TASIC 3.0 at SPJIMR invites rigorous business and management research papers that demonstrate credible potential to create meaningful real-world impact across one or more of the seven Outside-Academy impact dimensions:
Background
Creating meaningful impact has long been an important aspiration of academic research. Alongside advancing scholarly knowledge, researchers have sought to generate insights that can inform practice, policy, organisations, innovation, and society. However, growing attention to societal, economic, technological, and environmental challenges has brought greater urgency and explicitness to discussions about the responsibilities of researchers and academic institutions.
Research impact is consequently receiving increasing attention in institutional strategy, accreditation, research assessment, and scholarly practice. This evolving conversation raises two fundamental and still-open questions:
Neither question has a simple or universally accepted answer.
TASIC 3.0 addresses these questions through a multi-pronged approach. One component of this broader approach is the Emerging Paper Symposium, a paper presentation track that aims to develop an enabling ecosystem that encourages, supports, and nurtures rigorous scholarship with credible potential to generate one or more forms of real-world impact beyond the academic community.
For the purposes of this segment, real-world impact papers refer to research that could plausibly enable decisions, behaviours, practices, policies, technologies, organisations, communities, economic activity, or environmental outcomes.
Scope of the Call for Papers
We invite submissions from business and management researchers, including doctoral scholars, postdoctoral researchers, faculty members, industry researchers, and scholar-practitioners. Submissions may relate to any of the following areas:
* The list is indicative rather than exhaustive.
Illustrative research questions
The following questions illustrate how business and management research may engage with consequential real-world problems and outcomes. Submissions are encouraged to explore other relevant questions within the symposium's scope.
- How can responsible marketing practices reduce consumer vulnerability and support more informed decision-making?
- Which financial literacy interventions can improve household saving, investment, borrowing, and financial well-being?
- How can firms redesign supply chains to reduce waste, emissions, resource use, and operational disruption?
- How can AI-enabled information systems improve managerial decision-making without compromising privacy, fairness, transparency, or accountability?
- Which workplace practices can enhance employee well-being, inclusion, dignity, and productivity?
- How can firms translate sustainability commitments into measurable organisational, environmental, and societal outcomes?
- What business models, financing mechanisms, and institutional arrangements can improve the viability and scalability of social enterprises and impact-oriented ventures?
- How can ethical and responsible leadership strengthen stakeholder trust and organisational conduct?
- Which managerial, technological, or institutional interventions can improve access to employment, finance, markets, education, healthcare, or other essential services for underserved communities?
- How can business and management research inform more effective public policies, regulatory frameworks, and governance mechanisms?
- How can entrepreneurial ecosystems support inclusive innovation, sustainable enterprise creation, and regional economic development?
* The questions are indicative rather than exhaustive.
What do we expect?
While scholarly rigour is expected, we use two slightly different criteria (relative to the norm) when evaluating papers:
The paper should clearly identify the ‘problem of practice’ that it addresses. It is not sufficient for the paper to be solely motivated by a ‘gap in theory/literature’, as is the norm. It should be motivated by an actual problem in the field that industry practitioners and/or policymakers are facing. This problem of practice should be clearly identified and justified in the Introduction/Motivation section.
The paper should clearly identify the real-world impact it seeks to achieve through a well-written Implications for Practice/Policy section. The potential real-world impact should map to one or more of the seven Outside-Academy impact dimensions. Read more
The section should also include novel and practical pathways through which that impact potential could plausibly be realised. Where relevant, this pathway should detail:
Authors are not expected to address all seven impact dimensions. A focused and credible pathway within one or more relevant dimensions is preferable to broad claims across multiple dimensions.
Submission formats
The symposium welcomes complete research papers employing quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, case-based, design science, systematic review, meta-analytic, or other rigorous scholarly approaches. Conceptual papers may also be considered where they offer a substantial theoretical contribution and develop a clear, credible, and actionable pathway to real-world impact.
Regardless of the research design adopted, submissions must present a fully developed analysis and contribution. Research proposals, extended abstracts, papers reporting only a proposed study, and manuscripts without completed analysis will not be considered.
Submissions should be original and should not have been previously published. Papers currently under review by a journal may be submitted, provided that submission to the symposium does not violate the journal's policies.
Review criteria
Manuscripts will be assessed for their potential to create meaningful real-world impact using the impact assessment tool developed by SPJIMR, which verifies academic novelty, explicitly grades the prospective scope, clarity, and operational feasibility of their translational bridges. Authors will also receive inputs that can help strengthen their manuscripts for journal submission.
Paper presentation
Authors of selected papers will present their work to discussants drawn from academia and industry, including journal editors, who will also provide developmental feedback to strengthen the manuscript's scholarly contribution and its pathway to real-world impact.
Presentations will be held in person at SPJIMR's Mumbai campus.
