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AIB INSIGHTS



Special Issue Call for Papers

Geopolitics in International Business:

Challenges and Insights

Special Issue Co-Editors

*	Luciano Ciravegna (INCAE, Costa Rica)
*	Christopher A. Hartwell (ZHAW School of Management and Law,
Switzerland & Kozminski University, Poland)
*	Srividya Jandhyala (ESSEC Business School, Singapore)
*	Ishmael Tingbani (Southampton Business School, United Kingdom)
*	William Newburry, AIB Insights Editor (Florida International
University, USA)

AIB Insights is a peer-reviewed journal publishing Actionable International
Business Insights. Short, topical, thought-provoking articles should be akin
to written “TED Talks” with an applied/actionable focus that is heavy on
insights, but light on references, jargon, and methods. These insights must
be relevant to the international business community of researchers,
practitioners, policy makers, and educators. With this call, we invite
submissions that offer novel and applied insights for responding to
geopolitical Issues in international business (IB).

Recent events around the globe have drawn renewed attention to the
importance of geopolitics in international business. The rise of China, Inc.
(Li, 2022), the fall of Afghanistan (Verma, 2022), the Russian invasion of
Ukraine (Hossain & Masum, 2022), and the history of colonialism and current
natural resource issues in both Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean
(e.g., Bassou, 2017; Berg & Brands, 2021) have brought the reality of
instability in the international system into stark relief. The slow-motion
breakdown in international norms surrounding trade and capital flows have
led to follow-on effects such as the breakdown in global supply chains
(Hartwell & Devinney, 2021). At a systemic level, we may be in the midst of
a transformation to a new multipolar world order (Kobrin, 2017; Acharya,
2017; Grosse, Gamso & Nelson, 2021). As a result, businesses face a much
more uncertain environment than they did even four years ago. Coupled with
volatile politics and populism in home and host countries (Devinney &
Hartwell, 2020), multinational enterprises (MNEs) need to address the
political realities of different countries they operate in.

While geopolitics involves sovereign states, it is also being recognized as
much more complex than just politics around the nation state. It includes
nested (e.g., nations within supranational organizations) and overlapping
dimensions (e.g., ethnic groups that cross national borders) as well as
meta-organizations, i.e., organizations like the European Union which are
comprised of other organizations. These dimensions further complicate the
environment that businesses face.

Considering these increasingly visible geopolitical challenges and the
growing importance of this research area within the IB domain, this Special
Issue of AIB Insights seeks novel and actionable insights that will provide
guidance to MNEs as they interact with their geopolitical environment. Below
is a list of illustrative topics:

*         How do we define geopolitics in the modern era? How do other
disciplines (e.g., political science, international relations) inform
geopolitical risks for MNEs?

*         What are the most important geopolitical issues facing
international business today? How can firms harness or overcome these
issues?

*         How do geopolitical issues impact foreign direct investment (FDI)
patterns by MNEs? How can MNEs better factor these issues into their FDI
decisions?

*         How is competition in global industries influenced by geopolitics?
What actions can stakeholders at different levels (e.g., government policy
makers, business managers) pursue to influence these competitive affects?

*         When are firms’ capabilities affected by geopolitics? How does
this happen? What can firms do to protect capabilities from geopolitical
considerations?

*         How do/can MNEs manage risk related to geopolitical issues? What
exactly is geopolitical risk?

*         What are the commonalities (and differences) between geopolitical
risks faced by firms today and those from the past? How have geopolitical
issues and their relation to MNEs changed over time? How should MNE managers
adapt to these changes?

*         Do geopolitical issues impact firms from developed versus emerging
economies differently? Can MNEs from advanced economies learn from their
counterparts in emerging economies and vice versa in this area? How can
these lessons, skills and related best practices learned be implemented in
their own operations?

*         How are risks transmitted or mitigated at different units of
analysis?

*         Are geopolitical risks grounded in political, economic, or social
changes? How do each of these areas affect business? What can policy makers,
business executives and other stakeholders due to manage these risks?

*         How can different stakeholders manage the tensions between
political, economic and social considerations associated with geopolitical
issues? For business managers, should business goals ever be secondary to
political and social considerations, and if so, under what conditions should
this occur?

*         How can individuals within MNEs manage tensions that may occur
between their values and those presented by the multifaceted geopolitical
environments within which they operate?

*         To what degree and how should MNEs (and their employees and other
stakeholders) pursue activist roles in influencing geopolitical issues? What
courses of actions are available to them under such circumstances?

Submission Process and Timeline

AIB Insights is the Academy of International Business official publication
that provides an outlet for short (around 2500 words), interesting, topical,
current and thought-provoking articles. Colleagues interested in submitting
to this Special Issue should consult the AIB Insights Editorial Policy
<https://insights.aib.world/for-authors>  and use the Online Manuscript
Submission System <https://insights.aib.world/for-authors> . Please mention
“Special Issue: Geopolitics in International Business” in your cover
letter when submitting your manuscript.

Timeline

Full manuscript submission deadline is September 1, 2022. Expected
publication of the Special Issue is late 2022 or early 2023.

References

Acharya, A. (2017). After Liberal Hegemony: The Advent of a Multiplex World
Order. Ethics & International Affairs, 31(3), 271-285.

Bassou, A. (2017). Africa’s natural resources and geopolitical realities.
OCP Policy Center. May. Available at:
https://www.policycenter.ma/sites/default/files/2021-01/OCPPC-PB1719vEn.pdf

Berg, R.  C. & Brands, H. (2021). The return of geopolitics: Latin America
and the Caribbean in an era of strategic competition. Jack D. Gordon
Institute for Public Policy. June. Available at:
https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/210617_Be
rg_Brands_Geopolitics.pdf?NnrmEW9w39lgVsGZHtjTBnnZV4VUvkPL

Devinney, T. M., & Hartwell, C. A. (2020). Varieties of populism. Global
Strategy Journal, 10(1), 32-66.

Grosse, R., Gamso, J., & Nelson, R. C. (2021). China’s Rise, World Order,
and the Implications for International Business. Management International
Review, 61(1), 1-26.

Hartwell, C. A., & Devinney, T. (2021). Populism, political risk, and
pandemics: The challenges of political leadership for business in a
post-COVID world. Journal of World Business, 56(4), 101225.

Hossain, A. T., & Masum, A. A. (2022). Russian invasion of Ukraine,
geopolitical risk, and global financial markets. Available at SSRN:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4056137.

Kobrin, S. J. (2017). Bricks and Mortar in a Borderless World:
Globalization, the Backlash, and the Multinational Enterprise. Global
Strategy Journal, 7(2), 159-171.

Li, S. (2022). The Rise of China, Inc.: How the Chinese Communist Party
Transformed China into a Giant Corporation. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Verma, R. (2022). Instability in Afghanistan and Non‐traditional Security
Threats: A Public Good Problem?. Global Policy, 13(1), 152-159.




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