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The 2013 Reading-UNCTAD IB Conference:
‘Contemporary issues in International
Business Theory’
8 – 9 April
2013
Henley
Business School at the University of Reading is delighted to
announce the
Reading-UNCTAD International Business Conference, taking place
in April 2013,
organized in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on
Trade and
Development (UNCTAD). This is the fourth in a conference
series that
takes place biennially. These distinctive conferences have
become something of
a tradition in the IB community, not only because we seek – as
is the tradition
at Reading – to look at things from a conceptual, ‘big picture’
level, but also
because we emphasise a critical (and we believe, healthy)
balance between
disciplines.
The debate panels for the 2013 conference
This year’s conference
will be built around three
distinct but related debate panels:
Panel 1: New techniques of
international business
research.
Has the study of IB become bogged down by quantitative
empirical
testing? What is the place of mathematical and statistical
modelling in IB?
Should we be formulating theories that are more readily
testable?
Panel 2: Reconciling dynamic
capabilities with the
OLI/internalization theory. Can the nature of dynamic
capabilities be better
aligned to both MNE theory and strategic management thinking? How do firms manage their
dynamic
capabilities through off-shoring and outsourcing? Within the
context of global
value chains and emerging economies, how do dynamic capabilities
matter?
Panel 3:
Revisiting Dunning’s classification of motives for FDI
activity. Is this
classification due for an overhaul?
For instance, almost all MNE activity has an
efficiency-enhancing aspect to it.
Strategic asset-seeking was meant to deal with investment
activity intended to
upgrade the technological assets of MNEs by acquiring R&D
facilities
abroad. Dunning did not consider that firms might acquire assets
to overcome
strategic weaknesses in their portfolio of assets. Others argue
that this
classification system is static: most FDI activity tends to have
multiple
motives. The motivations
of MNEs evolve
over time. How do FDI motives matter from the perspective of
host and home
countries, and industrial policy?
Paper submission and registration
The 2013 conference will have both
interactive sessions and
parallel
sessions, and papers are invited that relate to the three
primary themes of
this conference: dynamic
capabilities,
global value chains and MNE motives.
For details on submissions and registration, visit:
http://www.henley.ac.uk/management/research/centres/mgmt-cibs-conference-2013.aspx
Rajneesh Narula
Professor of International Business Regulation
Director, John H. Dunning Centre for International
Business
Henley Business School
University of Reading, UK