Call for Papers ITEM 8: Dijon, France December 7-8, 2017

Financial Inclusion: A Sustainable Mission from Microfinance to Alternative Finance

Social and technological Paradigms

ITEM 8

Dijon, France

December 7-8, 2017

CEREN, Burgundy School of Business, Université de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

Microfinance has sought out to include individuals that financial institutions exclude. The mission had been progressively widening to Alternative Finance, which has thrived outside of conventional financial instruments and channels.

Alternative Finance takes different types such as angel investment, asset funding, cash flow funding, crowdfunding, crypto-currencies (Bitcoin), fair investment, fintech, slow money, pension fund investments, social impact bond, etc. All the types have resulted from social and/or technological innovations or a mix of both. They provide significant values to customers and investors. Some of the benefits include absence of lengthy applications, low documentation, almost no collateral, minimum or no credit score requirements, high approval rates, and fast funding.

Alternative finance has also widened the base of customers. While microfinance mainly aimed at making financial services available to people at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’, Alternative finance has gone beyond to target not only the poor, but also small enterprises, young and innovative ventures, women, minorities, individuals with no credit history, and any other audience excluded by the conventional institutions. While microfinance’s target is mainly the poor, alternative finance’s finance is the excluded.

The Burgundy School of Business will organize the 8^th edition of its annual conference “Institutional and Technological Environments of Microfinance” (ITEM) on "financial inclusion" in Dijon, France on 7^th and 8^th December 2017.

The conference welcomes research papers, monographies, case studies, PhD research-in-progress and experiential insights on different topics and experiments of alternative finance. ITEM encourages in particular reflections on the social and technological innovations, which broaden and deepen the range of alternative finance.

The leading topic is "Financial Inclusion: A Sustainable Mission from Microfinance to Alternative Finance. Social and technological Paradigms". However, the conference welcomes other related topics that scoop out the perspective and discussion on financial inclusion.

As the preceding editions, the ITEM conference provides a forum for both academic researchers and practitioners to discuss and exchange.

Submission procedure

Proposals: All contributions require a proposal in the first instance. A proposal is a short abstract between 300 and 500 words, containing the research objectives, methodology, findings, recommendations and up to five keywords, the full names (first name and surname, not initials), email addresses of all authors, and a postal address and telephone number for at least one contact author.

Submission period for the proposals: Up to September 15, 2017.

Acceptance of proposals: By September 30, 2017. Notifications will be sent out to relevant authors. Please indicate clearly the correspondent author and their email addresses.

Full paper: Upon acceptance of proposal, full papers are required. The paper includes abstract, keywords, references and a text of less than 5000 words.

Due date for the full papers: Up to November 30, 2017.

Publication opportunity: Papers presented at the conference will also be considered for publication in collaborating journals. This includes Strategic Change (Wiley) and Cost Management (Thomson-Reuters).

Contacts:

§  ITEM8@bsb-education.com

§  Djamchid ASSADI: Djamchid.Assadi@BSB-Education.com

Fees for registration:

§  300 Euros for academic and professional participants and presenters

§  250 Euros for early-bird (before October 31)

§  100 Euros for students.

§  70 euros for early bird students (before October 31)

§  All are invited to complete registration and payment by November 30, 2017.

§  Details are also available on the ITEM 8 website.

Web site: http://item8.blogspot.com

Venue: The conference will be held in

Hall D-101, Executive Center

Burgundy School of Busness,

29 rue Sambin, 21000, Dijon, France

Accommodation:

Each participant will bear his own accommodation cost.

There are many reasonably priced hotels in Dijon at different price ranges.

From the city-center, it is a ten minute walk to the school.

For a reasonably priced hotel opposite the railway station, we recommend

Hôtel Kyriad Dijon Gare, 7-9 Rue Dr Albert Rémy, 21000 Dijon. Tél: +33 (0)3 80 53 10 10.

Special attraction: The flying club of Darois is willing to take you for an aerial trip over the historical wine region in a ULM for a modest fee. Depending on the number of people interested, they will fix the price.