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Dear AIB-L Moderator:

Please post the Call for Papers.



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*Call for Papers for a Special Issue *

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*Microfoundations of Global Strategy: **Role of Leadership and Manager 
Characteristics*

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*Submission Deadline:****May 31, 2016*

*Guest Editors:*

Farok Contractor, Rutgers Business School

Nicolai J. Foss, Copenhagen Business School

Sumit Kundu, Florida International University

Somnath Lahiri, Illinois State University

*Purpose***

Recent trends in much macro-management research, notably 
microfoundations (Foss & Lindenberg, 2013) and behavioral strategy 
(Gavetti, 2012), emphasize the role of heterogeneous individuals, top 
management and their interaction in driving firm-level outcomes.These 
approaches stress the interaction between individuals, decisions makers 
and top management within a firm in understanding its performance and 
outcomes.By contrast, in much of the global strategy literature the unit 
of analysis in studying competitiveness has primarily been the firm or 
industry. Researchers traditionally have explained firm-level outcomes 
mainly using firm-level variables, such as capabilities, or industry 
structure.

Thus, a relatively unexplored research area has been to examine the 
behavioral and individual-level characteristics of corporate leadership 
and managers. Important decisions, especially those related to global 
operations, are made by top managers/the Top Management Team, and 
endorsed and spearheaded by firm’s leadership/upper echelons.These 
decisions are taken by individuals who, depending on the multinational 
firm involved, may sometimes differ substantially in terms of cultural 
and educational background, age, education, and so on. The roles of 
leadership and individual manager characteristics as they relate to 
intention, choice, action, and interaction (Foss & Pedersen, 2014) have 
been under-researched.

This special issue seeks papers that will/unpack/ and enrich the global 
strategy literature by focusing on its microfoundations (individuals and 
their interactions) as they relate to the firm’s internationalization 
process, knowledge transfer across boundaries, HQ-subsidiary 
relationships, global innovation and so on (Griffith, Cavusgil, & Xu, 
2008). Papers may also use a behavioral**strategy perspective (Gavetti, 
2012) relating to leadership and top managers as explanations for the 
competitiveness and international expansion paths of firms.

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*Background*

Microfoundations research aims at decomposing macro-level constructs 
(e.g., organizational routines, dynamic capabilities, strategic problem 
formulation) in terms of actions and interactions of members at various 
levels in an organization (Baer et al., 2013; Foss & Pedersen, 2014). It 
suggests that since any macro phenomenon is caused by micro-level 
mechanisms, it makes sense to focus at the micro level to identify the 
microfoundations or roots of the phenomenon. Felin and Foss (2005: 452) 
observed that “[I]ndividuals after all provide the nested antecedent to 
numerous collective phenomena and thus deserve careful theoretical and 
empirical consideration in our theorizing.” The same theme echoes in 
Barney and Felin (2013: 145) who note that “[T]hus, organizational 
analysis should be fundamentally concerned with how individual level 
factors aggregate to the collective level”.

The behavioral strategy perspective calls for scholarship that is 
grounded in cognitive psychology. Behavioral signifies “being about 
mental processes” (Gavetti, 2012). Executive judgments can be complex 
owing to self-confirming beliefs, competitive blind spots, 
self-interested causal attributions, perceptual filtering etc. (Powell 
et al., 2011: 1377).

Emerging country markets are culturally, institutionally and 
economically dissimilar or distant from developed country markets 
(Cuervo- Cazurra, 2012; Khanna & Palepu, 2013) and have a greater 
likelihood of having family-controlled businesses (Arregle et al., 
2012). A subordinate research question is how the microfoundations of 
emerging market firms influence their international expansion and 
adaptation in distant markets? How do their mental processes affect 
collective leadership behavior? The role of leadership and manager 
characteristics become even more interesting for emerging market firms 
as they are generally less resource-endowed and often lack world-class 
managerial and leadership expertise (Contractor, 2013). Gavetti (2012) 
avers that “when markets are efficient, opportunities for superior 
…courses of action or strategic opportunities” are more limited than say 
in emerging markets where “…the behavioral roots of superior 
opportunities” can have greater play.

