CALL FOR PAPERS
"'Strategies for Firm Globalization and Regionalization''
Edited by: Professor Alan M. Rugman (Henley Business School),
Professor Abby Ghobadian (Henley Business School), Professor Rosalie
L. Tung (Simon Fraser University)
BJM is pleased to announce a special issue focused on examining the
globalisation and regionalization strategies of firms, a key debate
in international business which touches on all disciplines of management.
SPECIAL ISSUE OVERVIEW
Over the last decade, a debate has raged about the nature of business
strategy following Levitt (1983). Many authors had assumed that with
the growth of globalization, it is possible for firms to expand
globally. Such international expansion yields economies of scale, a
so-called integration strategy. A leading proponent of this approach
is George Yip (1995, 2003) who proposes a "total global" strategy. In
contrast, Rugman (2000, 2005) has demonstrated empirically that there
are rigidities in both country level and firm level economic activity
respectively. This work suggests that firms must be using regional
strategies, not global ones, and that the regions are triad based.
Schlie and Yip (2000) have argued that regional strategy is a step
towards a global strategy. In a British context, the multinational
strategies and performance of large British firms have been examined
by Rugman, Yip and Jayaratne (2008). This stressed a strong home
region focus upon Europe with 64 percent of sales of British firms in
the EU. The way organisations develop internationally has
implications not only for strategy but also for structure,
organisational development, human resources (HR), institutional
engagement, societal engagement, and political engagement.
The current economic crisis is forcing organisations to rethink their
strategies and many unresolved issues around the regional and global
debate suggest that it is timely to broaden the perspectives with
which these issues are examined by adding to the dominant economic
and strategy lens organisational and social lenses. It is also timely
to add functional perspectives to the mix.
SUBMISSION CRITERIA L ISSUE OVERVIEW
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
BJM will publish a special issue drawing together original papers
addressing the issue of whether firm strategies are global or
regional, and their potential impact on a broad range of
organisational dilemmas. Building upon the work of Rugman and Verbeke
in JIBS (2004) and in Ghemawat (2007), a regional strategy is defined
as one confined to a region of the broad triad of the EU, North
America, or Asia. In contrast, a global strategy operates across
these three broad regions of the world.
At this time, the debate about global versus regional strategy can be
advanced by new theoretical and more careful empirical work.
Theoretical work needs to address the extent to which there are
barriers to business activity between triad regions (the so called
liability of inter-regional foreignness). Such an analysis should
include both economic and social traditions. At an empirical level,
when are both country level and global level activity replaced by
regional activity, to what extent do country level metrics for
economic, political and cultural activity remain valid? In
particular, can the Kogut and Singh (1993) country level cultural
index be replaced by a regional one? Are there now regional HR
strategies (Tung and Verbeke, 2010)?
In particular, papers will be considered in the following areas:
* The interaction between geographic and product diversification
* The liability of foreignness and the performance of
multinational firms across regional and/or global dimensions
* The nexus between firm specific advantages, performance and geography
* The nature of home and host country location specific
advantages and firm performance
* Innovation in multinationals is it regional or global?
* The longitudinal nature of regional sales and assets and their
impact on performance
* The nature and performance of small "born global" firms are
they regional or global?
* Emerging economy multinationals and their regional or global strategies
* The regional or global dimensions of inter-firm networks,
strategic alliances and international joint ventures
* The theoretical and empirical significance of the liability of
inter-regional foreignness
* The impact on firm strategy of regional trade and investment agreements
* Regional head offices of multinationals
* The strategies, structures and performance of British multinationals
* Country level culture and regional level economic activity
* International human resource management strategies and
approaches polycentric versus regiocentric versus geocentric
We welcome empirically based papers from a broad range of scholarly
communities. Furthermore, we welcome submissions using a broad range
of methodological approaches as well as trans-disciplinary and
inter-disciplinary work. ICT applications in the public sector:
e-government, e-governance and m-government.
Submissions should be uploaded to the British Journal of Management
ScholarOne Manuscripts site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjm no
later than 1st April 2012.
Authors must ensure they adhere to the journal guidelines which are
available on the journal's website:
www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/bjm . The outcome of first review
will be communicated to authors by 1 July 2012. The date for the
submission of papers selected for revise and re-submission will be 1
October 2012
References:
Levitt, T. (1983). The Globalization of Markets. Harvard Business
Review, May/ June 1983, pp. 92 102.
Ghemawat, P. (2007). Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Border in a
World Where Differences Still Matters. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press.
Rugman, A.M. (2000). The End of Globalization. London, UK: Random
House Business Books.
Rugman, A.M. (2005). The Regional Multinationals: MNEs and "Global"
Strategic Management. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Rugman, A.M. and Verbeke A. (2004). A Perspective on Regional and
Global Strategies of Multinational Enterprises, Journal of
International Business Studies, 35(1), pp. 3-18.
Rugman, A.M., Yip, G.S. and Jayaratne, S. (2008). A Note on Return on
Foreign Assets and Foreign Presence for UK Multinationals, British
Journal of Management 19(2), pp. 162-170.
Schlie, E. and Yip. G.S. (2000). Regional Follows Global: Strategy
Mixes in the World Automotive Industry, European Management Journal,
18, pp. 343 205.
Tung, R.L. and Verbeke, A. (2010). Beyond Hofstede and GLOBE:
Improving the quality of cross-cultural research, Journal of
International Business Studies, 41(8), pp. 1259-1274.
Yip, G. S. (1995). Total Global Strategy: Managing for Worldwide
Competitive Advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Yip, George S. (2003) Total Global Strategy II: Updated for the
Internet and Service Era. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
____
AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business.
For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp
To post message: [log in to unmask]
For assistance: [log in to unmask]
AIB-L is a moderated list.
