*** Apologies for cross posting ***

 

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to draw your attention to a call for paper for a special issue on informal networks. Please see below and the attached file for further details.

Management and Organization Review

Special Issue ‘Social Networks ‒ The Dark and Bright Sides of Informal Networks’

 

Guest Editors:

Sven Horak,¹ Fida Afiouni,² Yanjie Bian,^3,4 Alena Ledeneva,⁵

and Maral Muratbekova-Touron⁶

¹St. John’s University, USA, ²American University of Beirut, Lebanon, ³University of Minnesota, USA, ⁴Xi’an Jiatong University, China, ⁵University College London, UK, and ⁶ESCP Europe, France

MOR Deputy Editor:

Carl Fey

Aalto University, Finland, and Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

 

 

Submission Deadline (full paper): 31 January 2019

The special issue aims to add, extend, and complement the current theory. We expect manuscripts to bring strong empirical contributions that develop and extend theory as well as more conceptual papers that integrate critique and expand existing theory. We encourage the use of methods that are appropriate to both the research context and research questions and therefore welcome both qualitative and quantitative methods of investigation and analysis. Contributions should report original research that is not under consideration at any other journal. 

 

Papers should fit but are not limited to the following themes:

• How can the dark side of informal networks be described in its respective local or an international context? How are informal networks misused?
• How can the bright side of informal networks be described in its respective local or an international context? How do positive features turn into negative ones?
• Construct knowledge: How can respective informal networks be characterized in terms of their structure and nature? What are the differences from the extant theory?

 

• How can foreign staff (e.g., expatriates) become members of respective informal networks? Can these networks be used without becoming members?
• Which questions important to international business ethics arise in connection to the involvement in and usage of informal networks? Should informal networks be judged through the ethical lens at all? How is culture intertwined with respective informal networks?
• How do local or multinational firms deal with informal networks in respective markets? Can they be ‘formalized’ and managed?

 

• Does engaging in informal networking oppose the corporate code of conduct of MNCs?

• How do and/or should firms deal with potential information flowing or being exchanged through informal networks in cases in which employees are more loyal to their informal networks than to a firm’s code of conduct? Can intellectual property be protected in such a dynamic environment?

 

Kindly check the attached document for further details and feel free to disseminate the call in your networks.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Sven Horak

The Peter J. Tobin College of Business

St. John’s University, New York