*Suggested Research Questions*

The special issue seeks theoretical or empirical papers that are ideally 
multidisciplinary in scope and interdisciplinary in content and 
methodology, and represent cutting-edge research. New or emerging 
methodologies for empirical studies are particularly welcome. Research 
questions (illustrative but not exhaustive) are shown below:

  * What are the microfoundations of global strategic issues such as
    internationalization, knowledge transfer, HQ-subsidiary
    relationship, value chain disaggregation, innovation, competitive
    advantage etc.?
  * How does a micro-foundational or behavioral strategy perspective
    supplement current conceptual understanding of global strategy
    decisions and structure?
  * How do global strategy microfoundations differ for firms from
    developed country markets vis-à-vis firms from developing or
    emerging markets?
  * How does the behavioral strategy perspective explain the role of
    family ownership in explaining competitiveness and internationalization?
  * Do top managers in family controlled firms manage mental processes
    differently than top managers in non-family controlled firms?
  * What are the microfoundations perspectives on the so-called
    “late-comer” advantage which is sometimes the case in the
    internationalization of emerging market firms?
  * How does the microfoundations perspective explain the role of top
    managers and leadership in managing, interacting and benefitting
    from social networks and ethnic diasporas?
  * Does utilizing a micro-foundational or behavioral perspective in
    global strategic issues call for new research methodologies?

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*References*

Arregle, J.L., Naldi, L., Nordqvist, M., & Hitt, M.A. (2012). 
Internationalization of family-controlled firms: A study of the effects 
of external involvement in governance./Entrepreneurship Theory and 
Practice/,36(6): 1115-1143.

Baer, M., Dirks, K.T., & Nickerson, J.A. (2013). Microfoundations of 
strategic problem formulation. /Strategic Management Journal/, 34(2): 
197-214.

Barney, J., & Felin, T. (2013). What are microfoundations? /Academy of 
Management Perspectives/, 27(2): 138-155.

Contractor, F. J. (2013). “Punching above their weight”: The sources of 
competitive advantage for emerging market multinationals. /International 
Journal of Emerging Markets/, 8(4), 304-328.

Cuervo-Cazurra, A. (2012). Extending theory by analyzing developing 
country multinational companies: Solving the Goldilocks debate. /Global 
Strategy Journal/, 2(3): 153-167.

Foss, N. J., & Lindenberg, S. (2013). Microfoundations for strategy: A 
goal-framing perspective on the drivers of value creation. /Academy of 
Management Perspectives/, 27(2): 85-102.

Foss, N.J., & Pedersen, T. (2014). Microfoundations in strategy 
research. /Strategic Management Journal/, DOI: 10.1002/smj.2362 
(accepted article).

Felin, T., & Foss, N.J. (2005). Strategic organization: A field in 
search of micro-foundations. Strategic Organization, 3(4): 441-455.

Gavetti, G. (2012). Toward a behavioral theory of strategy. 
/Organization Science/, 23(1):267 – 285.

Griffith, D.A., Cavusgil, S.T., & Xu, S. (2008). Emerging themes in 
international business research. /Journal of International Business 
Studies/, 39: 1220-1235.

Khanna, T., & Palepu, K. (2013). /Winning in emerging markets: A road 
map for strategy and execution/. Harvard Business Press.

Powell, T.C., Lovallo, D., & Fox, C.R. (2011). Behavioral strategy. 
/Strategic Management Journal/, 32(13): 1369-1386.

**

*Submission Instructions
*The deadline for submission of papers is *May 31, 2016*. All 
manuscripts will be reviewed as a cohort for this special issue and will 
go through the GSJ regular double-blind review process following 
procedures established by the journal (see gsj.strategicmanagement.net 
<http://gsj.strategicmanagement.net/>).

*More information:
*To obtain additional information, please contact the special issue editors:

·Farok Contractor, Rutgers Business School: [log in to unmask] 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

·Nicolai J. Foss, Copenhagen Business School: [log in to unmask] 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

·Sumit Kundu, Florida International University: [log in to unmask] 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

·Somnath Lahiri, Illinois State University: [log in to unmask] 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

For questions about submitting to the special issue please contact the 
GSJ Managing Editor, Sara DiBari ([log in to unmask] 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>).

The GSJ is published by Wiley and is one of the many activities of the 
Strategic Management Society (SMS). The Society is unique in bringing 
together the worlds of reflective practice and thoughtful scholarship. 
The Society consists of almost 3,000 members representing over 80 
different countries. Membership, composed of academics, business 
practitioners, and consultants, focuses its attention on the development 
and dissemination of insights on the strategic management process, as 
well as fostering contacts and interchange around the world.

	

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Thank You.

-- 
Dr. Sumit K. Kundu
Professor
James K. Batten Eminent Scholar Chair in International Business
Academic Director – Master’s in International Business program
Department of Management and International Business
College of Business Administration
Florida International University
448 Mango Business Building
11200 SW 8 Street
Miami, FL 33199
USA
Telephone: (305) 348-3251
Fax:       (305) 348-6146
Email:     [log in to unmask]
Vice President Administration
Academy of International Business [2014-2017]


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