AOM’s annual meeting is one of the largest and most important conferences in the field of management. It was attended by more than 10,000 participants from all over the world. During the 5-day conference, ABS researcher Schmitt presented his paper The Travelling HQ: The New Phenomenon of Temporary Headquarters Relocations. He additionally discussed his research ideas with prominent researchers in the field of international management.

Innovative organisational tool

A jury consisting of well-renowned scholars from AOM’s international management division selected the best papers of this year’s annual conference. Schmitt’s paper was chosen for the Best Paper in International Corporate Governance Award.
In his study, he draws on a unique case study of Starwood Hotels Inc. This is a company that decided its headquarters would travel around the world. By temporarily relocating the headquarters from the US to emerging markets (such as China and the United Arab Emirates), Starwood was able to deal with shifting market growth and better establish the firm in promising emerging markets.

Thanks to these insights, the paper challenges our understanding of headquarters and offers a highly innovative organisational tool for managers of multinational corporations. Schmitt’s paper was also nominated for the William H. Newman Award which recognises the best annual meeting paper based on a dissertation. Congratulations for these great achievements!