Call for conference papers: AIB-Lat 2016

Innovation Environments and Global Value Chains in Latin America

6th AIB-LAT Annual Conference - February 18-20, 2016 

São Paulo - Brazil

Innovation environments (clusters, technology parks and business incubators) can play an important role in integrating Latin American firms into global value chains (GVC) in a more qualified way. On the one hand, innovation environments have attracted R&D&I units of MNCs to Latin America and thus have fostered innovation in the region. There are successful cases in specific industries such as oil and gas, automotive, biomed, IT and others. On the other hand, there is growing interest in inserting Latin American firms in GVCs in order to increase international trade and capture value in the innovation steps in those GVCs. The Global Open Innovation approach can help in this regard. However, this context imposes several challenges and questions arise:

How to attract R&D&I units of MNCs to innovation environments in Latin America? How to insert Latin American firms into the innovation steps of GVCs? What are the dilemmas in the internationalization of innovation environments? How to manage Global Open Innovation? What is the role of government? How to identify which industries should be focused upon? How to stimulate the internationalization of technology based firms from Latin America?

To deal with these interesting issues, the Latin American Chapter of the Academy of International Business is pleased to announce that the conference "Innovation Environments and Global Value Chains in Latin America" will be held in São Paulo, Brazil at FEA – Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade, USP - Universidade de São Paulo, on February 18-20, 2016. This AIB-LAT conference aims to promote the best and latest research findings and theoretical developments in the fields of Innovation Environments and Global Value Chains in Latin America.

We cordially invite you to share your experience in this research field by submitting empirical and conceptual papers explicitly or implicitly related to the theme of the conference. Papers more broadly based on international business and Latin America will also be accepted. Below is an illustrative list of topics that will be considered:

• Global value chains in Latin America
• Internationalization of innovation environments
• Global strategy and innovation
• Global open innovation
• Multinational and subsidiary management
• Internationalization in Latin America and entry modes o Knowledge management in the region
• International marketing
• International human resources management
• Corporate social responsibility and international business ethics 
• Inward and outward FDI
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Offshoring and outsourcing in the region
• Corporate governance, international finance,  international standards
• Regional policies, IGOs, NGOs
• International social entrepreneurship
• Research methods in international business o Cross-cultural management
• Internationalization of family firms

Submission of papers:

Deadline for full paper submissions: 19th October 2015
Communication to the applicants: 26th October 2015.

O
Visit the AIB-LAT website in the next few weeks for more information: www.aib-lat.org

or submit your questions to: lat2016@aib.msu.edu


Conference Chair: Dr. Moacir de Miranda Oliveira Jr., University of São Paulo Chapter Chair: Dr. William Newburry, Florida International University

AIB-LAT is the Latin American Chapter of the Academy of International Business (AIB) and it is the leading association of scholars and specialists in the field of international business in Latin America. In its mission to advance the teaching and scientific research of all areas of international business, AIB-LAT is now accepting proposals related to the conference theme.

Call for papers. New advantage and liability sources in entrepreneurial firms:

Group & Organization Management 

Call for Papers for a Special Issue

NEW ADVANTAGE AND LIABILITY SOURCES IN ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS: ASSESSING PROGRESS AND EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES

Submission Period: June 30, 2015-August 31, 2015

Guest Editors:

Hans Landström, Lund University Franz Lohrke, Samford University

Background and Special Issue Purpose

2015 marks the 50th anniversary and 2016 the 30th anniversary, respectively, of Stinchcombe’s (1965) landmark work on liabilities of newness and Auster and Aldrich’s (1986) seminal work on liabilities of smallness. Do new ventures (NVs) still face the same daunting survival odds scholars first asserted a half century ago or are they innovative, flexible organizations that attract customers, suppliers, and investors? Are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) unable to compete effectively with or can they respond to changing competitive environments better than their larger counterparts? Extant research provides ample evidence that both these contrasting views may be valid.

On the one hand, scholars have found a positive relationship between firm newness and failure, often referred to as ‘liabilities of newness.’ These findings support the long-standing hypothesis that factors related to newness, such as low organizational legitimacy with external stakeholders, may contribute to high NV financial distress and failure rates (DeVaughn & Leary, 2010). Similarly, scholars have noted that SMEs face size disadvantages (i.e., ‘liabilities of smallness’), including inabilities to capture economies of scale, develop a strong brand name, attract top managerial talent, or gain bargaining power with key stakeholders (Strotmann, 2007).

On the other hand, other theoretical and empirical studies have suggested that NVs and SMEs may actually enjoy important strategic advantages. For example, NVs may enjoy ‘assets of newness’ resulting from high strategic flexibility and attractiveness to early adopters (Choi & Shepherd, 2005). In addition, SMEs may be able to avoid organizational inertia and respond more quickly than large enterprises can to competitive threats in dynamic environments (Chen & Hambrick, 1995).

These latter perspectives may be enhanced by recent innovations and other trends that could boost NV and SME advantages and/or partially mitigate their disadvantages. For example, NVs and SMEs can now build a brand name and find critical human resources talent via social media, access essential software via cloud computing, prototype products with 3D printing, outsource production to overcome capacity constraints, run geographically dispersed operations with virtual teams, and raise capital for new business ideas through crowdfunding. In addition, national and local governments have often tried to support entrepreneurship by passing favorable legislation and establishing incubation facilities. These innovations and policies have lowered industry entry barriers as well as enhanced the ability of NVs and SMEs to compete on a more equal footing with their more established and larger counterparts.

