The Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division has assembled an extraordinary program for this year's Academy of Management meeting in Philadelphia. We say "extraordinary" because the program chair assembled it, and modesty, regrettably, is not a SIM core competency. Hence, no wonder we see grand challenges, polycrisis, existential threats, and so on at every turn.
From doctoral consortia to award sessions, plenaries to social gatherings, this year's lineup reflects the breadth, energy, and mild scheduling chaos of our community. Here's your roadmap to the sessions and moments that matter, and a gentle reminder: yes, three things you wanted to attend are happening at the same time. I purposefully made sure of that.
Start Strong: Friday's Foundations
Friday is for building connections and laying groundwork, ideally before the conference fatigue that we all pretend doesn't hit by Sunday. The day opens with the wonderfully named, “All the World's a Stage: Theatre as a Method for Rethinking Scholarship and Teaching (8:00 am, Parlor P1). It is for those who suspected all along that academia was performance art.
Doctoral students and early-career scholars have a full slate. The SIM Doctoral Student Consortium runs all day (9:30 am–5:30 pm, Washington A), which is either a generous investment in the next generation or a thinly veiled stamina test. Seasoned researchers, meanwhile, can connect at the Seasoned Researcher Connection session (8:30 am, Adams Room); “Seasoned" being the field's preferred term for "has reviewed more papers than they care to count."
Two professional development workshops anchor the afternoon. SIM Division Teaching PDW: Transforming Management Education for System Flourishing (2:00 pm, Commonwealth D), featuring distinguished speakers including Donna Hicks and Matthew Lee of Harvard, and The Role of Management Scholars in Influencing Corporate Action for the SDGs (2:00 pm, Regency C). Part II of the Teaching PDW requires advance registration by July 1st; a deadline we are flagging early precisely because we know how academics treat deadlines.
Saturday: Consortia, Workshops, and the Plenary
Saturday is built around development and community. The SIM Research Development Workshop (8:30 am, Washington B) and the SIM-ONE Junior Faculty Consortium (9:00 am–2:00 pm, Congress A) offer dedicated mentorship spaces, where junior scholars can receive the time-honored gift of "have you considered framing this differently?"
A very timely session on Navigating AI in Business Education: Responsible Pedagogy from Resistance to Integration (10:30 am, Washington B) speaks directly to questions on every educator's mind, somewhere between "this is the future" and "did a chatbot write this manuscript?" And don't miss Speed Networking with the SIM Division (2:00 pm, Commonwealth B) for those who enjoy meeting fascinating people and then forgetting their names within 90 seconds.
The day culminates in the SIM Plenary Keynote Featuring Dr. R. Edward Freeman (4:30 pm, Regency A), with Robert Edward Freeman of the University of Virginia as the speaker. Yes, you can never learn enough stakeholder theory.
Sunday: Big Questions and a Moment of Remembrance
Sunday tackles the field's largest themes, because nothing pairs with hotel coffee like existential crisis. Joint sessions explore Societal Governance in the Face of Polycrisis (8:00 am, Sheraton Seminar D) and Research That Matters in a Context of Polycrisis (10:15 am, Washington C). "Polycrisis" is officially the word of the program, but drink responsibly every time you hear it. While we are at it, let’s throw the constitutional crisis in the mix. I recommend not missing the all-star panel discussion on “The Framers of 1776 vs. The Nation's Leadership In 2026; Is the Vision Now Vivid or Blurred?” (9:45 am, Room 405).
We invite the whole community to gather for the Andy Wicks Remembrance (11:00am, Anthony Room) to celebrate the life and contributions of our former SIM chair. It is a genuinely meaningful hour we hope you'll make room for.
The day also features rich programming on AI and stakeholders, including Participatory Insights on Stakeholder Relationships for AI-Augmented Decision-Making and Using AI for Good: Systems Thinking and the New World Game in the Classroom (1:45 pm, Commonwealth A2). Another highlight of the day features my changing hats to answer the members of the Business & Society’s review and advisory boards (4 pm, Commonwealth A1). For your own sake, don’t make me sweat too much.
