Call for papers for a Special Issue of Global Strategy Journal

 

Institutions and Entrepreneurship

 

Guest Editors: Dan Li, Michael A. Hitt, Bat Batjargal, R. Duane Ireland, Toyah L. Miller

Global Strategy Journal Co-Editor: Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra

 

Submission deadline: August 31, 2019

 

The purpose of this special issue is to encourage and promote research at the cutting edge of our knowledge regarding the linkage between institutions and entrepreneurship. Evidence suggests that entrepreneurial activity has declined over the last 15 years in advanced countries (Porter, 2018). In contrast, entrepreneurial activity appears to be on the increase in emerging economies. The changing rates of entrepreneurial activity across countries and regions suggest the need for more in-depth research to help us better understand the impact of country-level factors, of which institutions is one of the most critical.

 

Three closely related themes are of particular interest for this special issue. First, institutions influence entrepreneurial activity. The impact of institutions on international entrepreneurship is increasingly salient with the rise of entrepreneurial activities in emerging economies. Some scholars proposed an institutional escapism view that new ventures and firms from emerging economies internationalize to escape from underdeveloped home institutions. Yet, others reported that a weak institutional environment can actually provide unique opportunities and resources for new ventures to engage in internationalization. Additional research by scholars would help us to explain how weak institutions encourage international entrepreneurial activity.

 

Second, institutions evolve; new venture creation and internationalization is a type of strategic adaptation to institutional evolution and changes. As outward foreign direct investment from emerging economies increases, new ventures created during institutional transition are playing an increasingly important role. How these ventures in evolving institutions obtain their international knowledge and formulate and execute their global strategy warrants scholarly attention.

 

Third, institutions and entrepreneurship co-evolve; new ventures created in adaptation to institutional changes also contribute to and reinforce the institutional evolution. Yet, we have limited knowledge about channels of the interplay between entrepreneurship in emerging economies and their diverse and complex institutions, and the mechanisms for these channels to function properly. As for multinational enterprises competing in such “fluid” institutional environments, incorporating entrepreneurship into their global strategy is critical to compete locally, particularly in platform industries. More importantly, how entrepreneurs potentially serve as a bridge between formal and informal institutions is of special interest; however, unanswered questions about this bridge in both the international business and international entrepreneurship literatures remain.

 

There are many research questions requiring attention to inform our scholarly research, managerial practice, and public policies helping us to better understand the interrelationship between institutions and entrepreneurship in the current global economy. We encourage authors to draw from and to integrate insights from multiple disciplines to prepare their work. We anticipate that submissions for this special issue will break new conceptual ground to address real-world phenomena regarding entrepreneurship within diverse institutional environments. In line with the Journal’s mission, submissions should examine cross-border activities occurring in multiple countries, provide a comparison and contrasting of activities across national borders, or discuss the impact of the context on firms’ strategies.

 

For more information, please refer to the attached document or visit https://www.strategicmanagement.net/gsj/overview/special-issues/open-calls