Call for Papers
Historical Perspectives on Deglobalization’s Antecedents, Outcomes, and Managerial Responses
Submission Deadline: 1 July 2023
Guest Editors:
Marcelo Bucheli (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Daniel Raff (University of Pennsylvania and NBER)
Andrew Smith (University of Liverpool)
Heidi Tworek (University of British Columbia).
JMS Editor:
Johann Fortwengel (King's Business School)
Since 2016, the use of the term
deglobalization has increased markedly (Google Trends;
Van Bergeijk, 2019). This relatively novel word is now employed by journalists (Financial Times, 2021; Economist, 2022), political risk consultants (Swarup,
2016), policymakers, economists (Irwin, 2020;
Van Bergeijk, 2019),
historians (James, 2018; Tooze, 2018) and management academics (Aguilera,
Henisz, Oxley, and Shaver, 2019;
Buckley, 2020; Munjal, Budhwar, and Pereira, 2018;
Witt, 2019)
as they attempt to make sense of such interrelated phenomena as rising protectionism, nativism, and the re-imposition of controls on flows of goods (Peng, Kathuria, Viana, and Lima, 2021), capital (Roubini,
2020), labour (Farndale, Thite, Budhwar, and Kwon, 2021) and ideas (De Chant, 2022). In effect, they use the term deglobalization to describe developments that make economic exchange across borders
harder than was previously the case. For people who use the term in this fashion, deglobalization denotes the opposite of globalization, economic liberalization, and movement towards a borderless world economy. Users of the term deglobalization usually focus
on decisions taken by policymakers as the causal drivers behind it, although other drivers, such as environmental and epidemiological, are also certainly possible.
The rise of protectionism, nativism, and the intensification of geopolitical rivalries in the early 2020s has created new challenges that
forced scholars studying firms and other organizations to bring politics and hostility to globalization back into the agenda (Witt, Li, Välikangas and Lewin, 2021; Doh, Darhan, Cassario, 2022). In
the aftermath of the Cold War, many Western liberals mistakenly saw globalization as inevitable and irreversible (Friedman, 2005). Few subscribe to that viewpoint today.
The advent of deglobalization means that scholars in business schools are in (seemingly) uncharted territory. However,
the world economy has experienced cycles of globalization and deglobalization over the last few centuries, as the business historian Geoffrey Jones
(2005) noted in a paper that now seems prophetic. History can serve as one guide for thinking about deglobalization’s antecedents and outcomes, because
historical and history-informed research can advance management theory
(Argyres,
De Massis, Foss, Frattini, Jones, and Silverman, 2020; Buckley, 2021;
Raff, 2020;
Sasaki, Kotlar, Ravasi, and Vaara, 2020; Suddaby, Coraiola, Harvey, and Foster, 2020;
Suddaby and Jaskiewicz, 2020; Wadhwani, Kirsch, Welter, Gartner, and Jones, 2020;
Wadhwani, Suddaby, Mordhorst, and Popp, 2018).
As Argyres et al. (2020) observe, the field of history-informed management research is very diverse, encompassing
myriad theoretical perspectives and research methods, positivist, interpretivist, and phenomenological. Historical and history-informed research in management includes papers that examine historical phenomena in light of management theory. It also includes
research about what managers and other actors in the present do with historical narratives as in the literature in management on ‘rhetorical history’ -how managers use historical narratives to persuade others- and ‘history-as-sensemaking’ -how managers draw
on their historical knowledge to make sense of the present (Suddaby, Coraiola, Harvey, and Foster, 2020).
This Special Issue seeks to include diverse historical approaches to deglobalization that can advance management
theory and provide actionable guidance to practitioners. At the same time, the Special Issue will enable historical scholars to engage with management, producing theoretical cross-fertilisation. We anticipate that this Special Issue will include representatives
of the different branches of historical and history-informed research and of different research traditions, including International Business, Strategic Management, and Historical Organization Studies. We seek papers about deglobalization’s history (from the
distant past and right up through the present) and equally about how any of a wide variety of essentially historical approaches to and perspectives on this once again current and salient phenomenon can advance management theory and provide actionable guidance
to decision-makers.
