The Faculty of Arts of Palacký University Olomouc and the Department of Economics and Managerial Studies would like to invite you to the 21st anniversary of the international conference KNOWCON 2025: Knowledge on Economics and Management subtitled “Cultural Markets and the Digital Management”, to be held in Olomouc December 4-5, 2025.

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.

Keynote Speakers
We are pleased to announce two distinguished keynote speakers in the field of cultural economics:
Dr. Carolina Dalla Chiesa (Erasmus University Rotterdam) specializes in cultural markets, digitalization, and institutional economic transformations. Her research focuses on how cultural markets evolve in response to digital changes and how independent creators and emerging organizational formats navigate these shifts.
Dr. Valeria Morea (Erasmus University Rotterdam & Mercatus Center) has expertise in urban cultural economies, grassroots artistic practices, and cultural institutions. Her work examines the role of public entrepreneurs in shaping the creative and cultural landscape.

We welcome researchers, experts, young scholars, and practitioners to engage in discussions on contemporary issues at the intersection of economics, management, and culture. Additionally, we also encourage submissions on broader topics in economics and management beyond the cultural focus.

Participant Information
Registration and abstract submission deadline: June 13, 2025
Proposals for thematic sessions: Due by April 1, 2025
Double-blind peer review process: Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings.
Conference language: English (both presentations and conference proceedings must be in English).
Hybrid format: Participants may choose to attend either on campus or online. Details for virtual attendance will be available on the conference website in due time

We encourage participants to submit their work on the following themes and topics:

1) Cultural Markets and Digitalization
Exploring how digital transformation reshape cultural markets, creative industries, and cultural entrepreneurship. Topics of interest include crowdfunding, online audience engagement, digital labor in creative fields, and the role of platform economies in cultural production.

2) The Economics of Creativity and Innovation
Investigating the intersections of creativity, economic value, and innovation. Topics include emerging cultural business models, sustainability in creative industries, and the role of alternative economies in the arts.

3) General Contributions in Economics and Management
Recognizing the broader scope of KNOWCON, we also invite submissions that address general topics in economics and management, including but not limited to business strategy, economic policy, public finance, organizational behavior, and managerial decision-making.

4) 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.

5) 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.

6) 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. 

7) 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. 

8) Young Scholars
We invite contributions from BA, MA, and PhD students whose research addresses key issues in economics, industries, and management.

Scientific Committee of the Conference:

Prof. Kai Hockerts, Ph.D. (Copenhagen Business School)
Prof. Pasi Luukka (President of NSAIS; LUT School of Business and Management)
Prof. Heli C. Wang (Singapore Management University)
Assoc. Prof. Anita Atanasova, Ph.D. (University of Economics Varna)
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)
Assoc. Prof. Mgr. Pavla Slavíčková, Ph.D., (Palacký University Olomouc)
Assoc. Prof. Radoslaw Walczak, Ph.D. (Opole University, Institute of Psychology)
Assoc. Prof. Ing. Jarmila Zimmermanová, Ph.D., (Palacký University Olomouc)
Dr. Echo Liang Shang, (The Education University of Hong Kong)

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, Ph.D.
Pavel Kuchař, Ph.D.

We look forward to welcoming you to KNOWCON 2025 and fostering insightful discussions on the economic dimensions of culture!