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The September 1 deadline for the AIB Insights special issue on Geopolitics in IB is approaching. Please see the call for papers below for further details.
AIB INSIGHTS
Special Issue Call for Papers
Geopolitics in International Business:
Challenges and Insights
Special Issue Co-Editors
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 and use the Online Manuscript Submission System. 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_Berg_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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