Although research has provided insights into some innovations and trends affecting liabilities of newness and smallness, studies of other topics remain extremely limited. For example, although a large body of work exists examining the value of incubation facilities, only a handful of studies, to date, have examined advantages entrepreneurs can gain from employing social media, 3D printing, virtual teams, and crowdfunding to help overcome their firms’ respective liabilities.

Accordingly, this special issue seeks to examine if and how critical issues related to liabilities of newness and liabilities of smallness have changed, given recent technological innovations and other trends. We believe that a special issue devoted to these topics is especially timely, not only because this research can inform current management theory, policy, and practice but also because it has now been five and three decades, respectively, since the publication of Stinchcombe’s (1965) and Auster and Aldrich’s (1986) seminal works. These anniversaries provide an ideal time to reflect on findings, to date, and examine future research avenues.

Possible Research Questions

For this special issue, we are looking for submissions that provide important conceptual and empirical insights about liabilities of newness or smallness that would be of interest to a wide range of organizational scholars. Appropriate topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Entrepreneurship and innovation: Do NVs and SMEs implement organizational changes required by the advent of new technologies more easily than their older and larger counterparts? How are NVs structurally “imprinted” by their founding during times when new technologies develop? Does adopting new technologies enhance NV or SME innovation? What role does absorptive capacity in these firms have on their ultimate success with innovations? 
• Strategic management: What specific strategies can firms use to overcome liabilities of newness and smallness? How and when can NVs exploit ‘assets of newness’ to develop competitive advantages? How will recent innovations affect the overall entrepreneurship process of opportunity identification, evaluation, and exploitation? 
• Public policy: How can government policies help mitigate liabilities of newness and smallness? What role do institutions such as business incubator and university technology transfer programs have in reducing these liabilities? How could lower entry barriers resulting from these technologies and trends impact industry structure and, in turn, NV and SME performance? 
• Technology and innovation: What impact will new technologies and trends have on NV and SME access to critical resources such as capital and human resources talent? Can these firms use technologies developed externally to build a sustainable competitive advantage? 
• Social entrepreneurship: Do key success factors for employing new technologies differ between public organizations and private firms? Do non-profits and socially missioned for-profit firms have any advantages or disadvantages relative to traditional for-profit firms in using new technologies like crowdfunding?
• International management and entrepreneurship: How will these innovations impact the process of creating and managing new international ventures? Can small companies employ innovations such as virtual teams to expand their operational scope internationally? 
• Behavioral issues: Are NVs and SMEs with higher entrepreneurial orientation more likely to adopt and successfully exploit new technologies? What linguistic cues and other actions can entrepreneurs use to enhance the probability of successful crowdfunding campaigns? 
• Ethical and legal issues: What ethical issues arise for entrepreneurs when employing technological advances such as 3D printing, social media, and crowdfunding? What impact will these technologies have on the value of patents and copyrights? 

Deadlines, Submission, and Review Process

Submissions should be prepared in accordance with Group & Organization Management guidelines. The submission window will be open between June 30 and August 31, 2015. For additional guidelines, please see ‘Manuscript Submission” at http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal200823/ manuscriptSubmission.

Further Information

For questions regarding the content of this special issue, please contact the guest editors:

• Hans Landström, Lund University, hans.landstrom@fek.lu.se  
• Franz Lohrke, Samford University, ftlohrke@samford.edu

References

• Auster, E. R. & Aldrich, H. (1986). Even dwarfs started small: Liabilities of age and size and their strategic implications. Research in Organizational Behavior, 8: 165-198. 
• Chen, M.-J. & Hambrick, D. C. (1995). Speed, stealth, and selective attack: How small firms differ from large firms in competitive behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 38: 453-482. 
• Choi, Y. R., & Shepherd, D. A. (2005). Stakeholder perceptions of age and other dimensions of newness. Journal of Management, 31, 573-596. 
• DeVaughn, M. L., & Leary, M. M. (2010). Antecedents of failure for newly chartered banks in the U.S. banking industry. Group & Organization Management, 35, 666-695. 
• Stinchcombe, A. (1965). Organizations and social structure. In J. G. March (ed.), Handbook of organizations, pp.142-193. Chicago: Rand McNally. 
• Strotmann, H. (2007). Entrepreneurial survival. Small Business Economics, 28, 84-101.

Call for special issue paper: Contextualizing Research: Rigor and Relevance

Call for Journal of World Business Special Issue

Contextualizing Research: Rigor and Relevance

Guest Editors: Mary B. Teagarden, Mary Ann Von Glinow and Kamel Mellahi

Deadline: 1 November 2015

Contextualizing international business research to achieve research rigor and practical relevance is a challenge faced by all sub-disciplines within the IB domain. Contextualizing IB research focuses on the big question, 'How do we identify and integrate context into our IB research?' and a corollary, 'Why should we identify and integrate context into our IB research?' We seek submissions for this special issue that explore the implications of context for IB theory building, research design and methodology including methodological approaches to build more robust IB theories; articles that focus on the conceptualization and meaning of context; and limitations of contextualization. Additionally, submissions that demonstrate novel methodological approaches for integrating context into IB theory building are welcome.

When Peter Buckley (2002) questioned the distinctiveness of IB research, he responded to his own question and argued for more integration of culture, more use of comparative studies and of distinctive methods in IB research. Many argue contextual dimensions are what differentiate domestic research from international business and international management research (Buckley, 2002; Child, 2009; Oesterle & Wolf, 2011). Oesterle and Wolf (2011) raised the question, 'how international are our international journals?' And concluded that context was not adequately or at best modestly addressed in most of our research. We concur.

