Post-Conference Workshops
Qualitative Data Analysis in the AI Era: Key Considerations for IB Research
Date: 14 December 2025
Submission Deadline: 30 November 2025
Time: 09:30 – 12:30
Cost: 40,00 euros
Organizers:
Duc Nguyen – The University of Manchester, UK
Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki – University of Turku, Finland
Rebecca Piekkari – Aalto University, Finland
Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki – University of Vienna, Austria
Catherine Welch – Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
The interactive post-conference workshop explores the evolving role of human and artificial intelligence (AI) in qualitative data analysis. In international business (IB) research, qualitative inquiry has traditionally positioned the researcher as the central driver of interpretation. This view, however, has often underestimated how technological tools influence the way data is organized, processed, and analyzed – a gap that has become increasingly important to address.
The workshop critically evaluates the use of generative AI as an analytical instrument. We assess its performance in handling qualitative data, focusing on its limitations. This involves dispelling common myths about AI’s analytical capabilities and the template-thinking it promotes, and examining how researchers can separate genuine insight from misleading output.
We then turn to the foundational principles of qualitative data analysis in IB and discuss how IB researchers can more explicitly recognize and articulate the human elements – such as interpretation, imagination, comparison, and analytical sense-making. We explore how these elements can be preserved and even strengthened when it comes to qualitative data analysis. Workshop participants will be introduced to multiple analytical approaches and strategies that enable them to improve the theorizing of their data. By doing so, we aim to ensure that qualitative research remains both meaningful and impactful in the age of AI.
Light lunch and a coffee break are included.
Enrolment for this course can be done when registering for the conference.
Quantitative Methods Workshop: Handling Complexity in IB Research
Date: 14 December 2025
Submission Deadline: 30 November 2025
Time: 09:30 – 12:30
Cost: 40,00 euros
Organizers:
Bo B. Nielsen – University of Sydney and Aalto University,
Christian G. Asmussen– Copenhagen Business School
International Business (IB) research is inherently complex, due to the multiplicity of entities, multiplexity of interactions, and dynamism of the global economic system (Eden & Nielsen, 2020). Various analytical methods can be applied to answer questions related to IB complexity, and this workshop focuses on a set of quantitative approaches to this issue.
Specifically, the workshop is designed to introduce participants to various analytical techniques such as regression, moderation, mediation, functional forms, and multi-level analysis. We discuss how to develop and test causal theories in IB, including econometric modeling, hypothesis testing, and the interpretation of results. The workshop is designed to be interactive and hands-on through practical examples. The following topics will be covered:
- A crash course in multiple regression in IB
- Modeling functional forms (U, inverted U, and S curves)
- Testing moderating and mediating effects
- Control variables, unobserved variables, and endogeneity issues
- Advanced econometric modeling incl. SEM and multi-level analysis.
Light lunch and a coffee break are included.
Enrolment for this course can be done when registering for the conference.