LEIZ organized an international conference together with ESSEC Business School in Paris

LEIZ (Zeppelin University) and ESSEC Business School hosted the international conference “Cooperating in Value-Creating Networks” on September 8th and 9th at the ESSEC campus in Paris (Cergy).

More than 30 experts from Europe, America, Africa and Asia presented their research results in the field of "Relational Economics" from the perspective of a wide variety of disciplines such as economics, cultural studies and linguistics, network theory, philosophy, business strategy, administration, ethics as well as China and Africa studies. The core task was to think about a relational view of business and value creation.

Renowned experts such as Nicolai J. Foss, Sally Guyer, Lucio Biggiero, Adrian Zicari, Michael Bennet, Thaddeus Metz, etc., as well as young scientists exchanged their perspectives. The LEIZ was represented with contributions by Josef Wieland, Julika Montecinos Baumann, Matthias Niedenführ and Robert Helpap. The conference was organized by Jean Müßgens and Lukas Belser, both of LEIZ.

Common motifs quickly emerged from the discussion, such as collective motivation, personal values, intercultural competence, trust building, management of cultural complexity, and shared value creation.

Quote by a participant: “It was fascinating for me to see how compatible the relational view has become for an interdisciplinary discourse on a wide variety of current issues and that relational economics can offer a theoretical home for this.”

The conference is the second event on the research focus of relational economics at LEIZ and further expands an international research network working on an interdisciplinary but open framework on how value creation and cooperation can be designed to be better, fairer, more integrative and with consideration for people, the environment and the planet.