Despite the urging of thought leaders in IB for more contextualization, our approaches to contextualization appear limited, for example, focusing on categorical data or concepts like country or nationality (Von Glinow & Shenkar, 1994). They are static since our methods do not appear to be changing despite calls to do so (Buckley, 2002; Child, 2009; Teagarden, et al. 1995). Perhaps, most importantly, the scope of IB is expanding dramatically and our research contextualization appears inadequate, given the shift in business from the United States and Europe toward more 'exotic' emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa with more pronounced differences in business and cultural environments. For our IB research to remain relevant we must more adequately contextualize our theory building.

Contextualization has been viewed through many lenses, and at multiple levels of analysis. While focusing on theory building, Whetten (2009) and Tsui (2004) differentiate context-specific and context-bound theory development, and Child (2009) discusses an 'outside in' versus 'inside out' perspective of contextualization. Von Glinow, Shapiro and Brett (2004) and Shapiro, Von Glinow and Xiao (2007) suggest a more complex perspective when they contrast 'single contextuality' with 'polycontextuality' or the multiple and qualitatively different contexts embedded within one another. Each of these studies acknowledges that context is important in IB theory building and each offer prescriptive recommendations for incorporating context.

Strategists and behaviorists assert that location, one form of context, has an impact on theory (Gelfend, Erez & Aycan, 2007; Ricart et al., 2004; Rugman & Verbeke, 2001; Rousseau & Fried, 2001). Khanna (2002) explores institutions and institutional voids in locations. Ghemawat (2001, 2003) examines country differences and offers the CAGE (Culture, Administrative, Geographic and Economic) framework to guide analysis. Ghemawat (2007) argues that despite globalization, there are significant locational differences that must be considered. Cheng (1994) suggests that context-embedded research ought to include '…a nation's social, cultural, legal, and economic variables as predictors and organizational attributes as dependent variables. Enright (2002) urges the use of multilevel analysis including supranational, macro, meso, micro and firm levels in the integration of location into competitive strategy. House and colleagues (2004) in their seminal GLOBE study discuss societies and their impact on leadership. Von Glinow and colleagues (2002 a, 2002 b) and Von Glinow & Teagarden (1988, 1990) identify locational influences on human resource management best practices. Shapiro and colleagues (2007) identify numerous contextual variables, including location, that address the multiple and qualitatively different contextual variables that influence understanding behavior in China. Regardless of sub-discipline, there is ample opportunity to contribute to the IB research contextualization dialog.

Given the magnitude of possible contexts, researchers are challenged to comprehend the contextual and polycontextual dynamics in a limited number of cultures or societies. Tsui (2004) argues for inside-out, context specific indigenous research, and this represents one possible solution to the context challenge. Teagarden and Schotter (2013) and Enright (2002) argue for the importance of multilevel analysis to contextualize research and provide a deeper understanding of phenomena. Teagarden and colleagues (1995) suggest that team-based comparative-management studies provide the collective understanding to contextualize and make sense of multiple contexts in a single research project. There have been numerous examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of this latter approach (House, et al., 2004; Von Glinow, Teagarden & Drost, 2002a, 2002b). This highlights the opportunity to question the research methods currently used to contextualize IB research.

The list of topics below is merely suggestive of the range of topics appropriate for the Special Issue, which ideally seeks inputs from scholars across a number of disciplines related to conducting research on organizational, institutional and environmental contexts. Through contributions to this special issue, we aspire to expand the boundaries of rigor and relevance in international business research.


Contributors are invited to submit manuscripts focus on topics and themes such as:

• · How important is context to conducting IB research?
• · What are the various methodological approaches used to measure context?
• · How does indigenous research help us uncover multiple contexts?
• · What is context-embedded research, and why is it important?
• · What role do institutions and institutional voids play in establishing context in IB research?
• · How does the use (or abuse) of context affect rigor or relevance in our theory development?
• · How does the use of context help us expand theory in IB?
• · What research methods are most appropriate to uncovering the different and multiple contexts that underlie most international settings?

Submission process:

By November 1, 2015, authors should submit their manuscripts online via the new Journal of World Business EES submission system. The link for submitting manuscript is: http://ees.elsevier.com/jwb.

To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for consideration for this Special Issue, it is important that authors select ‘SI: Contextualizing Research’ when they reach the “Article Type” step in the submission process

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the Journal of World Business Guide for Authors available at http://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-world-business/1090-9516/guide-for-authors. All submitted manuscripts will be subject to the Journal of World Business’s blind review process.

We may organize a workshop designed to facilitate the development of papers. Authors of manuscripts that have progressed through the revision process will be invited to it. Presentation at the workshop is neither a requirement for nor a promise of final acceptance of the paper in the Special Issue.

