Dr Virginia Bodolica
IICSSDubai2017 Featured Speaker
American University of Sharjah, UAE
As a Featured Speaker at The IAFOR International Conference on the Social Sciences – Dubai 2017 (IICSSDubai2017), Dr Virginia Bodolica of American University of Sharjah, UAE, will talk about the Gulf region having experienced a vertiginous economic growth and unparalleled achievements in infrastructure development over the past decades. She will give an in-depth analysis of dynamic characteristics and development drivers in this rapidly growing region in the world and identify and discuss the key features of Gulf-based organisations that set them apart from other companies in the Middle East. Her full abstract is available to read below.
Virginia Bodolica, PhD (HEC Montreal, Canada), is a professor in the School of Business Administration at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. She teaches in the areas of strategy and innovation, corporate governance, family business and human resource management. Her research interests are related to governance issues in for-profit settings, family-owned enterprises and healthcare institutions, board of directors’ dynamics, and the incentive design of executive compensation packages in the context of merger and acquisition transactions. She co-authored a research-driven book entitled Mergers and Acquisitions and Executive Compensation, which was recently published as part of the Routledge Studies in Corporate Governance series. Among other journals, Professor Bodolica has published in the Academy of Management Annals, Strategic Organization, Journal of Business Research, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Management Decision and Health Expectations. She received a Research and Scholarship Award from the UAE National Research Foundation for her collaborative project on corporate governance arrangements in UAE-based family businesses that culminated in the publication of the practice-oriented book titled Managing Organizations in the United Arab Emirates: Dynamic Characteristics and Key Economic Developments. Professor Bodolica assumed consulting roles in private and public organisations and delivered executive education sessions and customised programs to companies in North America, Middle East and Latin America. Her involvement in professional service activities has earned her two Outstanding Reviewer Awards from the Academy of Management Business Policy and Strategy Division and one Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Academy of Management Healthcare Management Division. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, where she conducted research on corporate governance initiatives in publicly listed and family-run organisations located in the Gulf region.
Featured Presentation | Managing for Innovation and Sustainability: Lessons from the Gulf Region
The resource-rich countries of the Gulf region have experienced a vertiginous economic growth and unparalleled achievements in infrastructure development over the past decades. Since several Gulf-based nations (particularly Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) attained noteworthy international standings in a short period of time, this presentation aims to uncover the specific sources of regional competitiveness, sustainability and innovation. Drawing upon a globally benchmarked portrait of major economies in the Gulf, I illustrate their recent accomplishments in espousing the principles of the knowledge-based economy and delineate strategic priorities for attaining sustainable development goals. Among the fundamental pillars of regional growth that are emphasized in the presentation are government-led initiatives of investing in local youth to boost their self-motivation and future potential, supporting entrepreneurial undertakings of nationals and resident population, promoting gender equality and women participation in the labor force, fostering the creation of university-based innovation labs to bridge the gap between the industry and educational institutions, and implementing viable corporate governance and social responsibility practices in both publicly-listed firms and privately-held family-run businesses. Based on this in-depth analysis of dynamic characteristics and development drivers in this rapidly growing region in the world, I identify and discuss the key features of Gulf-based organizations that set them apart from other companies in the Middle East.
See the full list of speakers for this event