TOPICS OF INTEREST
This Special Issue will showcase historical and history-informed research that contributes to contemporary debates about deglobalization’s antecedents, outcomes,
and managerial responses. We therefore encourage submissions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes.
Theme 1. Antecedents of Deglobalization
Deglobalization has many antecedents that remain underexplored by researchers. We need to know about what causes deglobalization. We encourage contributors
to be explicit about the macro-level theories they use to understand global political economy, whether hegemonic stability theory (Meyer and Li, 2022), Marxian theories of political economy (e.g. Van Lent, Islam, Chowdury, 2020), world-systems theory, or postcolonial
theory (Boussebaa, Sinha, and Gabriel, 2014; Boussebaa and
Brown, 2017; Said, 1978). Theories that causally link deglobalization and pandemics (Tworek, 2019) might also be usefully applied here. Historical and history-informed research can therefore help to address the following questions, among others:
Theme 2. Outcomes of Deglobalization
A second major theme of the special issue will be how deglobalization differentially impacts organizations with different characteristics, such as size, purpose
(e.g., profit-seeking or non-profit), nationality, and organizational structure. Papers submitted to the special issue might also engage ongoing debates about de-internationalization (e.g. Kafouros, Cavusgil, Devinney, Ganotakis, and Fainshmidt, 2022), international
entrepreneurship (Terjesen, Hessels, and Li, 2016), and political risk management (Forbes, Kurosawa, and Wubs, 2018; Hartwell and Devinney, 2021) through the use of historical case studies.
Historical and history-informed research might shed light on the following questions, among others:
Theme 3. Managerial Responses to Deglobalization
A third major theme is understanding how managers in different types of organizations
(MNEs, domestic companies, non-profits) creatively respond to deglobalization. Managers appear to have considerable agency in how they respond to deglobalization. We know from the existing historical
research that some multinational firms responded to the deglobalization episodes of the early twentieth century by using cloaking (Boon and Wubs, 2020; Casson and da Silva Lopes, 2013; Donzé and Kurosawa, 2013; Forbes, Kurosawa, and Wubs, 2018; Jones
and Lubinski, 2012; Kobrak and Hansen, 2004). In a cloaking strategy, a firm attempts to hide its nationality to avoid being caught in the cross-fire between warring nation states. Other multinational firms of that era exploited the tensions between nations
associated with deglobalization to engage in “geopolitical jockeying” (Lubinski and Wadhwani, 2020). Historically, some firms responded to deglobalization by embracing host country’s nationalism (Moreno, 2005) or by strategically incorporating members of a
protectionist host country’s elite into the firm’s hierarchy (Bucheli and Salvaj, 2018; Garner, 2011). Firms have also used wartime sanctions regimes to attain competitive advantage (Mulder, 2022). We would therefore welcome historical and history-informed
papers that deal with such questions as:
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Submission deadline: 1
July 2023
Expected Publication: Late 2025
• Submissions should be prepared using the JMS Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
(http://www.socadms.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/JMS-ManuscriptPreparationGuidelines.pdf)
• Manuscripts should be submitted using the JMS ScholarOne system
(https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmstudies)
• Articles will be reviewed according to the JMS double-blind review process.
• We welcome informal enquiries relating to the Special Issue, proposed topics, and potential fit with the Special Issue objectives. Please direct any questions
on the Special Issue to the guest editors.
SPECIAL ISSUE EVENTS
Pre-submission
Online workshops for individuals interested in submitting to the Special Issue will be held in the autumn of 2022. Potential contributors are strongly encouraged
to attend at least one of these workshops, which will be held at times to accommodate researchers in different time zones. The guest editors will discuss the aims and scope of the Special Issue and will answer questions from potential contributors at these
workshops. Those interested in attending these Zoom workshops should prepare a two-slide PowerPoint presentation that succinctly describes the aims of the paper they are planning to submit.
Post-submission
It is anticipated that the guest editors will organize a special issue in-person revision workshop (date and location TBA) for authors who have received an
initial R&R decision on their manuscript. Please note that participation in the workshop does not guarantee acceptance of the paper. Participation in this workshop is also not a prerequisite for publication.
