Call for Papers: Sixth Annual Academy of International Business (AIB) Conference on Research Frontiers in International Business

Sixth Annual Academy of International Business (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 24, 2009 (2-3 page summary of paper or panel).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Any questions and submissions should be sent to Professor Gerald McDermott at frontiers@moore.sc.edu. The submission should be marked as Frontiers 2009.


Deadline for Submission of Proposals for Papers & Panels: August 24, 2009 (2-3 page summary of paper or panel). Invitations to be issued by September 15, 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 24, 2009, and authors will be notified of the decision by September 15, 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

The CIBERs 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