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THE 2022 JIBS DECADE AWARD The Selection Committee for the JIBS Decade Award is pleased to announce that the 2012 JIBS article "What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions" by Ioannis Ioannou (London Business School, UK) and George Serafeim (Harvard Business School, USA) has been selected as the winner of the 2022 JIBS Decade Award. The award, sponsored by Palgrave Macmillan, is designed to recognize the most influential paper published in the Journal of International Business Studies ten years prior and is presented at the annual AIB conference. In order to be considered for the JIBS Decade Award, an article must be one of the five most cited articles published in JIBS for the year being considered. This year's Selection Committee members were Yadong Luo (Chair, University of Miami, USA), the current AIB Program Chair Andrew Delios (National University of Singapore, Singapore), and past AIB Program Chair Gary Knight (Willamette University, USA). JIBS Editor-in-Chief Alain Verbeke was an ex officio, non-voting committee member. In recommending the award-winning article, the committee noted that, "This article is the most cited article published in JIBS in 2012. It stands out for several other reasons as well. "First, it is topical and timely, addressing a critical issue of concern to the broad global society on environmental and climate protection and more aggressive and conscious actions by MNEs to tackle this issue in the present day. The study shows a strong alignment with, and a good example of, responsible research for societal and public interests that we should all care about. By highlighting the role of institutions, this article raises the importance of MNEs' CSR and complementarity between their social performance and economic performance. "Second, this study is thought-provoking, establishing a macro (country-level) and micro (firm-level) link that crosses and integrates multiple disciplines such as institutional economics, political science, cultural research, and institutional theory. The authors demonstrate that nation-level institutional variation along the political system, education and labor system, financial system, and cultural system, significantly impacts variations in corporation-level social performance. The work is a good example, examining a bigger picture of IB and a particularly broader spectrum of factors that affect social performance of MNEs. "Third, this study is theoretically sound, with robust and exceptional theory development. The article draws on appropriate theoretical lenses from various fields, which reminds us that research needs to be skillfully and systematically grounded in expository theoretical perspectives, including theory from outside IB. The article provides sound answers to emergent questions on the 'how and why' of an important phenomenon, with implications well beyond IB. Corporate social performance is an under-researched topic, about which there has been little prior theory or formal theorizing in IB. "Fourth, this article is methodologically rigorous, offering excellent research design, longitudinal data, multilevel analysis, and comparative insights. It uses a sample of firms from 42 countries spanning seven years, and constructs an annual composite corporate social performance (CSP) index for each firm based on social and environmental metrics. Empirically, the authors went further, comparing which dimension of national business systems exerts a greater impact on CSP, which helps us better understand the relative importance of different institutional metrics for social performance of MNEs. "Finally, this study is exemplary, exhibiting ways of IB research to contribute to both our scholarly community and the business/public society. This article unveils the mechanisms through which nation-level institutions within national business systems affect MNEs' corporate social performance. The key findings from the study carry strong practical and policy implications. For instance, it concludes that laws and regulations that promote market competition are associated with a lower CSP mandate. When managers have the power to take decisions that might not be in the best interest of shareholders and potentially satisfy other stakeholders, CSP is higher. Also, CSP is significantly higher for corporations in countries where corruption is less widespread. In countries with a higher Union labor density, corporations fare better in CSP, suggesting that unions put pressure on corporations to improve the social benefits provided to workers, and can also increase corporate awareness of environmental consequences. The study also suggests that the efficiency of the capital allocation process in capital-market-based financial systems relative to credit-based systems outweighs a potential negative impact on CSP due to the short-term focus of firms. "This study's key findings can be disseminated far and wide, to the betterment of the world. The findings are fascinating and valuable, and at times, surprising and controversial. Thus, the article can foster valuable, thought-provoking discussion and debate by scholars, policymakers, and students. The work can serve as assigned reading, leading to important classroom discussion across a range of curricula. In this way, the article serves to advance not only scholarship, but also education, on a topic of vital importance to people around the world. For public policymakers, the article highlights key levers that can be examined, country-by-country, to deepen understanding on political, educational, labor, financial, and even cultural institutions, and how they might be transformed in order to achieve corporate social performance goals worldwide. The article also provides deep insights for practitioners, guiding them toward more intelligent and practical approaches, including the development of new business models, to advance corporate social performance goals at the firm level." A session will be held at the upcoming 2022 AIB Annual Meeting in Miami, in which the authors and invited discussants will comment on the paper. A reception honoring the Decade Award winning paper and its authors will also be held as part of the closing reception at the conference. We hope that you will join us in Miami to attend these events; the date and times will be available at https://www.aib.world/events/2022/ when the conference program is finalized. A retrospective by the authors, together with discussants' commentaries, will be published in the first issue of the 2023 volume of the Journal of International Business Studies. ____ AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business. For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp To post message: [log in to unmask] For assistance: [log in to unmask] AIB-L is a moderated list.