REFERENCES
Aguilera, R., Henisz, W., Oxley, J. E. and Shaver, J. M. (2019). ‘Special issue introduction: International strategy
in an era of global flux’. Strategy Science,
4, 61-69.
Argyres, N. S., De Massis, A., Foss, N. J., Frattini, F., Jones, G. and Silverman, B. S. (2020). ‘History-informed
strategy research: The promise of history and historical research methods in advancing strategy scholarship’.
Strategic Management Journal,
41, 343-68.
Boon, M. and Wubs, B. (2020). ‘Property, control and room for manoeuvre: Royal Dutch Shell and Nazi Germany, 1933–1945’. Business
History, 62, 468-87.
Boussebaa, M. and Brown, A. D. (2017). ‘Englishization, identity regulation and imperialism’. Organization
Studies, 38, 7-29.
Boussebaa, M., Sinha, S. and Gabriel, Y. (2014). ‘Englishization in offshore call centers: A postcolonial perspective’. Journal
of International Business Studies, 45, 1152-69.
Buckley, P. J. (2020). ‘The theory and empirics of the structural reshaping of globalization’. Journal
of International Business Studies, 51, 1580-92.
Buckley, P. J. (2021). ‘The role of history in international business: Evidence, research practices, methods and
theory’. British Journal of Management, 32, 797-811.
Casson, M. and da Silva Lopes, T. (2013). ‘Foreign direct investment in high-risk environments: An historical perspective’. Business
History, 55, 375-404.
De Chant, T. (2022). ‘Big Tech spent decades skirting geopolitical issues. That’s no longer an option’.
Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/02/big-tech-spent-decades-skirting-geopolitical-issues-thats-no-longer-an-option/
Doh, J. P., Dahan, N. M. and Casario, M. (2022). ‘MNEs
and the practice of international business diplomacy’. International Business Review, 31, 101926.
Donzé, P. Y. (2020). ‘The Advantage of Being Swiss: Nestlé and Political Risk in Asia during the Early Cold War, 1945–1970’. Business
History Review, 94, 373-97.
Donzé, P. Y. and Kurosawa, T. (2013). ‘Nestlé coping with Japanese nationalism: Political risk and the strategy of a foreign
multinational enterprise in Japan, 1913–45’. Business History, 55, 1318-38.
Dorobantu, S., Kaul, A. and Zelner, B. (2017).
‘Nonmarket strategy research through the lens of new institutional economics: An integrative review and future directions’. Strategic
Management Journal, 38, 114-40.
Economist. (2022).
Amid Russia’s war, America Inc reckons with the promise and peril of foreign markets.
March 12 edition.
Farndale, E., Thite, M., Budhwar, P. and Kwon, B. (2021). ‘Deglobalization and talent sourcing: Cross‐national evidence
from high‐tech firms’. Human Resource Management, 60, 259-72.
Financial Times (2018).
Year in a Word: Thucydides’s trap. 19 December
Financial Times (2021).
Baillie Gifford’s Anderson: Don’t ‘give up on China. 5 November
https://www.ft.com/content/c7002c97-4d81-4e2d-a23e-0c26582fd072
Findlay, R. and O'Rourke, K. H. (2007). Power
and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Vol. 51). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Friedman, T. L. (2005). The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Forbes, N., Kurosawa, T. and Wubs, B. (2018). Multinational Enterprise, Political Risk and Organisational
Change: From Total War to Cold War. Routledge.
Ganson, B., He, T. L. and Henisz, W. J. (2022). ‘Business and peace: The impact of firm-stakeholder relational strategies
on conflict risk’. Academy of Management Review,
47, 259-81.
Hartwell, C. A. and 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, 101225.
Irwin, D. (2020). ‘The pandemic adds momentum to the deglobalization trend’. Peterson Institute for
International Economics. https://www. piie. com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/pandemic-adds-momentum-deglobalization-trend.
James, H. (2018). ‘Deglobalization: The rise of disembedded unilateralism’. Annual Review
of Financial Economics, 10, 219-37.
Jones, G. G. (2005).
Nationality and Multinationals in Historical Perspective. Harvard Business School Working Paper
Jones, G. and Lubinski, C. (2012). ‘Managing political risk in global business: Beiersdorf 1914–1990’. Enterprise
& Society, 13, 85-119.
Kafouros, M., Cavusgil, S. T., Devinney, T. M., Ganotakis, P. and Fainshmidt, S. (2022). ‘Cycles of de-internationalization
and re-internationalization: Towards an integrative framework’. Journal of World Business, 57, 101257.
Kobrak, C. and Hansen, P. H. (Eds). (2004). European business, dictatorship, and political risk,
1920-1945 (Vol. 1). Berghahn Books.
Lawton, T. C., Dorobantu, S., Rajwani, T. S. and Sun, P. (2020). ‘The implications of COVID-19 for nonmarket strategy research’. Journal
of Management Studies, 57, 1732-36.
Lawton, T., McGuire, S. and Rajwani, T. (2013). ‘Corporate political activity: A literature review and research
agenda’. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15, 86-105.
Lubinski, C. and Wadhwani, R. D. (2020). ‘Geopolitical jockeying: Economic nationalism and multinational strategy in historical
perspective’. Strategic Management Journal, 41, 400-21.
Meyer, K. E. and Li, C. (2022). ‘The MNE and its subsidiaries at times of global disruptions: An
international relations perspective’. Global Strategy Journal, forthcoming.
Moyo, D. (2019). ‘Are businesses ready for deglobalization’. Harvard Business Review, 6.
Mulder, N. (2022).
The economic weapon: The rise of sanctions as a tool of modern war. Yale University Press.
Munjal, S., Budhwar, P. and Pereira, V. (2018). ‘A perspective on multinational enterprise’s national identity dilemma’. Social
Identities, 24, 548-63.
Peng, M. W., Kathuria, N., Viana, F. L. E. and Lima, A. C. (2021). ‘Conglomeration,
(De) Globalization, and COVID-19’. Management and Organization Review,
17, 394-400.
Raff, D. M. G. (2020). ‘Business History and the Problem of Action’.
Enterprise and Society, 561-91.
Said, E. (1978).
Introduction to Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Smith, A., Mollan, S. and Tennent, K. D. (Eds). (2016). The impact of the First World War on international business. London:
Routledge.
Suddaby, R., Coraiola, D., Harvey, C. and Foster, W. (2020). ‘History and the micro‐foundations of dynamic capabilities’. Strategic
Management Journal, 41, 530-56.
Sutton, T., Devine, R. A., Lamont, B. T. and Holmes Jr, R. M. (2021). ‘Resource
dependence, uncertainty, and the allocation of corporate political activity across multiple jurisdictions’. Academy of Management Journal, 64, 38-62.
Swarup, B. (2016).
Macro Matters: Globalisation is dead. https://www.ipe.com/macro-matters-globalisation-is-dead/10014924.article
Terjesen, S., Hessels, J. and Li, D. (2016). ’Comparative International Entrepreneurship: A Review and Research Agenda’. Journal
of Management, 42, 299-344.
Tooze, A. (2018). Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World. Penguin.
Tworek, H. (2019). ‘Communicable disease: Information, health, and globalization in the interwar period’.
American Historical Review
124, 813-42.
Van Bergeijk, P. A. (2019). Deglobalization 2.0: Trade and openness during the great depression
and the great recession. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Van Lent, W., Islam, G. and Chowdhury, I. (2021). ‘‘Civilized Dispossession’: Corporate accumulation at the dawn
of modern capitalism’. Organization Studies, 01708406211026127.
Wadhwani, R. D., Kirsch, D., Welter, F., Gartner, W. B. and Jones, G. G. (2020). ‚Context, time, and change: Historical
approaches to entrepreneurship research’. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 14, 3-19.
Wadhwani, R. D., Suddaby, R., Mordhorst, M. and Popp, A. (2018). ‘History as organizing: Uses of the past in organization
studies’. Organization Studies, 39, 1663-83.
Witt, M. A. (2019). ‘De-globalization: Theories, predictions, and opportunities for international business research’. Journal
of International Business Studies, 50, 1053-77.
Witt, M. A., Li, P. P., Välikangas, L. and Lewin, A. Y. (2021). ‚De-globalization and decoupling: Game changing
consequences?’. Management and Organization Review, 17, 6-15.