ICOME 2025
ICOME 2025 Concludes, Urging New Approaches to Nurture Creativity, Design Thinking to Promote Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence
The International Conference on Management and Entrepreneurship (ICOME 2025), organized by the Faculty of Management Studies of The Open University of Sri Lanka for the fourth consecutive year concluded on 11th September 2025 at Center of Excellence for Water and Sanitation (CEWAS) in Ratmalana, marking its successful milestone.
Professor Aruna Shantha, the Conference Chair, welcomed the gathering to the conference held under the theme of “Shaping the Future: Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurial Excellence.” This conference brought together an international community of academics, researchers, industry practitioners, and learning community to share knowledge and insights into contemporary challenges in entrepreneurship and business practices.
The Chief Guest of the Conference, Senor Professor P. M. C. Thilakarathne, The Vice Chancellor, The Open University of Sri Lanka was the chief guest of the conference. Professor Thilakarathne graced the occasion and enriched the audience with his valuable insights to the 4th ICOME conference.
The keynote address was delivered by the Guest of Honor Dr. Gerasimos Balis, Director at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Pedagogical Research Director at University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Dr. Balis presence was a massive turning point of ICOME2025. Dr. Balis emphasized how educational institutions can develop creativity, design thinking and collaborative ecosystems in promoting entrepreneurship that direct the university education to reimagine how education can prepare the leaders of tomorrow.
Joining virtually via Zoom, Associate Professor Dr. Alvise Favotto, Deputy Director of Internationalization at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, addressed the audience with a timely speech focusing public accounting, corporate governance, sustainability, and ethical business practices, emphasizing their importance in building responsible organizations for the future.
Mr. S A D Senanayake, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, The Open University of Sri Lanka highlighted the ICOME2025 as a dynamic platform for sharing ideas, fostering collaboration, and advancing knowledge in management and entrepreneurship while Senior Professor Shama R. Weerakoon, the Director Research Division of OUSL also congratulated ICOME 2025 in her address, praising the conference for its contribution to academic excellence and research development.
The conference day was organized under five research tracks aligned with the conference themes as follows; Work, Organization and Digital Society, Accounting, Finance, and Banking, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Tourism, Human Resource Management and Best Practices, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Moreover, several pre-conference activities were held leading up to the main conference: Doctoral Colloquium, 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) competition, the Industrial Forum, and the Mini Symposium.
The Doctoral Colloquium and 3MT competition further enriched the scholarly atmosphere of the conference. More than 60 papers were presented at the conference, with remarkable contributions from the Doctoral Colloquium and the 3MT competition, providing a valuable platform for disseminating the scholarly work and research ideas.
The Doctoral Colloquium was one of the major preconference activities, which provided an invaluable opportunity to doctoral students to share the new knowledge gathered via their ongoing doctoral studies and receive insightful feedback from experienced experts, nurturing both academic and professional community.
In line with Doctoral Colloquium, a discussion themed “Beyond Traditional Quantitative Analysis: Combining PLS- SEM with Fuzzy -set Qualitative Comparative Analysis” was conducted by two distinguished Academic Scholars: Senior Professor Nalin Abeysekera Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Management Studies, The Open University of Sri Lanka with Professor Dinesh Samarasinghe, Dean, Faculty of Business, University of Moratuwa.
Apart from the above, an Online discussion on “From research to reality the doctoral journey as a catalyst for change” was also conducted as a Doctoral Colloquium preconference activity on 28th August 2025. The purpose of this was to share the experiences as example stories in PhD journey and encourage the candidates to pursue their PhD with their inner motivation. The panelists were
- Dr Srinath Dissanayake PhD (Entrepreneurship), University of Wakito, NewZeland, Senior Lecturer, Department of Commerce and Financial Management
Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya - Dr Rasika Priyankara, PhD (Enterprise Management), Wuhan University of Technology, China, Head, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management Studies, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka
- Ishara Lakmali, PhD (Marketing Management), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Head, Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Management Studies, The Open University of Sri Lanka.
The 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) competition, 3MT competition, designed based on the concept originally developed by the University of Queensland in Australia as an effective research communication initiative, was held once again for PhD, MPhil, and DBA candidates who have completed their final submissions. The event demonstrated how clearly and concisely, a complex research phenomenon can be communicated to a wider audience beyond academia using just a single slide. Ms Sangeetha Menon, The Regional Publishing Manager of Emerald Insight delivered the keynote speech of 3MT session under the timely topic of “The Power of Story Telling Communicating Research” effectively.
Industrial Forum
Industry forum was conducted on 8th September 2025 with the theme of “the power of entrepreneurial mind set in transforming industries with disruptive innovations”. The esteemed panelists were
- Batiya Jayakodi, Managing Partner – BNS Production group, Managing Director- Show Town Entertainment.
- Nalin Welgama Founder & Executive Chairman – Ideal Group.
- Udena Wickramasooriya – Founder Kaley Natural Farms (Pvt) Ltd.
- Mr Aruna Warnakulasooriya -The Managing Director, Midaya Ceramics, and the President of National Chamber of Commerce.
Mini Symposium
Mini symposium is a platform for Commonwealth Executive Master of Business / Public Administration (CEMBA/CEMPA) students to present their knowledge and skills in Quantitative Data Analysis. This time, in parallel to the mini symposium, a discussion was held under the theme of communicating with business success: digital and social media marketing. The expert panel consisted of
- Senior Professor Nalin Abeysekera, Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Management Studies, The Open University of Sri Lanka.
- Mr Lakshman Abeysekera, The Chairman and Director General, National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA) and Mr Sanath Wijesinghe, Group Director Finance, Biomed Group of Companies, Founder/ Managing Director of AFGO international Pvt Ltd.
The organisers expressed their gratitude to the sponsors of the conference: Peoples Bank, Cinnamon Lakeside- Colombo, Institute of Bankers Association, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, Sampath Bank, Lense Tec Eye Care, Chemi Trade (pvt) Ltd., China- Geo Engineering Corporation, VIVA- Unilever, DPJ Holdings.
Further, the organizers of the ICOME 2025 extend their sincere gratitude to all contributors, including keynote speakers, reviewers, language editors, paper presenters and all the contributors, whose efforts were instrumental to the success of the conference. They also noted that this marks another significant contribution of ICOME and the outcomes of ICOME 2025 will inspire future academic research and advancement in practical applications in business, management and entrepreneurship.