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Next week's Academy of International Business conference in New Orleans sees the debut of the exciting new Town Hall Sessions - opportunities to engage in challenging and constructive conversations in a less formal context. I am part of a promising session chatting with Ilya Cuypers (Singapore Management University), Jean-François Hennart (Tilburg University) and Dana Minbaeva (Copenhagen Business School). Our session challenges a key theoretical and methodological norm in IB research: Beyond Bounded Rationality - Behavioral Strategy and IB - in the Evergreen Room, Tuesday, June 28: 17:45-18:45. This Townhall meeting raises the provocative question of whether we have adequately modeled the individual within IB. While senior decision-makers were a focus of some our field's pioneering work (e.g. Aharoni, 1966), with rare exceptions (Buckley et al., 2007; Hutzchenreuter et al. 2007; Maitland & Sammartino, 2015; Minbaeva, 2016), their actions have been underexamined in the IB literature. This contrast with the emergent behavioral strategy literature which placing the individual front and centre, with a particularly psychological/cognitive focus (e.g. Gavetti, 2012; Kaplan, 2011; Powell et al., 2011). The core questions suggested by Powell et al: 1. How does individual cognition scale to collective behaviour? 2. What are the psychological underpinnings of strategic management theory? 3. Can behavioral strategy explain complex executive judgments? We will argue that IB, and specifically the MNE decision-making setting, is a fantastic (perhaps, the natural) domain for answering each of these questions, given the greater complexity of the strategic contexts MNCs face, and also the diversity in individuals' cognitions given cross-cultural issues. In our conversation we aim to explore the roles of managerial cognition, judgment and expertise in shaping the strategic direction of MNEs. We will question how effectively theory currently models such behaviour. We recognise that we are really dealing with multi-level phenomena which throw up a variety of theoretical and empirical challenges. For example, what are the behavioral microfoundations of firm-level constructs such as absorptive capacity and strategic ambidexterity? How do group and team dynamics evolve from individual behaviour and cognition? What are the implications for studies of top management teams, alliances and governance? We hope to trigger cross-pollination from currently disparate conversations and excite IB scholars about the possibility of making early and impactful contributions to the emergent behavioral strategy literature. We want to foster vigorous debate and hopefully identify some promising avenues. Please come along and share in the fun. References: Aharoni, Y. 1966. The foreign investment decision process. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Buckley, P. J., Devinney, T. M., & Louviere, J. J. 2007. Do managers behave the way theory suggests? A choice-theoretic examination of foreign direct investment location decision-making. Journal of International Business Studies, 38(7): 1069-1094. Gavetti, G. 2012. Toward a behavioral theory of strategy. Organization Science, 23(1): 267-285. Hutzschenreuter, T., Pedersen, T., & Volberda, H. W. 2007. The role of path dependency and managerial intentionality: A perspective on international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 38(7): 1055-1068. Maitland, E., & A. Sammartino, (2015). Managerial cognition and internationalization. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(7): 733-760. Minbaeva, D., 2016. Contextualising the individual in international management research: black boxes, comfort zones and a future research agenda. European Journal of International Management, 10(1): 95-104. Powell, T.C., Lovallo, D. and Fox, C.R., 2011. Behavioral strategy. Strategic Management Journal, 32(13): 1369-1386. See you in the Big Easy, Assoc Prof André Sammartino | Associate Professor in International Business & Strategic Management Department of Management & Marketing| Faculty of Business & Economics The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia T: +61 3 8344 6880 E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> My research: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andre_Sammartino unimelb.edu.au [cid:[log in to unmask]] This email and any attachments may contain personal information or information that is otherwise confidential or the subject of copyright. Any use, disclosure or copying of any part of it is prohibited. The University does not warrant that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or defects. Please check any attachments for viruses and defects before opening them. If this email is received in error please delete it and notify us by return email. ____ AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business. 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