategic choices, strategy implementation, assessment of organizational performance, managing growth, dealing with competitive threats, managing corporate strategies and structures, and dealing with rapidly evolving situations and environments. The Strategy and Policy track welcomes cases exploring both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations as well as cases set in all geographies.