Call for Papers

 

The Faculty of Arts of Palacky University Olomouc and the Department of Economics and Managerial Studies would like to invite you to the 20th anniversary of the international scientific conference KNOWCON 2024: Knowledge on Economics and Management subtitled Soft Skills for the 21st Century that shall be held in Olomouc December 5-6, 2024.

At first glance, it seems that soft skills are a well-discussed topic and there is not much to add. However, we are witnessing a revolutionary era characterized by significant societal shifts, most notably the integration of AI-based tools into our professional and personal lives. Although it is challenging to fully prepare for these changes, responding quickly is critical to the sustainable development of global society. In light of these developments, it is imperative to reassess various phenomena, including soft skills, which have long been recognized as essential for individual success and societal prosperity. Soft skills, which are inherently human, form the foundation of meaningful human interactions and societies and anchor us in a world increasingly mediated by technology.

In order to synergize the perspectives of academia and practice, the conference will include a hybrid workshop with representatives of companies from EU countries. The workshop is part of the MEGASKILLS project.

 

We invite all researchers, experts, and practitioners dealing with the issue of profit and/or purpose, to participate in this event and to join the discussion.

The conference takes place under the auspices of Assoc. Prof. Jan Stejskal, M.A., Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Palacky University Olomouc.

Conference proceedings will be published electronically with an ISBN and sent to Web of Science or Scopus to be evaluated.

Conference languages is English, contributions to the conference proceedings are accepted also in English only.

The conference will be held on-line as well as on-campus. All participants will be able to decide between personal attendance or online attendance. All registered participants will be asked by the organizers to choose the form of their participation a few weeks before the conference. Instructions for the technical provision of the transmission will be available on the conference websites on time.

The conference program is divided into the following panels:

P1) Soft Skills in Business, Management and Management Education

The current challenges of the world place demands on the development of skills that will enable success in the labour market. Papers that expand our understanding of soft skills, comment on the managerial implications, the relationship between soft skills and development, learning, education, knowledge management of organizations are welcome.

P2) Business and Management

The panel of Business and Management focuses on current issues of different types of businesses and all types and parts of business management. Papers that focus on current topics in knowledge management, change management, risk and crisis management or in management general are welcome.

P3) Social Entrepreneurship

In this panel studies focused on social entrepreneurship in a broad sense are welcome. Given the current situation, research on the impact of the related crisis on social enterprises (e.g. crisis management of social entrepreneurs, changes in the motivation of social entrepreneurs) is of particular interest.

P4) Business Analytics 

This panel focuses on the use of analytics in various areas of business and finance as well as on the development of new instruments and models for business and data analytics. Papers covering operations research, intelligent systems, machine learning and soft-computing methods, their development, analyses and use in the business and financial setting are welcome. 

P5) Public Economy

The area of public economics includes all types of allocations and distributions of public money from certain levels of public budgets. The state and its finances play an increasingly important role in economic policy, which is evident especially in the last year. Active economic policy is a key tool in preventing and dealing with the consequences of crises, so it deservedly occupies the forefront of economic policy. Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, research on the role of economic policy in tackling the related issues is of particular interest in this panel.

P6) General Economics

Restarting economy and economic recovery are one of the main challenges for today. The economic crisis that all states are currently facing is one of the deepest ever. This is the main task for households, sole traders, companies and the state. Only thoughtful and effective action by all trade mechanism subjects can return the economic performance to pre-crisis levels in a relatively short time. Research on these topics is of particular interest in this panel.

P7) Young Researchers

We welcome all contributions of BA, MA and PhD students from all fields of economy and management that have potential to open fruitful discussion.

 

Scientific Committee of the Conference:

Prof. Kai Hockerts, Ph.D. (Copenhagen Business School)
Prof. Mikael Collan (Director general of the VATT Institute for Economic Research, Helsinki; LUT School of Business and Management)
Prof. Pasi Luukka (President of NSAIS; LUT School of Business and Management)
Prof. Heli C. Wang (Singapore Management University)
Prof. Mgr. Roman Jašek, Ph.D. (FAI UTB Zlín)
Prof. Bogdan Oancea, Ph.D. (University of Bucharest, Bucharest)
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Palmieri, Ph.D. (University of Siena)
Assoc. Prof. Anita Atanasova, Ph.D. (University of Economics Varna)
Assoc. Prof. Ing. Vladimír Bolek, Ph.D. (University of Economics in Bratislava)
Assoc. Prof. Ing. Jaroslava Kubátová, Ph.D. (Palacký University Olomouc)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Raphael Lissillour, Ph.D., (IPAG Business School Paris)
Assoc. Prof. Ing. Ludmila Mládková, Ph.D. (University of Economics, Prague)
Prof. Ing. Richard Pospíšil, Ph.D (Palacký University Olomouc)
Assoc. Prof. Mgr. Pavla Slavíčková, Ph.D., (Palacký University Olomouc)
Assoc. Prof. Radoslaw Walczak, Ph.D. (Opole University, Institute of Psychology)
Dr. Echo Liang Shang, (The Education University of Hong Kong)
Magdalena Kowalska, PhD (University of Szczecin, Institute of Management, Department of Marketing)
Anna Szwajlik, PhD (University of Szczecin, Institute of Management, Department of Marketing)

 

Organizational Committee of the Conference:

Assoc. Prof. Jaroslava Kubátová, Ph.D.
Assoc. Prof. Pavla Slavíčková, Ph.D.
Ondřej Kročil, Ph.D.
Michal Müller, Ph.D.
David Kosina