Questions about the Special Issue may be directed to the guest editors:

• Mary B. Teagarden, Thunderbird School of Management, Arizona State University, USA (mary.teagarden@asu.edu)
• Mary Ann Von Glinow, Florida International University, USA (vonglino@fiu.edu)
• Kamel Mellahi, Warwick Business School, UK (Kamel.Mellahi@wbs.ac.uk)

References:

• Buckley, P.J. (2002) 'Is the international business research agenda running out of steam?', Journal of International Business Studies, 33(2): 365-373.
• Cheng, J.L.C. (1994) 'On the concept of universal knowledge in organization science: implications for cross-national research', Management Science, 40: 162-168.
• Child, J. (2009) 'Context, Comparison, and methodology in Chinese Management Research', Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 57-73.
• Enright, M.J. (2002) 'Globalization, regionalization, and the knowledge-based economy in Hong Kong. In J.H. Dunning (ed.) Regions, Globalization and the Knowledge-based Economy, Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 381-406.
• Gelfend, M.J., Erez, M.and Aycan, Z. (2007) 'Cross-cultural organizational behavior', Annual Review of Psychology, 58: 479-514.
• Ghemawat, P. (2001) 'Distance still matters', Harvard Business Review, 79(8), September: 137-147.
• Ghemawat, P. (2003) 'Semiglobalization and international business strategy', Journal of International Business Studies, 34(2): 138-152.
• Ghemawat, P. (2007) 'Why the world isn't flat', Foreign Policy, March-April: 54-60.
• House, R. J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W. and Gupta, V. (2004) Culture, Leadership and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Sage.
• Khanna, T. (2000) Local Institutions and Global Strategy, Harvard Business School: Boston, Harvard Business School Note No. 702-475.
• Oesterle, M.J. and Wolf, J.M. (2011) '50 years of MIR and IB/IM research; an inventory and some suggestions for the fields development',Management International Review, 51: 735-757.
• Ricart, J.E., Enright, M.J., Ghemawat, P., Hart, S.L., and Khanna, T. (2004) 'New frontiers in international strategy', Journal of International Business Studies, 35: 175-200.
• Rousseau, D.M. and Fried, Y. (2001) 'Location, location, location: contextualizing organizational research', Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22: 1-13.
• Rugman, A.M. and Verbeke, A. (2001) 'Subsidiary-specific advantages in multinational enterprises', Strategic Management Journal, 23(3): 237-250.
• Shapiro, D.L., Von Glinow, M.A. and Xiao Z. (2007) 'Toward polycontextually sensitive research methods', Management and Organization Review, 3(1): 129-152.
• Shenkar, O. and Von Glinow, M.A. (1994) 'Paradoxes of organizational theory and research: using the case of China to illustrate national contingency', Management Science, 40: 56-71.
• Teagarden, M.B. and Schotter, A. (2013) 'Favor prevalence in emerging markets: a multi-level analysis of social capital', Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 30(2): 447-460.
• Teagarden, M.B., M.A. Von Glinow, D. Bowen, C. Frayne, S. Nason, P. Huo, J. Milliman, M.C. Butler, M.E. Arias, N.H. Kim, H. Scullion and K.B. Lowe (1995). 'Toward building a theory of comparative management research methodology: An idiographic case study of the best international human resources management project', Academy of Management Journal, 38(5): 1261-1287.
• Tsui, A.S. (2004) 'Contributing to global management knowledge: a case for high quality indigenous research', Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 21: 491-513.
• Von Glinow, M.A. and Teagarden, M.B. (2009) 'The future of Chinese management research: rigor and relevance redux', Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 75-89.
• Von Glinow, M.A. and Teagarden M.B. (1990). 'Contextual determinants of human resource management effectiveness in international cooperative alliances: evidence from the People's Republic of China', International Human Resource Management Review, 1: 75-93.
• Von Glinow, M.A. and Teagarden M.B. (1988). 'The transfer of human resource management technology in Sino-U.S. cooperative ventures: problems and solutions', Human Resource Management, 27(2), Summer: 201-229.
• Von Glinow, M.A, Teagarden, M.B. and Drost E. (2002a). 'Converging on IHRM best practices: lessons learned from a globally-distributed consortium on theory and practice', Human Resource Management, Special Issue, 41(1): 123-140.
• Von Glinow, M.A, Teagarden, M.B. and Drost E. (2002b). 'Converging on IHRM best practices: lessons learned from a globally-distributed consortium on theory and practice', Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resource Management, Special Issue, 40 (1): 123-140.
• Whetten, D. (2009) 'An examination between context and theory applied to the study of organizations in China', Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 29-55.

Call for papers. Special Issue: Advances in Strategic Management dedicated to “Corporate Strategy and Resource Redeployment

Advances in Strategic Management dedicated to “Corporate Strategy and Resource Redeployment"

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2015

It is well understood that whether corporate strategists create value is determined by their ability to deploy resources across multiple business units. Strategies in pursuit of “synergy,” where resources are simultaneously shared across businesses, have commanded the dominant attention of researchers and practitioners to date. Only recently has it been explicated that a second type of resource deployment strategy might create corporate value by providing discretion or flexibility to partially or completely withdraw resources from one business and reallocate them to another business. This strategy has been referred to as “inter-temporal economies of scope,” “resource redeployability,” and “resource reconfiguration,” and differs from synergy in that resources are withdrawn from one business and reallocated to another, rather than contemporaneously shared across businesses. It is believed that when firms can redeploy their resources in this manner, it provides greater potential to escape from declining prospects in a business, and is particularly valuable in turbulent environments. As a result, resource redeployability may affect not only firm value creation, but also firm and industry evolution.


Despite recent advances in our understanding of resource redeployment, the discussion remains emergent around how it and synergy differentially affect value and firm decision-making. There are at least three substantive opportunities to advance our understanding of this debate:

First, we need more clarity about the theoretical determinants and effects of synergy versus resource redeployment. Relevant research questions might include:

• · How are the determinants of synergistic value different from the determinants of value derivable from resource redeployment?
• · Is the value deriving from resource redeployment necessarily associated with multi-business firms, or might single-business firms also benefit? What are the conditions under which single-business firms might benefit from redeployability?
• · What environmental conditions are best suited to a strategy based on resource redeployment? And how do firm redeployment strategies affect industry evolution?
• · When can resource redeployment be proactive versus reactive? What processes can help organizations to identify redeployment opportunities? 
• · How can executives manage the human resource challenges around resource redeployment (i.e., maintaining morale of employees; or getting division managers to take actions that can lead to withdrawal of resources)?