The registration fee will be waived for all authors. SPJIMR will fund the travel, accommodation, and meals of all selected paper presenters traveling to Mumbai to present their papers.
How do we support the development of engaged scholarship?
A Pre-conference workshop on writing research for impact
The workshop will include:
- Introduction to research impact assessment and the attributes of impactful research, led by Prof. Varun Nagaraj
- Research impact and writing for impact: an editor’s perspective (resource person to be announced)
- Writing a practitioner-oriented paper: MPI essays as exemplars, led by Prof. Malay Krishna
Certificate of participation: Participants who complete the workshop will receive a certificate.
Participation in the workshop is optional for prospective authors.
Email: tasic_acad@spjimr.org to register for the workshop.
B Optional research clinic
An optional research clinic will be offered online between 23 and 28 November 2026. Each clinic is a 30-45-minute session focused on a single paper. One or more discussants, such as senior faculty, editorial board members or experienced researchers, will provide developmental feedback. These sessions are not group workshops. Only authors of the same paper may attend the clinic slotted for their paper.
The clinic is open only to authors who intend to submit a final paper for the symposium's review process. Participation in the clinic is not a prerequisite for submitting a paper to the symposium.
There are two steps:
- By 5 November 2026: Submit an expression of interest, along with an abstract of your paper.
- By 16 November 2026: Submit a reasonably developed draft. The draft should cover each section of the paper and set out your thinking sufficiently for the discussion to build on the work, rather than starting from scratch.
Confirmed clinic slots and session times will be communicated after 16 November 2026.
Email: tasic_acad@spjimr.org to express your interest.
C Support for selected papers
For selected paper presenters travelling to Mumbai, SPJIMR will provide:
- Registration fee waiver
- Travel support
- Boarding and lodging during the conference.
Suggested readings: examples of impactful research
The following articles illustrate research that engages directly with consequential business, managerial, societal, or policy-relevant questions:
Important dates
| Details | Proposed date | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-conference workshop | 30 October 2026 | Online |
| Research clinic window (optional) | 23–28 November 2026 | Online |
| Submission deadline | 25 December 2026 | N.A. |
| Communication of acceptance for presentation |
15 January 2027 | N.A. |
| Paper presentation | 26 February 2027 | In person |
Submission guidelines
Authors should submit
Submission system
Papers should follow the prescribed structure and be submitted through the conference submission system.
Submit paperManuscript length and formatting
Manuscripts should be 6,000–8,000 words, excluding references, tables, figures, appendices, and supplementary material. The manuscript should be prepared in 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1.5-line spacing and justified alignment.
Referencing style
All in-text citations and references must follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, seventh edition (APA 7).
Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of all citations, references, tables, figures, permissions, and acknowledgments.
Manuscript structure
Submissions should broadly follow the flow below, while allowing reasonable flexibility according to the research design and methodological approach:
Problem and why it matters (Introduction/Motivation)
Clearly identify the ‘problem of practice’. It is not sufficient for the paper to be motivated solely by a ‘gap in theory/literature’. It should be motivated by an actual problem in the field that industry practitioners and/or policymakers are facing.
Research foundation and scholarly contribution (Literature review/Theoretical background)
Position the identified problem within relevant scholarship, identify what remains inadequately understood, and establish the distinctive research impact it seeks to make.
Research approach (Methodology)
Explain the research design, data or evidence, methods, and analytical approach used to address the research question.
Findings or core insights (Results/Findings)
Present the principal empirical findings, conceptual insights, framework, model, propositions, or other knowledge generated by the research.
Implications for practice/policy
The potential real-world impact should map to one or more of the seven Outside-Academy impact dimensions. The section should also include novel and practical pathways through which that impact potential could plausibly be realised.
Where relevant, this pathway should detail:
- the practitioners, organisations, policymakers, regulators, entrepreneurs, communities, or other stakeholders who could use the research;
- the actions, decisions, interventions, policies, practices, designs, or other changes that the findings could inform;
- the mechanism through which such action or change could lead to the anticipated outcome;
- the conditions, resources, partnerships, institutional arrangements, or other enabling factors required for implementation;
- the beneficiaries and other affected stakeholders, including relevant constraints, risks, trade-offs, or foreseeable unintended consequences;
- the potential outcomes that could reasonably follow;
- where feasible, appropriate ways in which those outcomes could subsequently be assessed or measured.
Boundaries and future pathways (Limitations, future research, Conclusion)
Clarify the boundaries of the research and its impact claims, and identify the further research, translation, testing, partnerships, or implementation needed to advance its impact potential.
Contact information
Email: tasic_acad@spjimr.org
Location:
SPJIMR Mumbai
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Campus
Munshi Nagar, Dadabhai Road
Andheri West, Mumbai – 400058