European Management Review
Special Issue
“Theoretical and Empirical Foundation Underlying
Global Sourcing of Innovation”
Guest editors
Arie Y. Lewin, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA
Silvia Massini, Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK
Carine Peeters, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Belgium
Lucia Piscitello, DIG-Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Deadline for Submission: September 24, 2012
Purpose of the Special Issue
The global sourcing of business services ranging
from contact centers to engineering services and
innovation has experienced a tremendous increase
between 2005 and 2011 (from $50Billion to
$3Trillion). This phenomenon has emerged as a
strategic driver for companies and it has increasingly attracted academic
research by management, and international
business scholars. However, its recent dynamics
are ushering significant changes in firms,
industries and careers, which are yet little understood.
First, the dynamics driving the globalization of
innovation has been evolving over the past two
decades and in recent years the share of higher
value adding activities involving science and
engineering work performed outside of the
advanced economies of the West have begun to
accelerate. In the past decade, companies ranging
from small startup technological firms to major
industrial multi-national corporations, have been
increasingly implementing innovation strategies
offshore that encompass captive engineering and
technology centers offshore, and more recently
“value added innovation partnerships” with
strategic outsourcing providers. A major driver
underlying the sourcing of engineering services
and technology is access to qualified talent,
which has emerged as a challenge across all
industries. This maps onto a larger phenomenon
relating to the emergence of a diaspora of
talent; how the spread of social networking is
giving it shape, and how it is negatively
affected the ability of countries such as China
to successfully implement reverse brain drain policies.
Second, recent analyses of total worldwide spend
on engineering work conclude that emerging
economies will account for all the growth in
engineering spending over the next decade,
representing an increase of $300 billion from a
base of $850 billion in 2006. Newly
industrialized economies such as Brazil, China,
Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and
countries in Eastern Europe are seen as
destinations which not only offer access to
underutilized science and engineering (S&E)
talent, but also have a higher education system
in places that have the capacity to expand, have
cultures that value education, and in some cases
(e.g., China and, increasingly, Africa) are
implementing national policies for attracting to
their country the global business services
industry as another lever of economic development.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to
investigate the significant organizational and
structural changes in firms, industries and
careers of S&E talent ushered by the dynamic
growth of global sourcing of innovation, and the
relevant evolving ecology of global innovation.
Hence, we invite studies that advance a
multidisciplinary understanding of this
phenomenon including sociology, economics,
political science, strategy, international business, management and others.
Examples of research themes and questions for the Special Issue
We encourage submissions extending existing
theoretical and empirical evidence that will
enhance our understanding of the firm global
organization, the relationship with relevant
(home and/or host) country measures, and the
relationship with firm performance. Both
theoretical and empirical submissions are welcome.
The following list of themes and questions are
meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive, and to
provide an indication of topics we are interested in for this Special Issue.
– Organizational and strategic challenges faced
by companies implementing boundary spanning
innovation relationships/partnerships. For example:
1. Managerial practices that affect
effectiveness of internal organisation
capabilities for acquiring, and assimilating
knowledge generated by external sources.
2. Specific organizational challenges
involved in the interaction of cross-border
intra- and inter-firm networks. How to develop
effective global and regional partnership
agreements? How to encourage collaboration
across various specialized providers?
3. Managing partnerships/relationships
involving local government, universities and suppliers.
4. Risks inherent in global sourcing of
innovation and organizational and strategic
responses that can be devised to mitigate such risks.
– Role of (home and/or host) country
institutional configuration that shapes the way
firms and industries benefit from global sourcing of innovation.
1. Recognizing and adapting to
institutional/cultural challenges across
different regions and how best to address,
embrace, and overcome institutional/cultural differences.
2. Role of emerging countries in
reshaping the geography of the talent ecosystem,
generating new technological solutions and
business processes, and attracting business
processes outsourcing/offshoring.
Submission and Review Process
The deadline for submission of manuscripts is September 24, 2012.
Submissions will be provided via EMR Manuscript
Central System at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/emr
All submissions will be subject to the regular
double blind peer review process.
Notification to authors: March 2013
For more information:
Lucia Piscitello, DIG-Politecnico di Milano,
Milan, Italy, [log in to unmask]
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