Call for Papers for a Special Issue
Ownership and Global Strategy
Submission deadline: June 15, 2022
Guest Editors:
Geoffrey T. Wood, Western University, Canada
Anna Grosman, Loughborough University London, UK
Michael J. Mol, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark & University of Birmingham, UK
Supervising Editor:
Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, Northeastern University, USA
Background and Purpose
Who owns the firm (local or foreign shareholders, governments or private investors, concentrated or diffused shareholders, traditional or alternative investors)
has long been an essential topic for research on organizations. At the same time, our conceptualization of ownership has widened over time to incorporate owners as strategists (most prominently in the case of entrepreneurial financiers), sources of capital
(as in the case of large joint-stock companies), and mechanisms of control (direct or via institutional intermediaries). The linkages and tensions amongst these conceptual foundations (for instance, the tension between ownership, ownership structures, and
control) have been the focus of a large literature in global strategy (Cuervo-Cazurra et al., 2019; Ferreira & Matos, 2008; Mudambi & Navarra, 2004; Shi et al., 2021). At the same time, this diversity in conceptual foundations provides numerous opportunities
for advancing our understanding of the role of ownership in global strategy. This is the objective of this special issue: analyzing how ownership affects global strategy and, by extension, how strategies are employed to accommodate owners.
The different conceptual foundations of ownership have received unbalanced attention in the global strategy literature. Most of that literature has studied the
behavior of multinational enterprises, including work on business groups and investments by state-owned and governmental actors (Benito et al., 2016; Castaldi et al., 2019; Cuervo-Cazurra et al., 2014; Inoue et al., 2013; Wright et al., 2021). In contrast,
the literature on what happens when institutional investors and alternative investors internationalize through acquiring stakes in firms as yet is both much smaller and more fragmented (Bacon et al., 2008; Bertoni & Lugo, 2014; Bonini et al., 2018; Cumming
& Johan, 2013; Panicker et al., 2019). Large institutional investors pool the money of savers and investors and make investment choices on their behalf, while alternative investors represent an increasingly important sub-category of investors, encompassing
private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, sovereign wealth funds, foundations, impact investors, and crowdfunding (Budhwar et al., 2021). Insights on such investors and their international investments can be found among others in various areas of economics
(Jara-Bertin et al., 2012; Widmer, 2011), economic geography (Haberly, 2014), finance (Aggarwal et al., 2011; Dyck et al., 2019), and Human Resource Management/ Industrial Relations (Guery et al., 2017). Nonetheless, this topic has received rather less attention
in strategy and general management journals (with notable exceptions such as Tihanyi et al., 2003). Yet, these types of institutional investors can exercise profound effects on target firms* strategies and organizational practices and, indeed, on the economies
in which they invest. For example, the Government Pension Fund Global, Norway*s sovereign wealth fund, the world*s single biggest owner of shares with holdings equating to about 1.5% of shares in publicly listed companies globally, has a stated policy of wanting
to contribute actively to the &development of international standards on responsible business conduct* (NBIM, 2021). Such policies directly affect strategic decisions in firms across the globe and those that do not comply may receive less investment. This
is but one example of foreign institutional ownership, a phenomenon that runs into trillions of US dollars and has many different faces (Desender et al., 2016; Sethuram et al., 2021; Shi et al., 2020). Most sovereign wealth funds have an explicitly global
brief, whilst private equity and hedge funds have become increasingly willing to cross national boundaries, raising questions as to their impacts on national business systems different from that encountered in their country of origin (Cumming et al., 2021).
In turn, this has led to pressures for increased financial protectionism, as well as sparking counter-reactions by domestic investors and firms (Guery et al., 2017).
