Sponsored by
The Journal of International Business Studies
The Journal of Economics Geography
Global Strategy Journal
International Business, Economic Geography and Innovation
iBEGIN 2018
The relationship between local and global connectivity
October 26-27, 2018
Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Alain Verbeke, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Business Studies
Harald Bathelt, Editor, Journal of Economic Geography
Ram Mudambi, Co-Editor, Global Strategy Journal
While the multinational enterprises (MNEs) have long been central actors in global economy, their knowledge creation remained centralized at within their home countries even toward the end of the 20th century (Patel & Pavitt, 1991). However, by the turn of the century, research documented an antithesis: MNE innovation activities were undergoing rapid and widespread globalization (Frost, 2001, Cantwell & Mudambi, 2005). This process accelerated as MNEs began to take advantage of large pools of cost-effective knowledge resources in gigantic emerging market economies like China and India (Awate, Larsen & Mudambi, 2012; Zhao, Anand & Mitchell, 2005). This process has continued in spite of the weak protection of intellectual property in many emerging markets (Zhao, 2006). The most recent evidence suggests a potential synthesis: while innovation networks appear to display both local and global knowledge connectivity, the volume and breadth of the former appears to be many times larger than the latter (Scalera, Perri & Hannigan, 2018); most MNEs display an unbalanced geography (Coeurderoy & Verbeke, 2016). The synthesis points to a new research agenda encompassing the three disciplines of international business, economic geography and innovation.