Second, we need more clarity about how to empirically disentangle synergy from redeployability, because they may have common derivatives, such as resource relatedness.

• · How might scholars empirically distinguish whether value is derived from synergy or the flexibility to redeploy resources? Is it possible to distinguish the sources of value creation through the use of different variables, or will it require clever methodology/ research design to isolate differences?
• · How do we consistently identify scale-free versus non scale-free resources?
• · Do managers consider the flexibility to redeploy when making entry or exit decisions?

Finally, we may need to revisit prior work investigating the benefits of corporate strategy based on synergy, in order to assess the extent to which prior results may stem from resource redeployability.

• · Because existing work tends not to distinguish between synergy and resource redeployment, is it possible that existing work provides an incomplete picture of the contributions of resource relatedness to firm value and firm decision-making?
• · How would the results of prior research on the value created by corporate strategy change if resource redeployability were included?

Despite recent work to address the three issues identified above, significant work remains. In this call, we invite theoretical and empirical work that tackles these and related issues.

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions are due no later than May 15, 2015. All papers submitted must represent original research not previously published elsewhere. All submissions will be subject to in-depth review, and editorial decisions and revision requests will be communicated to authors by September 1, 2015. Authors going forward to the second round will be invited to present their revised paper at a conference in October or November 2015 in Strasbourg France (exact date TBD), with travel supplements provided. The targeted publication date for the volume is August 2016.


To submit a paper, or to ask questions about the content of this AiSM volume or the editorial process, please contact the volume editors, Timothy Folta (timothy.folta@business.uconn.edu), Constance Helfat (Constance.E.Helfat@tuck.dartmouth.edu), or Samina Karim (samina@bu.edu) or the AiSM series editor, Brian Silverman (silverman@rotman.utoronto.ca).


Further information on the series can be found at:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/series/astm or at

http://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/~silverman/AiSM/asm_index.html.

Advances in Strategic Management is an ISI Web of Science-indexed journal.

Call for papers Special issue: “Strategic Issues in the Family Firm

Journal of Managerial Issues

Special Issue: “Strategic Issues in the Family Firm”

• DUE DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JULY 31, 2015
• Expected Publication: Late 2016 or early 2017

GUEST EDITORS

• James J. Chrisman, Mississippi State University (jchrisman@business.msstate.edu)
• Joshua J. Daspit, Mississippi State University (josh.daspit@msstate.edu)
• Rebecca G. Long, Mississippi State University (rebecca.long@business.msstate.edu)
• Allison W. Pearson, Mississippi State University (allison.pearson@msstate.edu)
• Pramodita Sharma, The University of Vermont (psharma@bsad.uvm.edu)

Journal of Managerial Issues (JMI) is pleased to announce a special issue in collaboration with the Center of Family Enterprise Research at Mississippi State University and the 2015 Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC).

This special issue aims to disseminate recent theoretical and empirical work (quantitative or qualitative) dealing with strategic issues in family firms. In an early assessment of the family business literature, Sharma, Chrisman, and Chua (1997) found that much more work was needed to understand how various factors might impact firm performance and suggested that taking a strategic management perspective would be a valuable way to advance the field. A later assessment (Chrisman, Chua, & Sharma, 2005) noted the progress made, particularly the evidence that family involvement and influence can affect firm performance and the emergence of agency theory and the resource-based view as primary theoretical lenses for the study of family firms. Since then, new theoretical approaches have surfaced and studies on goals, governance systems, and strategic initiatives have substantially increased knowledge about the behavior and performance of family firms (De Massis, Sharma, Chua, Chrisman, 2012; Melin, Nordqvist, Sharma, 2014).

The purpose of this special issue is to publish theoretical and empirical work that further contributes to the study of strategic issues in family firms. A non-exhaustive list of possible topic areas includes:

• · Goal formulation and modification in family firms over time;
• · Functional, business, and/or corporate strategy formulation and/or implementation issues in family firms;
• · Family firm diversification, innovation, and corporate entrepreneurship;
• · Stakeholder management and social responsiveness in family firms;
• · Strategic transgenerational ownership transfer in family firms;
• · The influence of governance structures and conflict on strategic decision making;
• · Influence of top management teams/dominant coalitions in family firm value creation;
• · How family involvement directly or indirectly creates (dis)advantages for family firms;
• · The role of strategic human resource practices within the family firm; and
• · How psychological, social, and/or human capital in family firms affects value creation.

Submission guidelines: Manuscripts must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages in length with 1" margins and 12-point font. The page limit includes text pages, references, tables, and figures (cover page and abstract are not counted). Submissions to the special issue should be sent electronically in Microsoft Word format to Josh Daspit (josh.daspit@msstate.edu) and copied to the other guest editors.

All submissions are subject to the standard double-blind review process. Manuscripts must be original, unpublished works not concurrently under review for publication at another outlet and are expected to follow the standard formatting guidelines for JMI.

Collaboration with 2015 FERC: Several editors of this issue will be available at the conference to provide feedback to interested authors.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Acceptance at FERC does not guarantee acceptance for the special issue. 
• Submission to or attendance of FERC is not imperative for manuscript submission to this special issue.
• The standard administrative fee of $100 for JMI is waived for papers accepted into the special issue. However, the standard fee of $30 per page over the 25-page manuscript limit will apply.

