 |
 |
Call for Papers for a Special Issue European Business Review Full papersdeadline: 15 December 2015 Internationalization ofCentral and Eastern European firms: trends and strategies Since the 1990s Central and Eastern European (CEE)economies have reached a level of development and openness that allows localfirms to operate in foreign markets. Over the past decade, transition economiesfrom CEE have been the fastest-growing host and home region for FDI (UNCTAD,2014). Although these economies have attracted a huge amount of academicresearch following their opening in the 1990s, most studies thus far have focusedon foreign firms’ operations in these markets and on the difficulties to adaptto a different institutional framework (Gebulda, Meyer and Delios, 2008; Meyerand Su, 2015). Very few studies have analyzed the internationalization of CEEfirms. In a recent study on the emerging market firms in fourteen topinternational management journals from 2000 to 2010, Jormanainen andKoveshnikov (2012) identify only three articles out of fifty on internationalactivities of CEE firms. Existing studies on this topic mostly analyze the internationalexpansion of Russian multinationals (Kalotay and Sulstarova, 2010), or they analyzeCEE outward FDI using the Dunning’s Investment Development Path framework (Stoian,2013). Research on the internationalization motives and the ways CEE firmsinternationalize remains extremely limited. In addition, performanceimplications of these firms’ international operations are under-researched. Expandingresearch on the internationalization of CEE firms deserves academic interest becausethese economies have experienced profound changes over the past twenty-fiveyears and a better understanding of the interactions between the institutionalcontext and firm strategy may contribute to theory (Peng, Wang and Jiang, 2008;Kiss, Danis and Cavusgil, 2012; Kafouros and Aliyev, 2015). Indeed, thetransition from planned to market-oriented economy has strongly influenced theinternationalization processes of firms (Meyer & Peng, 2005; LiPuma,Newbert and Doh, 2013). Moreover, several CEE countries have become members ofthe European Union (EU) over the last ten years and several others are officialcandidates. This increased market integration creates new opportunities and threatsfor CEE firms because it opens new export and investment opportunities throughthe reduction of transaction costs, but on the other hand it increasescompetitive pressure and the burden of regulatory harmonization. These on-goingtransformations are shaping the business environment in the EU and their studyis of utmost importance for the European Commission, as illustrated by theirinclusion in Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation Programme. The specialissue solicits theoretical and empirical (quantitative and case-based) articlesthat contribute to the understanding of the internationalization of CEE firms addressing,but not restricted to, the following range of issues. - What are themotives, the determinants, the modes and the speed of entry, the locationpatterns of the international operations of CEE firms?- Whichtheoretical frameworks can be used to analyze the internationalization of CEEfirms?- Do thefindings on the internationalization of CEE firms challenge existing theoreticalframeworks? Why and how?- What are the sectoral specificities of CEEinternationalized firms?- What is theimpact of structural reforms (privatization, restructuration, internationalopenness) on the internationalization of CEE firms? - What is therole of the different dimensions of EU membership in the internationalizationof CEE firms?- Over the last20 years CEE countries have received a large amount of FDI. How does foreign presence/ownershipaffect local firms’ internationalization?- How does theexisting institutional framework shape the internationalization of new venturesin CEE economies?- Service sectoris less developed in CEE countries. How do CEE service firms internationalize? - What is therole of the State in the internationalization of CEE firms? How do State-OwnedCEE firms expand abroad?- How differentare CEE firms from other emerging countries’ firms in terms of internationalstrategies and performances? References Gelbuda, M.,Meyer, K. E., & Delios, A. (2008). International business and institutionaldevelopment in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of International Management,14(1), 1-11.Kalotay, K.,& Sulstarova, A. (2010). Modelling Russian outward FDI. Journal ofInternational Management, 16(2), 131-142.Kiss, A. N.,Danis, W. M., & Cavusgil, S. T. (2012). International entrepreneurshipresearch in emerging economies: A critical review and research agenda. Journalof Business Venturing, 27(2), 266-290.Jormanainen, I.,& Koveshnikov, P. C. A. (2012). International activities of emerging marketfirms. Management International Review, 52(5), 691-725.Kafouros,M., & Aliyev, M. (2015). Institutional development and firm profitabilityin transition economies. Journal of World Business, doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2015.06.002.LiPuma, J. A.,Newbert, S. L., & Doh, J. P. (2013). The effect of institutional quality onfirm export performance in emerging economies: a contingency model of firm ageand size. Small Business Economics, 40(4), 817-841.Meyer, K. E., & Peng, M. W. (2005). Probingtheoretically into Central and Eastern Europe: Transactions, resources andinstitutions. Journal of International Business Studies, 36(6), 600–621.Meyer, K. E.,& Su, Y. S. (2015). Integration and responsiveness in subsidiaries inemerging economies. Journal of World Business, 50(1), 149-158.Peng, M. W., Wang, D. Y., & Jiang, L. Y. (2008).An institution-based view of international business strategy: A focus onemerging economies. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(5), 920–936Stoian, C.(2013). Extending Dunning's investment development path: The role of homecountry institutional determinants in explaining outward foreign directinvestment. International Business Review, 22(3), 615-637.UNCTAD (2014),World Investment Report 2014, UN: Geneva. Submission Process Submittedarticles should be original contributions and should not be not under reviewfor publication elsewhere at the same time. All papers that pass the preliminaryscreening will be blind peer-reviewed. Manuscript should be between 4000 and6000 words in length, inclusive of all text, tables and references. Submittedmanuscripts should comply to the format indicated in the submission guidelineson the journal website: http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ebr Deadline forsubmission: December 15, 2015Notifications toauthors: February 15, 2016Expectedpublication date: June 2016 Questions aboutthe Special Issue may be directed to the guest editors:- MarinaDabic, University of Zagreb, Croatia ([log in to unmask])and Nottingham Trent University, UK ([log in to unmask])- OlivierLamotte, Paris School of Business, France ([log in to unmask]) ____ AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business. For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp To post message: [log in to unmask] For assistance: [log in to unmask] AIB-L is a moderated list.