Introduction

In today’s high velocity digital media markets and accelerating AI revolution, competence in management and leadership are critical success factors. It is especially important to develop mastery in leveraging creativity as a strategic resource for strengthening competitive advantages in company processes, products, market relationships, and business models. The complexity of digital disruption makes innovation and creativity a necessity for long-term sustainability. Company success requires competencies in emerging digital technologies and fostering organizational cultures that encourage experimentation, agility and respect for ethical responsibilities. Strategic managers are challenged with demands to rethink orientations, practices, and structures, to redesign business models, and to boost productivity by improving efficiencies that can be gained by harnessing AI technologies. Doing so raises ethical and legal issues pertaining to intellectual property rights and managing human creativity.

The 2025 annual conference of the International Media Management Academic Association (IMMAA) invites scholars and industry leaders to collaborate in a professional discourse focused on clarifying what successful media managers and companies are doing, and can do better, in work to navigate the digital media ecology. The conference will facilitate rich dialogue, useful exploration, and knowledge development. Participants will learn about groundbreaking research and collaborate to develop insights at the intersection of management theory and practice applied to media industries.

Research and education in media management and economics can play an invaluable role in collaborative work to develop more robust theoretical frameworks employing varied methods in diverse contexts. This is essential to both advance scholarly discourse and improve the applied value of research. Achieving advances requires adhering to sound scientific principles and maintaining concerted efforts to generate deep insights derived from empirical data and cases about how media markets and industries are changing and how they are developing management and leadership competencies to effectively balance challenges and opportunities in digital media markets. Diverse methods are needed to investigate complex, nuanced industry dynamics from different perspectives to produce more holistic understandings. As media industries navigate the uncertainties of an AI-driven transformation process that is just beginning and rapidly gaining speed, with profound implications for media companies and industries, interdisciplinary approaches that integrate a variety of management theories and empirical methods are essential to develop deep insights and produce actionable knowledge.

Topics of Interest include but are not limited to the following broad categories of research:

• Innovation in management theory and practice in the digital media environment.

• Trends in market strategies and product development.

• Leadership approaches and skills that foster creativity to produce innovation.

• Developments in business model designs conducive to sustainability.

• Developments in AI business analytics to enhance data-driven decision-making.

• Managing creativity and content creation as a core strategic resource.

• The impact of internationalization on local media markets.

• Cross-cultural and global perspectives on media management practice and theory.

• Ethical frameworks and social responsibility related to AI.

• Case studies of successful innovation in media companies today.

Disciplinary Dimensions include but are not limited to:

a. Analysis of Industry and Market Trends:
Analyzing developments in the media industry with a focus on clarifying trends and market dynamics with implications for sustainable growth and resilience in high velocity markets.

b. Approaches and Methods for Managing Creative Work and Workers:
Research about how media organizations are managing creative work and workers as a core strategic resource for competitive success and sustainability.

c. Advances and Transformations in Digital Media Technology:
Research about the transformative impact of advances in digital technology, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence, on media companies and industries and implications.

d. Continuity and Change in Media Consumption:
Research to clarify persistent patterns, developing trends, and shifts in media consumption across populations in various dimensions.

e. Media Policy and Regulation Affecting Media Systems:
Studies investigating the substance and trends of media policy and regulations in today’s rapidly changing digital environment and implications for competition and sustainability.

f. Advances in Advertising, Marketing, and Branding:
Research on trends and developments in strategies and practices in advertising, marketing, and branding.

g. Opportunities and Complications in Cross-Cultural Management:
Research addressing challenges and opportunities involved with managing work communities characterized by high or increasing diversity.

h. Curriculum and Pedagogy in Media Management and Economics Education:
Studies and cases demonstrating development in educational strategies and practices in the integration of digital technologies, innovative teaching methods, and interdisciplinary approaches to enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and practical application in the evolving media landscape.