CALL FOR PAPERS
Sixth Annual AIB Conference on Research
Frontiers in International Business
International Business and
the Transforming Public-Private Interface
Host:
Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina
Venue:
Charleston Place Hotel, Charleston, SC
http://www.charlestonplace.com/web/ocha/ocha_a2a_home.jsp
Dates: December 3-5,
2009
Register @ http://mooreschool.sc.edu/moore/ciber/conference/index.html
Deadline for Submission of
Proposals for Papers & Panels: August
3, 2009 (2-3 page summary of paper or panel). Invitations
to be issued by August 24, 2009
Program Committee:
Gerald McDermott (Program Chair, USC), Ruth V. Aguilera (University
of Illinois), Laura Alfaro (Harvard University), Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra
(USC), Tatiana Kostova (AIB Vice President, USC), Andrew Spicer
(USC), Tomas Hult (AIB Executive Director, Michigan State
University), Yves Doz (AIB President, ex officio, INSEAD),
Lorraine Eden (JIBS Editor-in-Chief, ex officio, Texas A&M
University).
Conference Theme:
For the past twenty years, scholars of public policy have
increasingly focused research on the changing boundary between
the public and the private domains, be it couched in phrases
like “the state and market” or “business
and society.” This research suggests that traditional
conceptions of the public-private interface may be inadequate
to examine the increasingly complex and overlapping relationships
between these two domains. A growing stream of research in
economics, political science and sociology has begun to explore
the procedural and constitutive effects of state and societal
actors on economic activity, incorporating a public-private
lens to analyze such issues of economic development, capital
markets, varieties of capitalism, regulation, and transnational
governance regimes. This discussion on the changing public-private
interface has gained the increased attention of international
business scholars, particularly as research incorporates institutional
and network factors to explain cross-national effects on such
issues as FDI, MNC strategy, and corporate governance. Despite
the growing inter-disciplinary nature of research in these
areas, to our knowledge scholars of international business
and of the shifting public-private domains rarely have had
the opportunity to directly engage and learn from one another’s
substantive and methodological approaches. The 2009 Frontiers
Conference aims to fill this void and explore the ever growing
intersection of research streams between international business
and public-private institutions.
In particular, we hope to encourage research
and discussion that focuses on the interaction between two
levels of experiments taking place across advanced and developing
countries alike. Governments are increasingly working with
private organizations, be they firms or NGOs, to build new
institutional arrangements to achieve joint goals of technological
upgrading, national competitiveness, poverty reduction, environmental
sustainability, infrastructure enhancement, and global economic
cooperation. At the same time, both domestic and foreign firms
are engaged in ongoing organizational experiments to anticipate
the shifting public-private boundaries – from developing
novel strategies of risk management to reshaping their corporate
forms to maximize both global synergies and local responsiveness
to building new collaborative arrangements with firms, governments,
and NGOs in areas as diverse as R&D, export promotion,
and labor standards.
The purpose of the conference is twofold.
First, it presents an opportunity for researchers to explore
paradigmatic shifts in IB in particular and management in
general. New theory typically emerges from analyses that focus
on new processes in a wide range of different contexts. For
instance, although IB researchers have often incorporated
institutional variables into their analyses, the various institutional
theories themselves are being revised in real time as they
shift from a focus on the role of institutions to a focus
on institutional change and creation. Hence, IB researchers
will need to build models of firm strategy based less on static
notions of institutions and more on the dynamic factors of
institutional transformation. Second, we offer a forum for
scholars to explore their overlapping, interdisciplinary research
agendas and to learn directly from one another about their
different assumptions and methods to capture multi-level process
of change in cross national contexts. Just as institutional
theories themselves are changing, they are doing so in different
ways, not only because of the different substantive issues
and regional contexts they draw on but also because of the
different paradigms, from which they have emerged –
from economics to sociology to political science. Scholars
will confront converging and diverging notions of institutional
change as it affects similar economic activities.
Topics of interest include:
- MNC Strategies in Shifting Institutional
Domains – In what ways have MNCs altered their strategies
and organizational designs to adapt to regulatory changes
in both advanced and developing countries? Conversely, how
do different approaches to institutional change improve
or hinder the ability of MNCs to create sustainable backward
linkages and positive spillovers in the host economy?
- Comparative Corporate Governance and
Regulation – How do countries vary in reshaping their
regulatory structures for capital markets and banks? In
which ways do these changes impact corporate governance
for both domestic firms and MNCs? How does the current crisis
force a revision of current governance theories and the
process of financial market integration across countries?
- Re-evaluating Risk – What are
the innovations in measuring and overcoming economic, political,
and social risk in the volatile environments of developing
countries? How does the process of creating new institutional
environments alter our understanding of risk?
- Institutions, Innovation, and Social
Networks – How do public and private actors forge
new institutions and networks to construct innovative capacities
that will allow their industries to compete in global markets?
Is public policy limited to transplanting optimal regulatory
designs to protect property rights from one country to another?
Or are governments constructing new configurations of institutions
to bolster the knowledge resources of their industries?
- The Transnationalization of the Regulatory
State – Regulation is not going away, it’s changing.
How do MNCs, multilaterals, regional trade blocs, and international
NGOs impact the transformation of rule-making and regulation
in both advanced and developing countries?
This list of topics is meant to be suggestive
and is not exhaustive. We encourage especially research that
seeks to integrate frameworks and methods from a variety of
disciplines. Moreover, we seek proposals on research conducted
at different analytical levels, including the individual,
firm, country, industry, subnational region, or comparative
levels. To further the interdisciplinary dialogue, the conference
will emphasize the participation of scholars from a variety
of disciplines such as management, politics, history, economics,
and sociology who offer contrasting paradigmatic approaches
to the above topics.
Submissions and Review Process:
We invite proposals for both panels and papers. Proposals
must be submitted by August 3, 2009, and authors will be notified
of the decision by August 24, 2009. Proposals should consist
of a 2-3 page, single-spaced summary of the proposed paper
or panel. Frontiers 2009 is especially interested in panels
that maximize debate and discussion among the participants.
Traditional paper presentations are not prerequisites for
a panel. Panel proposals should include the names of panelists
and their personal notes to attend, should the panel be accepted.
Submissions should be sent to Professor Gerald McDermott at
frontiers@moore.sc.edu. The submission should be marked as
Frontiers 2009.
Sponsors:
Academy of International Business
(AIB) and the CIBER's from:
Brigham Young University
Duke University
Florida International University
George Washington University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Indiana University
Michigan State University
Purdue University
San Diego State University
Temple University
Texas A&M University
The Ohio State University
The University of Texas at Austin
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Colorado at Denver
University of Connecticut
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Kansas
University of Maryland
University of Memphis
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of South Carolina
University of Southern California
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin |
