The Service
Industries Journal
Call for Papers Special
Issue
Internationalization of Service Industry
Firms
Editors
José Pla-Barber
(
And
Pervez N. Ghauri (King’s
College London, United Kingdom)
Internationalization process and strategies has been a popular topic
among international business researchers for some time. However, most of these
studies deal with manufacturing firms and research on internationalization of
service industry firms is rather scarce. At the same time, in the last decade,
middle and upper income countries are experiencing a process of transformation
by which services account for an increasing share of employment, international
trade and FDI. In this sense, service industry firms have been most active in
internationalizing their operations. Services sector firms now represent the
largest share of global FDI flows accounting for 62% of world inward foreign
direct investment (FDI) stock in 2006 (UNCTAD 2008).
This process of internationalization has been reinforced by the
important outsourcing trend experienced in many value chain activities, the
liberalisation of many national and international regulations and the creation
and development of new service firms, based on telecommunication and information
technologies, in an international framework (Sanchez and Pla-Barber, 2006).
However, the heterogeneity of services implies considerable differences between
sub-sectors in a range of factors including competitiveness and patterns of
geographical distribution and internationalization. Therefore there is a need to
investigate variables and models that go beyond those drawn from traditional
empirical work focusing on the manufacturing sector. Moreover, services and
manufacturing is becoming intertwined meaning that proportion of services even
in manufactured goods is increasing and becoming more tangible. Most
manufactured goods now contain a major proportion of service element. In the
last decade or so many Western firms have moved their service components or
operations to emerging markets to achieve cost benefits or other types of
efficiencies (Buckley & Ghauri 2004).
This special issue therefore, focuses on the
changing nature of the firm and looks particularly on the internationalization
of services firms. A number of studies point out the special nature of services
firms and the location implications of globalization that may influence the
future flows of FDI and their impact on economies and industries (Ahroni 1996;
Buckley and Ghauri 2004 and Pla-Barber, Sanchez and Madhok,
2010).
Subject coverage
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
1)
The process of
internationalization of service sector firms
2)
Decisions
regarding commitment and control in different services
industries
3)
Entry strategies
of Western firms into emerging markets in services sector
4)
Entry strategies
of Emerging market firms into Western markets in service
sector
5)
FDI flows in
service sector
6)
The impact of FDI,
particularly in service sector, on home and host
economies.
7)
Internationalization of different sectors, such as; banking,
retailing, healthcare, hospitality, consulting and
education
8)
Reconfiguration of
sectors and resources at different locations
9)
Knowledge flows
between international services firms
10)
Strategies of
outsourcing/offshoring in the service industry firms
11)
The impact of
national and regional policies to foster services firms
internationalisation.
Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be
currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed
through a peer review process. A guide for authors and other relevant
information for submitting papers are available on the Journal web
page.
Important Dates
The deadline for submission is:
Publication date: May, 2012
You may send one copy in the form of a PDF file attached to an e-mail
(details in Author
Guidelines) to the following:
|
Professor José Pla-Barber |
Professor Pervez Ghauri
|
Please include in your submission the title of the Special Issue.