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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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