South Asian Journal for Global Business Research Special Issue Call for Papers

South Asian Diasporas: Facilitators of Trade, Investment, and National Competitive Advantage

Masud Chand (Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, USA)

Shaista E. Khilji (George Washington University, Washington DC, USA)

Florian Täube (EBS Business School, Germany)

Henry Chung (Massey University, New Zealand)

The countries that make up South Asia have some of the world’s largest and most geographically dispersed diasporas (Chand, 2013). While diasporas have existed for thousands of years, globalization and increasing human and capital mobility have enhanced their importance and left them uniquely positioned to act as facilitators of trade and investment between their countries of origin (COO) and their countries of residence (COR). Modern diasporas have played vital roles in facilitating trade and investments between their COO and COR, including direct activities such as investing in their COOs (Buckley, Wang, & Clegg, 2007; Geithner, Johnson, & Chen, 2005) as well as more indirect facilitation activities such as providing transnational social networks that serve as conduits for trade (Khanna, 2007; Saxenian, 2002; Chand, 2010), helping with institutional and human capital development in the COO (Saxenian, 2006), driving the ‘immigrant effect’ (Chung & Tung, 2013; Chung, Enderwick & Naruemitmongkonsuk, 2010), improving the image of the COO in the COR (Chand & Tung, 2011), introducing the culture of the COO in the COR (Chand, 2010), contributing to ‘soft power’ for the COO (Chand & Tung, 2011), and contributing to technology transfer and capacity development in the COO (Lin, 2010).

The roles of diasporas are undergoing important changes as the pressures of globalization on the one hand and the pull of the homeland on the other presents them with a unique set of challenges. While COOs try to leverage them as assets, there is also pressure to become a part of the COR, leading to emerging questions of cross-national and intra-national identity. The rising level of diaspora return to their COO and the increasing importance of brain circulation give this topic special importance in the twenty-first century. An organized diaspora community, particularly when augmented by large numbers and organizational resources, can command considerable political capital in a host country. This political capital can be used to help improve the nation brand of the COO and in improving its image in the COR.

This special issue call especially welcomes papers focusing on South Asian diasporas, but is not restricted to them. We are also open to conceptual/theoretical papers on diasporas that draw implications for South Asia and its relationship with its diasporas, and comparative research on other diaspora communities that can have lessons for South Asian businesses and policy makers.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

The guest editors are happy to discuss initial ideas for papers and can be contacted directly via email.

We invite authors to email their abstracts (up to 3 pages including references) to Masud Chand, Shaista E. Khilji, Henry Chung, or Florian Täube at: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], or [log in to unmask] by December 1, 2013 for a review. Authors will be notified of a decision by early Jan 2014. Those invited to submit a full paper (8000 words) will be asked to meet the April 30, 2014 deadline. Please note that all full papers are to be submitted via ScholarOne, and subject to a double blind review before being accepted for publication. We are also open to authors submitting full papers without submitting an abstract first.

SAJGBR is multidisciplinary in scope. We accept submissions in any of the business fields—Accounting, Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing and Technology—and are open to other disciplines that enhance understanding of international business activity, including anthropology, political science, psychology and sociology, etc. However, authors must clearly underline how their study relates to the advancement of international business theory and/or practice. We are especially interested in manuscripts that integrate theories and concepts taken from different fields and disciplines.

We aim to publish high quality research articles, policy reviews, book reviews, country/practitioner/personal perspectives, conference reflections and commentaries, which contribute to the scholarly and managerial understanding of contemporary South Asian businesses and diaspora. We encourage authors to study relevance of mainstream theories or practices in their fields of interest, critique and offer fresh insights on South Asian businesses and diaspora, as well contribute to the development of new theories.

South Asian Journal of Global Business Research is published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. For more information, please refer to: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/sajgbr.htm

Buckley, P., Wang, C. and Clegg, J. (2007). The impact of foreign ownership, local ownership and industry characteristics on spillover effects from foreign direct investment in China. International Business Review, 16 (2): 142-158.

Chand, M. (2010). Diasporas as Drivers of National Competitiveness. In T.M. Devinney, T. Pedersen, & L. Tihanyi (2010), Advances in International Management: The Past, Present and Future of International Business and Management, Volume 23,(pp. 583-602). New York, NY: Emerald.

Chand, M. and Tung, R.L. (2011) Diasporas as the Boundary-Spanners: The role of Trust in Business Facilitation. Journal of Trust Research, 1 (1), 107-129.

Chung, H.F.L and Tung, R.L. (2013). Immigrant social networks and foreign entry: Australia and New Zealand firms in the European Union and Greater China. International Business Review, 22 (1): 18-31

Chand, M. (2013). The South Asian diaspora- knowledge flows in the age of globalization. In Globalization, change and learning in South Asia (Khilji, S.E., & Rowley, C). Chandos Publishing: Oxford.

Chung, H.F.L., Enderwick, P. and Naruemitmongkonsuk, J. (2010). Immigrant employee effects in international strategy: An exploratory study of international service firms. International Marketing Review, 27 (6): 652-675

Geithner, P., Johnson, P. & Chen, L. (Eds.) (2005). Diaspora philanthropy and equitable development in China and India. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Khanna, T. (2007). Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are reshaping their futures- and yours. Harvard Business School Press, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA.

Kotabe, M., Riddle, L., Sonderegger, P. and Täube, F. (2013). Diaspora Investment and Entrepreneurship: The Role of People, Their Movements, and Capital in the International Economy, Journal of International Management, 19(1): 3-5.

Lin, X. (2010). The diaspora solution to innovation capacity development: Immigrant entrepreneurs in the contemporary world. Thunderbird International Business Review, 52 (2): 123-136.

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs ( 2012). Annual Report 2011-2012. http://www.moia.gov.in/writereaddata/pdf/Annual_Report_2011-2012.pdf

Saxenian, A. (2006). The new Argonauts: Regional advantage in a global economy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Sonderegger, P. and Täube, F. (2010). Cluster lifecyle and Diaspora effects: evidence from the Indian IT cluster in Bangalore, Journal of International Management 16(4): 383-397.