Questions regarding the special issue may be addressed to any guest editor.

References

Chrisman, J. J., Chua, J. H., & Sharma, P. (2005). Trends and directions in the development of a strategic management theory of the firm. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 29(5): 555-576.

De Massis, A., Sharma, P., Chua, J., & Chrisman, J. (2012). Family Business Studies: An Annotated Bibliography. Edward Elgar Publishing Inc., Northampton, MA.

Melin, L., Nordqvist, M. and Sharma, P. (2014). SAGE Handbook of Family Business. SAGE Publications Ltd., Thousand Oaks, CA.

Sharma, P., Chrisman, J. J., & Chua, J. H. (1997). Strategic management of the family business: Past research and future challenges. Family Business Review, 10(1): 1-35.

Call for papers: Special Issue on: Internationalisation of Family Business Groups

Call for papers: Special Issue on: "Internationalisation of Family Business Groups"

European Journal of International Management

European J. of International Management

Guest Editors: 

Frank Hoy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA fhoy@wpi.edu
Jacobo Ramirez and Michael Wendelboe Hansen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
jra.ikl@cbs.dk
mwh.ikl@cbs.dk
Paloma Miravitlles, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain paloma.miravitlles@ub.edu

Important Dates

• Submission of manuscripts: 11 May, 2015
• Notification to authors: 22 June, 2015
• Final versions due: 16 November, 2015

Special Issue on: "Internationalisation of Family Business Groups"

Internationalisation strategies of family business groups vary across developed and emerging free-market economies (e.g. Etemad 2013; Astrachan 2010). While a growing literature addresses issues related to the internationalisation of family business groups (e.g. Zahra, 2003; Donckels & Fröhlich 1991), there has been less of a research focus on (1) how institutional pressures moderate their internationalisation process, (2) the motivations behind their internationalisation (e.g. Ward 1997), and (3) the specific internationalisation strategies adopted. This special issue is open to theoretical and empirical papers that analyse the link between family business groups and their internationalisation processes.
Different institutional contexts might dictate family business groups’ responses to institutional pressures. Formal (official regulations and laws) and informal (traditions and customs) institutions might challenge the internationalisation of family business groups (e.g. Dickson et al. 2006). It might be argued that in turbulent institutional settings, both challenges and opportunities encourage the internationalisation of family business groups. External challenges may be in developing alliances with partners with local knowledge (e.g. Lu & Beamish, 2001). However, family business groups could also face internal challenges, as their members could have different global visions, mindsets and entrepreneurial personalities (e.g. Hutchinson et al. 2007).

Subject Coverage

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• · Responses by family business groups to political and societal institutional arrangements to gain access to international developed and emerging markets
• · Effects of family management on the intention for internationalisation
• · Effects of family culture and ethnicity on internationalisation
• · Intentional vs. opportunistic impacts on family business practices in international expansion
• · Extension of family network relations into international operations
• · Where and how family groups internationalise
• · Types of strategic alliances that family groups use in their internationalisation strategies
• · Family firm life cycles and internationalisation
• · Sources of financing for implementing family business group internationalisation strategies
• · Roles of governments in family business internationalisation
• · Human resource issues for family businesses in international commerce
• · Supply chain issues faced by family firms in internationalisation
• · Perceptions that international business partners hold of family ownership

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).


All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online before 11 May 2015. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page or at http://www.inderscience.com/info/ingeneral/cfp.php?id=2878

Call for conference papers: From Local Voids to Local Goods: Can Institutions Promote Competitive Advantage?

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT SOCIETY SPECIAL CONFERENCE

From Local Voids to Local Goods: Can Institutions Promote Competitive Advantage?

Santiago, Chile
March 19-21, 2015

We hope this e-mail finds you well. We are organizing the forthcoming special conference of the Strategic Management Society in Santiago, Chile, on March 19-21, 2015. We would like to call your attention to the conference and ask you to consider submitting your work. Please feel free to share this message with your colleagues and students.

The overall theme of the conference is “From Local Voids to Local Goods: Can Institutions Promote Competitive Advantage?” We seek to cover many issues related to how domestic firms, multinationals, business associations and governments interact to create sustainable advantage. Tarun Khanna will be a key note speaker talking about “Institutions and Strategy in Emerging Markets.” We will also have panels stimulating discussions on the foundations of strategy. For instance, Jay Barney and Margaret Peteraf will share their thoughts on the evolution and future directions of the Resource-Based View.

Other speakers include Joan Enric Ricart, Stephen Tallman, and Margarethe Wiersema, as well as distinguished academics participating in panels focused on a broad range of topics, includingJay Anand, Sharon Alvarez, Sandro Cabral, Betrand Quelin, Maria Tereza Fleury, Peter Klein, Gerry McDermott, Felipe Monteiro, Aldo Musacchio, Roberto Vassolo and Carmen Weigelt. In addition, on March 19 we will have a doctoral consortium organized by Ronaldo Parente, Christian Felzensztein and Sergio Olavarrieta.

More details of the conference can be found in the website http://santiago.strategicmanagement.net/featured_speakers.php. We are accepting submissions (7-page proposals) for Paper, Common Ground and Panel sessions. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2014.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Santiago!

