Call for Papers for a Special Issue
European Business Review
Full papers
deadline: 15 December 2015
Internationalization of
Central 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 local
firms to operate in foreign markets. Over the past decade, transition economies
from CEE have been the fastest-growing host and home region for FDI (UNCTAD,
2014). Although these economies have attracted a huge amount of academic
research following their opening in the 1990s, most studies thus far have focused
on foreign firms’ operations in these markets and on the difficulties to adapt
to a different institutional framework (Gebulda, Meyer and Delios, 2008; Meyer
and Su, 2015). Very few studies have analyzed the internationalization of CEE
firms. In a recent study on the emerging market firms in fourteen top
international management journals from 2000 to 2010, Jormanainen and
Koveshnikov (2012) identify only three articles out of fifty on international
activities of CEE firms. Existing studies on this topic mostly analyze the international
expansion of Russian multinationals (Kalotay and Sulstarova, 2010), or they analyze
CEE outward FDI using the Dunning’s Investment Development Path framework (Stoian,
2013). Research on the internationalization motives and the ways CEE firms
internationalize remains extremely limited. In addition, performance
implications of these firms’ international operations are under-researched.
Expanding
research on the internationalization of CEE firms deserves academic interest because
these economies have experienced profound changes over the past twenty-five
years and a better understanding of the interactions between the institutional
context and firm strategy may contribute to theory (Peng, Wang and Jiang, 2008;
Kiss, Danis and Cavusgil, 2012; Kafouros and Aliyev, 2015). Indeed, the
transition from planned to market-oriented economy has strongly influenced the
internationalization processes of firms (Meyer & Peng, 2005; LiPuma,
Newbert and Doh, 2013). Moreover, several CEE countries have become members of
the European Union (EU) over the last ten years and several others are official
candidates. This increased market integration creates new opportunities and threats
for CEE firms because it opens new export and investment opportunities through
the reduction of transaction costs, but on the other hand it increases
competitive pressure and the burden of regulatory harmonization. These on-going
transformations are shaping the business environment in the EU and their study
is of utmost importance for the European Commission, as illustrated by their
inclusion in Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation Programme.
The special
issue solicits theoretical and empirical (quantitative and case-based) articles
that contribute to the understanding of the internationalization of CEE firms addressing,
but not restricted to, the following range of issues.
- What are the
motives, the determinants, the modes and the speed of entry, the location
patterns of the international operations of CEE firms?
- Which
theoretical frameworks can be used to analyze the internationalization of CEE
firms?
- Do the
findings on the internationalization of CEE firms challenge existing theoretical
frameworks? Why and how?
- What are the sectoral specificities of CEE
internationalized firms?
- What is the
impact of structural reforms (privatization, restructuration, international
openness) on the internationalization of CEE firms?
- What is the
role of the different dimensions of EU membership in the internationalization
of CEE firms?
- Over the last
20 years CEE countries have received a large amount of FDI. How does foreign presence/ownership
affect local firms’ internationalization?
- How does the
existing institutional framework shape the internationalization of new ventures
in CEE economies?
- Service sector
is less developed in CEE countries. How do CEE service firms internationalize?
- What is the
role of the State in the internationalization of CEE firms? How do State-Owned
CEE firms expand abroad?
- How different
are CEE firms from other emerging countries’ firms in terms of international
strategies and performances?
References
Gelbuda, M.,
Meyer, K. E., & Delios, A. (2008). International business and institutional
development in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of International Management,
14(1), 1-11.
Kalotay, K.,
& Sulstarova, A. (2010). Modelling Russian outward FDI. Journal of
International Management, 16(2), 131-142.
Kiss, A. N.,
Danis, W. M., & Cavusgil, S. T. (2012). International entrepreneurship
research in emerging economies: A critical review and research agenda. Journal
of Business Venturing, 27(2), 266-290.
Jormanainen, I.,
& Koveshnikov, P. C. A. (2012). International activities of emerging market
firms. Management International Review, 52(5), 691-725.
Kafouros,
M., & Aliyev, M. (2015). Institutional development and firm profitability
in 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 on
firm export performance in emerging economies: a contingency model of firm age
and size. Small Business Economics, 40(4), 817-841.
Meyer, K. E., & Peng, M. W. (2005). Probing
theoretically into Central and Eastern Europe: Transactions, resources and
institutions. Journal of International Business Studies, 36(6), 600–621.
Meyer, K. E.,
& Su, Y. S. (2015). Integration and responsiveness in subsidiaries in
emerging 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 on
emerging economies. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(5), 920–936
Stoian, C.
(2013). Extending Dunning's investment development path: The role of home
country institutional determinants in explaining outward foreign direct
investment. International Business Review, 22(3), 615-637.
UNCTAD (2014),
World Investment Report 2014, UN: Geneva.
Submission Process
Submitted
articles should be original contributions and should not be not under review
for publication elsewhere at the same time. All papers that pass the preliminary
screening will be blind peer-reviewed. Manuscript should be between 4000 and
6000 words in length, inclusive of all text, tables and references. Submitted
manuscripts should comply to the format indicated in the submission guidelines
on the journal website:
Deadline for
submission: December 15, 2015
Notifications to
authors: February 15, 2016
Expected
publication date: June 2016
Questions about
the Special Issue may be directed to the guest editors:
