This Call for Papers aims to stimulate and assemble novel cross-disciplinary research on the multiple influences between national institutions and international business actors in shaping sustainable value creation paths, thus contributing to perhaps the most
important issue of our time.
Guest editors:
Special Issue Editors:
Supervising Editor
Special issue information:
Background
This Call for Papers for a Special Issue at the Journal of World Business focuses on the relationships between national institutions, international business actors such as investors,
board directors, and top executives of multinational firms, and decisions that may generate sustainable value creation. The Call for Papers explicitly invites novel research with an actor-centered perspective on multinational firms, examining factors inherent
to international business actors and the institutional (governance) contexts where they operate. It aims to stimulate research on whether, how, and under what conditions these actors will contribute through their decisions to sustainable value creation.
Climate change and the transition to net zero carbon emission, next to other societal challenges as described by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2021) – e.g., poverty, inequalities, and human rights – are increasingly at the
forefront of policy and business discourse (e.g., George & Schillebeeckx, 2022). While concerns about creating value in a sustainable manner seem to generate global consensus around the issue, policies and strategies to address it may highly differ across
countries and business actors.
Indeed, a fundamental premise in international business and comparative political economy and governance is that countries differ in their institutional settings (e.g., Aguilera & Jackson, 2010; Fainshmidt et al., 2018; Hall & Soskice,
2001), and that the characteristics of those settings exercise influence in the governance and strategies of firms that are nested within them (e.g., Steinberg et al., 2022; Zattoni et al., 2017). At the same time, international business actors, such as investors
(e.g., Desender et al., 2016; Kavadis & Castañer, 2014), board directors and top executives of multinational firms (e.g., Hooghiemstra et al., 2019) interact within institutional environments where they are operating. As a result, they may have an influence
on governance and strategies of firms in countries with different institutional set ups, and even impact institutional dispositions through, for instance, the introduction of “best practices” developed in other country settings.
Nevertheless, despite significant research streams having analyzed both institutional differences and the role of different business actors in bringing in foreign influences in terms of governance and strategies, we see at least three
reasons why novel research is necessary in relation to their impact on decisions that have the potential to generate sustainable value creation.
First, the sustainability imperative calls for global coordination and cooperation, thus making the study of interactions between business actors and institutional systems across the world a particularly important and relevant issue.
Second, there is a variety of corporate stakeholder interests possibly concerned by sustainable value creation, given the multiplicity of corporate objectives that may fall under sustainable value creation. Recent discourse and pressures
toward a more inclusive stakeholder capitalism (e.g., World Economic Forum, 2020) increases current relevance and importance of studying how different business actors (stakeholders) with different interests and from different countries interact to shape sustainable
value creation.
Third, international business actors, such as investors, board directors and top executives of multinational firms, are exposed to a variety of institutional settings. Such exposure may have ramifications for their own understandings
and preferences, and possibly for their home countries, in terms of institutions that deal with sustainability challenges.
The field of world business has recently delivered important research results on institutions and sustainability across the world, constituting a solid background of knowledge. The role of national institutions in corporate sustainability
has been the object of investigation (e.g., Ghoul et al., 2017; Ioannou & Serafeim, 2012). Furthermore, existing research has increased our understanding on the role of home country institutions on sustainability practices of multinational firms (e.g., Buchanan
& Marques, 2018; Fiaschi et al., 2017; Konara et al., 2021), the role of distance in corporate social responsibility practices of multinationals in host countries (Campbell et al., 2012), human rights (e.g., Obara & Peattie, 2018; Wettstein et al., 2019),
and the role of ownership (Ding et al., 2022; Kavadis & Thomsen, 2023). It has also generated knowledge as to the role of cross-listing (Del Bosco & Misani, 2016), and more recently, of digital technology (Ciulli & Kolk, 2023). The existence of literature
reviews on the topic of sustainability in international business research (Jamali et al., 2020; Kolk, 2016; Pisani et al., 2017) further underscores the importance of the topic, but also calls for new directions, above and beyond a linear continuation of current
research.
The above-mentioned reasons on why novel research is necessary seem to leave a vast ground underexplored in this domain and call for research that focuses on interactions between institutions and actors, as well as between actors, rather
than on institutions and actors themselves, as a new perspective to investigate sustainable value creation across the world.
