Emerging challenges and issues in strategic management and finance. Preface.

Following the 8th Global Conference on Business & Economics1, held in Florence in October 2008, the International Journal of Business & Economics decided to publish a special issue with a maximum of twenty conference contributions in the areas of strategic management and finance, all featuring innovative content in relation to the state of the art in these disciplines. In keeping with the Journal’s high scientific standards, a qualified group of academics coordinated by myself served as referees for submitted papers, using a process of double blind peer review to select contributions for publication. This review led to the selection of a reduced number of papers with respect to the total number that had been submitted, three of which were unconditionally accepted and thirteen were accepted conditionally upon implementing some scientific and/or linguistic revisions. As guest editor, it is my opinion that this collection of selected papers offers an interesting panorama of original theoretical and applied developments, representing “cutting edge” research on key topics of strategic management and finance. My main thanks go to Prof. Atul Gupta and the Association for Business & Economics Research for granting me the honor of co-chairing the 8th Global Conference on Business & Economics and, above all, the opportunity to guest edit this special issue. Particular thanks also go to Dr. Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli who, in addition to contributing to this issue with her own valuable research, coordinated the linguistic review of all the selected papers with competence and professionalism.