Sincerely,

Jorge Tarzijan
Luiz Mesquita
Sergio Lazzarini

Call for papers: International entrepreneurship: New perspectives in International Business Research

“Journal of Entrepreneurship Management and Innovation” (JEMI), vol. 10
http://jemi.edu.pl/
One of the special issue of 2015 will focus on:

International entrepreneurship: New perspectives in International Business Research 

The concept of 'international entrepreneurship' (IE), as one can assume, was used for the first time in the doctoral dissertation of Tomas Otto Kohn in 1988 at Harvard. It is most probably that it was published for the first time in the work of J.F. Morrow in the same year. A year later, this notion appears in scientific publications by various authors, including P.P. McDougall , who together with B.M. Oviatt developed this theory in the following years. It can therefore be assumed that the current international entrepreneurship as an area of research is only 25-30 years old, although its intensive development occurred only in the first decade of the 21st century, that is, de facto, a few years ago. IE has been developing very intensively, however it must be admitted that, apart from some elements of this school, it is still quite poorly explored and described field in the literature.
The special issue seeks papers that discuss and analyse:

• international entrepreneurship as a new field of research, 
• international entrepreneurship vs. international business,
• international entrepreneurship school vs. theory of internationalisation of firms
• traditional versus rapid internationalisation of firms, 
• role of the entrepreneur in the process of internationalisation of firms,
• internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs vs. LEs),
• internationalisation of family businesses,
• recognising and exploring international business opportunities,
• entry modes and internationalisation patterns of firms, 
• international strategies of Central European small businesses (SMEs vs. LEs),
• international competitiveness of Central European small businesses (SMEs vs. LEs),
• internationalisation of Central European small businesses (SMEs vs. LEs),
• int’l entrepreneurship vs. int’l management and int’l marketing.

Contributors are welcome to propose other topics that meet the objectives of this issue.

Guest editor: 

Prof. Krzysztof Wach, PhD
Cracow University of Economics, Poland

Paper submission:

Papers should be submitted before the end of October 2014 to JEMI, at: jemi@wsb-nlu.edu.pl. They must be in sufficient detail for the referees to judge their meaning and value. Submissions must be in English, should normally be no more than 15 pages in length (up to 8000 words), and follow the submission requirements posted on the JEMI website at http://jemi.edu.pl/pl/submission.html. Notifications of acceptance will be sent to authors within one-two months.

Best regards,
Krzysztof Wach

------------------------------------------------------------
Prof. UEK dr hab. Krzysztof Wach
Associate Professor in International Entrepreneurship
Head of the Centre for Strategic & Int'l Entrepreneurship

Cracow University of Economics (CUE / UEK)
Faculty of Economics and International Relations
Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Krakow, Poland
tel. +48 12 293 5376, +48 12 293 5327, +48 12 29 35 363
fax +48 12 29 35 042

Call for chapters proposals: Business Development Opportunities and Market Entry Challenges in Latin America

Proposal Submission Deadline: May 30, 2014
Business Development Opportunities and Market Entry Challenges in Latin America
A book edited by

• Dr. Mauricio Garita (Universidad Rafael Landivar, Guatemala)
• Dr. José Godinez (Merrimack College, North Andover, USA)

To be published by IGI Global: http://bit.ly/1n4tuHc

Part of the Research Essentials Collection

Publications released as Research Essentials will offer a succinct discussion on niche topics in a wide variety of subjects. Sized and priced appropriately, these concise, advanced, and timely resources will be perfect for supplementary course usage, targeted towards instructors and students, as well as the independent researcher looking for the most recent and innovative research in their field.

Introduction

Latin America has been a region of conflict, economic growth and development. The region has also continued to be characterized by a wide range of social structures, political systems, and economic models. The region has seen a steady economic growth, which has caught the attention of international investors. In contrast, however, the region has also been characterized by a large economic disparity between its inhabitants.

Progressively, Latin America has been experiencing economic growth but with such growth several challenges are encountered. The proposed book’s aim is to analyze the economic changes in Latin America that have affected the countries in the region and the factors behind such changes as well as their consequences.

Objective of the Book

This comprehensive and timely publication aims to be an essential reference source, building on the available literature in the field of economic issues in Latin America and will provide further research opportunities in this dynamic field. It is hoped that this text will provide the resources necessary for policy makers and managers to understand economic policy in Latin America.

Target Audience

Policy makers, managers, academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, technology developers, and government officials will find this text useful in furthering their research exposure to pertinent topics in entry challenges and business developments in the region.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• · Trust model – a conceptual framework
• · Trust in global networks
• · Trust in new economy
• · Trust and value creation in a network economy
• · Trust as capital
• · Improving market performance through trust
• · Trust as a management strategy
• · Trust from the perspective of knowledge management
• · Trust in public administration / sector

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before May 30, 2014, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by June 15, 2014 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted bySeptember 30, 2014. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
Proposals should be submitted through the link at the bottom of this page.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference), Medical Information Science Reference, Business Science Reference, and Engineering Science Reference imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This book is anticipated to be released in 2015.