Thus, given the timeliness and importance to address the sustainability challenge, this Call for Papers invites research that aims to examine the interactions between national institutions (as these are reflected in institutional frameworks
of countries, governance practices, policies and strategies of local firms) and international business actors, such as investors, board directors, and top executives of multinational firms, but also investigate the co-evolution of those interactions through
time, and their potential effects on the chosen paths to sustainable value creation that we observe across countries. Clearly, such endeavor poses theoretical and methodological challenges that prospective authors are invited to be keen on and address.
Overall, this Call for Papers aims to stimulate and assemble novel cross-disciplinary research on the multiple influences between national institutions and international business actors in shaping sustainable value creation paths, thus
contributing to perhaps the most important issue of our time.
Topics and scope
Submitted manuscripts for consideration in the Special Issue are expected to contribute to advance our understanding of the topic by mainly exploring interactions as conduits of change across the world (thus possibly affecting the degree
and nature of international differences), as enablers or constrainers in the path of business organizations towards sustainable value creation. In doing so, prospective authors may draw from different theoretical lenses. We welcome research with different
research designs and methodologies that can make a significant contribution to the topic of the Call for Papers. Nevertheless, in line with international business research, prospective authors may want to consider research questions and designs that span multiple
levels of analysis (e.g., Peterson et al., 2012).
We provide below several examples of topics/research questions that prospective authors could explore.
Manuscript submissions can build on existing research about the role of foreignness or institutional origin for investors (e.g., Desender et al., 2016; Kavadis & Castañer, 2014; Kim et al., 2019), executives (e.g., Dauth et al., 2017;
Nielsen & Nielsen, 2011), and directors (e.g., Hooghiemstra et al., 2019), as well as other characteristics such as gender (e.g., Kiefner et al., 2022), on a variety of organizational decisions, and in particular on sustainability-related decisions. As sustainability
and value creation that aligns with sustainability imperatives may be subjected to perceptions about “best practices” across counties and diffusion, international business actors can have an influence on the (national) paths towards sustainable value creation,
when interacting with local stakeholders, including the firms that they engage with.
Furthermore, the dearth of research dealing with the extent to which host country contexts can be a source of change in the objectives of internationally operating investors and other multinationals, as well as their home countries, seems
to be thinner (see, e.g., Han et al., 2019, for an exception). Yet, sustainability and the imperative for sustainable value creation can circulate through various conduits across countries. Business organizations, institutional investors, governments, individuals
such as board directors and top executives of multinationals are likely to have a professional activity that spans national boundaries, learn and incorporate insights from various horizons, and convey them across boundaries. The study of emerging countries
(e.g., Oehmichen, 2018; Soundararajan et al., 2023; Young et al., 2008) that have been often studied as host countries, may add interest in such research endeavors.
The above questions are illustrative and not exhaustive, and prospective authors are invited to consider, not only these but also other questions for future research as they are provided by relevant published research at the Journal
of Word Business and other relevant outlets.
Manuscript submission information:
The Journal of World Business’ submission system will be open for submissions to our Special Issue from 01/07/2024. When submitting your manuscript to Editorial
Manager®, please select the article type “VSI: IB Actors and Sustainable Value Creation”. Please submit your manuscript before 31/07/2024.
In line with the domain statement of the Journal of World Business, submissions must have an explicit multinational, cross-border, or international comparative orientation and be relevant to the study of management and organizations.
All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production, and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into
the online Special Issue. Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles.
Please see an example here: Journal of World Business | Reconsidering, Reconceptualizing and Refashioning Empirical Methodology in IB
Research | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Please ensure you read the Guide for Authors before writing your manuscript. The Guide for Authors and link to submit your manuscript is available on the Journal’s homepage at: Journal
of World Business | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
For questions about this Call for Papers, please contact the Special Issue Editors: Nikolaos Kavadis ([log in to unmask]), Niels Hermes ([log in to unmask]), Jana
Oehmichen ([log in to unmask]), Alessandro Zattoni ([log in to unmask]), and Stav Fainshmidt ([log in to unmask]).
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