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Call for Papers for a Special Issue of

Journal of International Management

 

 

 

Global Innovation Networks – Organizations and People

Submission Deadline: May 1, 2016

 

Editors

Marcelo Cano-Kollmann, Ohio University

T. J. Hannigan, Temple University

Ram Mudambi, Temple University

 

International Business, Economic Geography and Innovation (iBEGIN) Research Program

 

The distribution of economic value creating activities across space has intrigued scholars since at

least the nineteenth century. The modern study of this phenomenon has its roots in the classic work

of Marshall (1920). Over the course of the last century, it has been studied from different

perspectives, leading to the formation of several research communities and each with an associated

body of literature. Economic geographers and regional scientists mainly study the characteristics of

places while international business scholars focus on the organization of economic activities. In

other words, economic geographers’ and regional scientists’ main focus of interest is the location,

while for international business scholars, it is the (multinational) firm. Over the last few decades,

innovation has received increasing amounts of attention from both research communities who

recognize it as one of the key drivers of the modern knowledge economy.

In the main, these three location-based literatures have moved along in parallel with one another, but

their actual analytical connections remained very limited, and their treatment of location, geography

and the spatial organization of the firm remains very partial and fragmented. The main goal of the

International Business, Economic Geography and Innovation (iBEGIN) research program is to work

at the nexus of these three research communities and literatures and build knowledge conduits

among them. This research aims to encourage cross- and inter-disciplinary dialog with the view of

building a holistic view of the spatial organization of economic activity.

 

There are three megatrends underlie much of the change that we have witnessed over the last few

decades and that will continue to shape the world economy (Mudambi, 2015). The first megatrend is

the shift from trade-in-goods to trade-in-activities. Beginning several decades ago, but accelerating

rapidly over the last decade, products and services are increasingly emerging from global value

chains (GVCs) that are geographically dispersed around the globe. These GVCs are orchestrated, in

the main, by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and increasingly disaggregated and fine-sliced into

narrow, highly specific activities that are undertaken in economic clusters. These narrow activities

produce intermediates (and not complete goods or services) and these compose the vast majority of

all international trade today.

 

The second megatrend is the rise of knowledge-intensive intangibles. Value is rapidly migrating out

of tangible goods and services that are becoming commoditized and into the soft intangibles that

encase them. These intangibles arise from specialized, upstream knowledge (R&D, patents,

inimitable organizational routines, software, training) and downstream knowledge (brands,

trademarks, customer service) activities. This migration of value has dramatically magnified the

importance of innovation, concomitantly shortening technology lifecycles.

 

The third megatrend is the rise of emerging markets. The number of locations where the highly

specific GVC activities can be performed has ballooned over the last two decades. A long list of

clusters locations in Asia and South America and even some parts of Africa have become integral

parts of GVCs. These locations are tightly woven into global economy and give rise to perceptions of

“flatness” perceived by many lay observers.

 

The disaggregation of global value chains, global innovation systems and emerging market catch-up

processes are salient examples of topics at the heart of the iBEGIN research agenda. All papers that

address the iBEGIN nexus, both theoretical and empirical, are welcome.

 

Submission deadline: March 1, 2016.

 

Please submit by email attachment to:

[log in to unmask]

 

Submission format: Please visit the Journal of International Management website for detailed “Instructions for Authors”.

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-international-management/

 

References

Marshall, A. 1920. Industry and trade. London, Macmillan.

Mudambi, R. 2015. Local enterprise, global value. Research Focus – Business & Management, 1: 25-27

 

 

 

Marcelo Cano-Kollmann, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Strategy and International Business

College of Business, Ohio University

536 Copeland Hall

Phone 919-943-3003

Email: [log in to unmask]

 

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