Monday: Awards, Community Gatherings, and the Social
Monday is the heart of the program. It opens with a strong block of paper sessions on gender and leadership, ESG assurance, and politicized business and activism (all 8:00 am, because as the program chair, I believe deeply in your capacity to be intellectually present at 8:00 am on day 4).
Our award sessions showcase the best of the field, and a final chance for nominees to make their pitches. These include the SIM Outstanding Student Paper Award Finalists (9:45 am), the Outstanding Ethics Papers Award sponsored by Journal of Business Ethics (11:30 am), the SIM Outstanding Paper Award sponsored by Business & Society (1:15 pm), and the Outstanding Book and Dissertation Awards (3 pm).
The SIMpact Community Gatherings will convene in four parts, each with a different focus. It is a new initiative that continues our division's commitment to translating scholarship into real-world impact and proves that "Parts I to Part IV" remain our favorite genre.
Two essential community moments close the day. The SIM Business Meeting (4:30 pm, Commonwealth B), where all awards are presented, and updates on the division’s activities are shared. All members are genuinely welcome. We will round up the day with the much-anticipated and much-needed SIM Social (7:00 pm, Regency B). Yes, don’t miss it because that’s where the real peer review happens. Come celebrate with colleagues old and new. Also, come early to hoard a bunch of drink coupons for yourselves and others you want to impress.
Tuesday: A Powerhouse Finish
Don't book an early flight home. We know you already did. Change it. Tuesday delivers one of the densest days of substantive paper sessions, with parallel tracks running morning to afternoon on ESG transparency, AI ethics and data equity, corruption and illicit systems, ecosystem orchestration, labor vulnerability, philanthropy, geopolitics, corporate political activity, and DEI and human rights.
Highlights include joint sessions on Publishing Management Research in a Burgeoning Psychedelics Ecosystem (8:00 am, Parlor D) — a title we are choosing to read entirely literally — Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Purpose: From Margins to Mainstream? (8:00 am, Congress C), and Who Counts? Artificial Intelligence in Stakeholder Relations (9:45 am, Convention Center 120A), again featuring Robert Edward Freeman, who appears to have negotiated an excellent contract.
Threads to Follow Across the Week
A few themes run throughout this year's program and are worth tracking if they map to your interests:
AI, ethics, and accountability: From discriminatory AI advice and anthropomorphic design to responsible pedagogy and AI in stakeholder relations. (This guide, for the record, was assembled with a little help from the very technology under discussion.)
Corporate sociopolitical activism and political polarization: Sustained conversation across multiple sessions on activism, democratic backsliding, and partisanship in organizations
ESG, greenwashing, and measurement: Assurance gaps, the ESG–financial performance link, materiality, and the eternal question of whether anyone agrees on the metrics
Stakeholder theory and corporate purpose: Purpose under pressure, the relational firm, and the micro-foundations of purpose
Social entrepreneurship and grand challenges: Hybrid organizing, community revitalization, and impact in weak institutional contexts
On-Demand content: Full slate of on-demand paper sessions (numbered 24040–24058) covering everything from social innovation diffusion to board quotas and moral agency, perfect for the panel you missed because you were in another panel
A Note of Thanks
This program is the product of enormous collective effort from our organizers, reviewers, panelists, and volunteers — the people who said yes, and the people who said yes and then read the fine print afterward. We look forward to learning together in Philadelphia. Whether you're presenting, mentoring, networking, or simply hiding in the back row with a coffee, taking it all in, there's a place for you in the SIM community.
See you there!
Program Chair: Punit Arora,
City University of New York
PSA: Times and venues may change between now and when we gather in Philly. Please ensure you are at the right place at the right time. Or we’ll drink to blame it on the drunkenness, yours or mine.