From a scholarly perspective, there are two sides to the study of ownership and global strategy. One can study the impact of owners on firm strategies, what we
might call &owners as strategists*. Alternatively, one can study how firm strategies and other characteristics affect investment choices, which we might phrase &firms accommodating ownership*. There is an increasing trend of research in strategic
entrepreneurship on early-stage institutional investors and their decision-making processes (Cumming & Johan, 2017). Another stream deals with the effects of international institutional investors on local firms, such as a push towards international strategy
(Ray et al., 2016), or increased exposure to a foreign government and a propensity to engage in nonmarket strategies as a result (Desender et al., 2016; Shi et al., 2020). However, opinion is divided as to whether the consequences occur at the target firm-level
only or challenge entire systems, and whether the observed effects are due to the country of origin (Guery et al., 2017), or rather the intrinsic nature of an investor (Kacperczyk et al., 2021). Through this special issue, we solicit papers that can bridge
extant streams of literature, as firms* internationalization strategies and investors* portfolios allocations are increasingly intertwined.
At a theoretical level, there is much eclecticism in the explanations, offering ample opportunities for advancing theories. Some influential accounts have used
comparative institutional analysis to explore the extent to which such investors bring in new models of entrepreneurship that challenge traditional ways of doing things (Dunlap-Hinkler, et al., 2010; Widmer, 2011). Other work has used agency theory to argue
that investors may impart greater efficiencies and a closer focus on the bottom line (Bebchuk et al., 2017). Research in this area could also look at how ownership may not produce full control and associated property rights questions (Burkart et al., 1997).
The undeniably diverse literature on financialization encompasses accounts in journals that range from mainstream finance (Basak & Pavlova, 2016; Henderson et al., 2018) to radical political economy (Schelkle & Bohle, 2020). However, what this literature has
in common is an assumption that both traditional institutional and alternative investors, as defined above, exercise profound effects on what organizations do, and that financialization represents a global phenomenon, even if its effects are polyvalent, with
consequences in the economic, social, and cultural spheres (Clark & Monk, 2017). Related to that, an emerging stream of literature focuses on sustainable finance and how international investors respond to increased environmental pressures (Bolton & Kacperczyk,
2021), which leads to a theoretical overhaul as to what their general purposes are, beyond achieving purely financial goals (Henderson, 2020). Firms might cater to a particular type of institutional investor, who may focus on growth and returns, such as generous
dividend payouts, and be rather unconcerned with sustainability issues and/or the moral consequences of investments (Driver et al., 2020). Conversely, investors could be lured by firms showcasing their good practices, a phenomenon theorized through the &firm
signaling view* (Schnyder et al., 2021).
Through positing ownership and global strategy as a phenomenon for this special issue, we are keen on attracting work on the rationale, nature, and effects of
investors venturing abroad, that, whilst rigorous in theory, has a strong practical orientation. In terms of the strategies and practices that international institutional investors (traditional or alternative) follow and disseminate, submissions could, for
instance, address ownership changes and continuity, the limits of ownership and property rights, location-specific financial advantages, and strategic change inside individual firms. Further, issues could include effects that ripple through to the wider system,
norm entrepreneurship and host vs. home country pressures, and the pursuit of sustainable practices in target firms.
We also welcome studies that look at the other side of the coin, i.e., what firms might do to receive outside international investments, as well as methodological
or other contributions that seek to disentangle the endogenous relationship that exists between investors and firms. Studies of the investment behaviors of multinational companies expanding abroad (e.g., when investing in their own subsidiaries) do not constitute
part of the scope of the special issue, as we seek the best work on the effects of institutional investors crossing national boundaries. We are open to a variety of methodologies (large samples, case studies, conceptual, etc.) and theoretical approaches, and
seek work focusing on the impact of the context on strategy in line with the mission of the journal. Authors are encouraged to contact the special issue editors if they have questions about this special issue and the suitability of their work.
Research Questions
Although not an exhaustive list, we would particularly welcome papers that have a scope that
goes beyond national boundaries and look at questions such as those listed below.
Owners as strategists:
Firms accommodating ownership:
Deadline and Submission Instructions
Authors should submit their manuscripts between June 1 and 15, 2022, via the Global Strategy Journal submission system at
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gsj. To ensure that all manuscripts are identified correctly
for consideration for this Special Issue, please click the ※Special Issue Article§ when selecting the ※Article Type.§ Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with Global Strategy Journal*s Guide for Authors available at
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2042-5805/homepage/ForAuthors.html.
All submissions will go through the journal*s double-blind review process. The guest editors intend to conduct a paper development workshop for manuscripts moving
forward after the first or second round of reviews in early 2023. The aim of the workshop will be to provide additional inputs to authors regarding their manuscripts (after revision based on the reviews and feedback) with the intent of enhancing and sharpening
the potential value of the contribution. Presentation of an author*s work at the workshop is neither a requirement nor a promise of final acceptance of the paper.
Questions about the Special Issue may be directed to the guest editors:
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Bios of the editorial team
Professor Geoffrey T. Wood
is DanCap Private Equity Chair and Head of DAN Management at Western University in Canada, and Visiting Professor at Trinity College, Dublin. Previously, he served as Dean and Professor of International Business, at Essex Business School and before then
as Professor of International Business at Warwick Business School, UK. He has authored/co-authored/edited twenty books, and over two hundred and twenty articles in peer-reviewed journals. He has an h-index of 48, and an i10-index of 203. He holds honorary
positions at Griffith and Monash University in Australia. Geoff's research interests center on the relationship between institutional setting, corporate governance, firm finance, and firm-level work and employment relations. He is a Fellow of the Academy
of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the British Academy of Management, and is also in receipt of an Honorary Doctorate in economics from Aristotle University, Greece. Geoffrey Wood is the incoming Editor in Chief of
Academy of Management Perspectives, Official Journal of the Academy of Management (US), as well as editor of
Human Resource Management Journal. He also serves on the BAM Council. He is also Co-Editor of the
Annals of Corporate Governance. He is also editor of the Chartered ABS Journal Ranking list and International Reviewer of the ABDC Journal Guide. He has had numerous research grants, including funding councils (e.g., ESRC), government departments (e.g.,
US Department of Labor; UK Department of Works and Pensions), charities (e.g., Nuffield Foundation), the labour movement (e.g., the ITF), and the European Union.
Dr. Anna Grosman is an Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Loughborough University
London, UK. Anna received her Ph.D. from Imperial College London. Her research examines corporate governance processes, with a special emphasis on contemporary state capitalism, and corporate governance issues of state-affiliated organizations. She is working
on various research projects in the areas of state firms* internationalization, corporate bailouts, health technology usage by the governments, nonmarket strategies, corporate governance and sustainability for innovation, and topics pertaining to the Russian
economy. She has published in leading journals such as the Journal of World Business,
British Journal of Management, Corporate Governance: An International Review,
and Journal of Comparative Economics. She is a Co-Editor of the forthcoming
Oxford University Press Handbook on State Capitalism and the Firm. She is also on the editorial review boards of the
Global Strategy Journal and Journal of World Business. She received external research grants and scholarships from EPSRC, British Academy and Society for Advanced Management Studies. Before her academic career, Dr. Grosman worked for the US multinational
Georgia-Pacific (part of Koch Industries conglomerate) as a Director of Corporate Strategy and M&A for four years. Prior to that, she worked for six years in investment banking and corporate finance for CIBC World Markets, Citigroup and Close Brothers.
Michael J. Mol is a Professor of Strategic and International Management in the Department of Strategy
and Innovation at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and in part-time at Birmingham Business School, UK. He has worked and studied or been a visiting scholar at ten universities in six countries. His research focuses on the strategic management of larger
firms. He has published dozens of articles in leading journals and has also (co-)authored four books. There are around 7,000 Google Scholar citations to his work. He has won several awards for his research including the best article award from the Academy
of Management Review. He serves or has served on the editorial boards of a dozen journals including
Academy of Management Journal, California Management Review, Global Strategy Journal, and
Journal of International Business Studies. Michael is a Dutch national and holds a PhD from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
Anna Grosman, Ph.D., FHEA
Senior Lecturer (eqv. Associate Professor) in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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