Important Dates

• Proposal Submission Deadline: May 30, 2014
• Full chapter Submission: September 30, 2014
• Review Process: September 30, 2014 –November 30, 2014
• Review Results to Authors: December 15, 2014
• Revised Chapter Submission: January 30, 2015
• Final Acceptance Notifications: February 15, 2015
• Submission of Final Chapters: February 28, 2015
• Final Deadline: March 30, 2015

Inquiries can be forwarded to
Dr. Mauricio Garita
Department of Business Economics
Universidad Rafael Landivar
E-mail: mgaritag@correo.url.edu.gt


Jose Godinez
Girard School of Business
Merrimack College
E-mail: godinezj@merrimack.edu

Call for conference papers: Strategic Management in Latin America Bi Annual Conference (SMLA)

SMLA 2015

Strategic Management in Latin America Bi Annual Conference. San Jose, Costa Rica

INCAE Business School and The Journal of Business Research

Call for conference papers

Program Chairs: Esteban R. Brenes and Arnoldo Camacho - INCAE Business School


The Sixth International Conference on Strategic Management in Latin America, co-sponsored by INCAE Business School and the Journal of Business Research, will be held on January 8 and 9, 2015, in San José, Costa Rica. The theme for this Conference is:“Strategies for Growth, Regional Expansion and Global Competition”

Extended abstracts of no more than 1500 words must be submitted no later than March 17th, 2014.
Acceptance of abstracts will be notified before April 21st, 2014. If your abstract is accepted you can submit your full paper starting as soon as April 22nd, 2014 but no later than July 29th, 2014.

Abstracts and papers must be submitted electronically to smla@incae.edu and attached to this mail you can find extended information about tracks. .

Call for papers: Ethics, technology and innovation

Overview

This event, and the related symposium to be published in the Journal of Business Ethics in the first half of 2015, intends to analyze the impact of ethics-related variables on the development of new products and services and on organizational innovation. For example, in recent years, customers’ privacy expectations have shaped how companies design and commercialize new products and services in communication, entertainment and many other sectors (see, e.g. Floridi, 2005; Pollach, 2005; Nissenbaum, 2009; Vaccaro and Madsen, 2009). By the same token, security and reliability expectations have dramatically affected how designers develop new products and services in the automotive sector (see, e.g. Thomke, 2003).

Organizations differ in how they deal with ethical issues. For example, the literature on technology ethics (see, e.g. Nissenbaum 2004 Gorman, 1998; Mitcham, C. 1995) presents interesting cases where designers have intentionally pursued an immoral objective, see e.g. a bridge designed with the aim of preventing bus transit from areas with a high concentration of Afro-Americans (which embed and convey social discrimination values) or hardware and software designed to control users’ activities, violating elementary privacy rights, etc. Thus, Internet technologies have not only driven a flatter world as many argue, but they have also led to the creation of ‘digital sweatshops’, i.e. overcrowded rooms where workers play online games, such as Lineage, for up to twelve hours a day in order to create virtual goods, such as characters, equipments or in-game currency, which can then be sold to other, obviously richer, players (Floridi, 2009, p. 14).

On the other side of the moral scale, it is possible to find exemplary cases of high ethical standards. The example that comes quickest to mind are the 100% biodegradable products: They address the function for which they were designed but they also convey the moral duty of environmental protection (see, e.g. Guiltinan, 2009; Fraj-Andrés et al., 2009).

These considerations highlight the need to further current understanding of the role played by ethics-related variables in new product / service development and more generally, in firms’ innovation efforts (see, e.g. Adolphson, 2004; Madsen, 2005). This symposium will address this need by focusing on three main broad themes.

First, the issue of social responsibility (SR) has attracted considerable attention from scholars and practitioners during the last two decades. However, there is a shortage of studies, in the literature on technology policy and ethics, concerning under what conditions, how and why companies address ethical and social responsibility issues in the development of new products / services. For example, we do not know how organizational processes of information collection and sharing, decision-making, project evaluation etc. are adapted (if they are at all) to include ethical considerations in response to, e.g. changing EU Eco-norms, or customers’ expectations and/or moral values shared at industry level.

A second main theme that this symposium will investigate concerns the impact of environmental ethics on new product development. In particular, contributions are expected to explore how environmental concerns affect new product and service development, how companies deal with different environmental legislations when they design new products and services, and the use of environmental sustainability as a source of competitive advantage.

The third and last theme will explore processes associated with social innovation in hybrid organizations (Montgomery et al., 2012; Santos, 2012; Vaccaro, 2012). In particular, the symposium’s editors will encourage papers that analyse how stakeholders’ expectations and perceptions affect process innovation and/or changes in the structure and strategy of organizations attempting to combine business and social objectives.

Theme 1: Ethics, Social Responsibility and Innovation

• 1. How customers’ ethical perceptions and expectations affect new product/service development.
• 2. How stakeholders’ ethical perceptions and expectations affect new product/service development.
• 3. How companies manage and resolve conflicting ethical perceptions and expectations of their stakeholders in multi-cultural or multi-national contexts.

Theme 2: Environmental Ethics and Innovation

• 1. How environmental issues affect new product and service development.
• 2. How companies deal with different environmental legislations in new product and service development.
• 3. Environmental sustainability as a source of competitive advantage.
• 4. Ethical issues in environmental sustainability: green-washing vs. real environmental improvement. 

Theme 3: Social Innovation and the Organization

• 1. How employees’ ethical expectations and perceptions affect innovation in organizational processes.
• 2. How stakeholders’ ethical expectations and perceptions affect innovation in organizational processes.
• 3. Innovation in organization structure: How to combine business and social objectives by leveraging stakeholder expectations.
• 4. The new emerging ethical issues affecting hybrid organizations.

Timetable and submission procedures: 

The conference is organized by ETH, Zurich, IESE Business School on January 7 and 8, 2014. The conference’s venue will be the ETH Campus in Zurich. The deadline for submission of the complete paper is December 1, 2013.

Papers have to be submitted to the attention of Ms. Rosario Magre Miro RMagre@iese.edu specifying in the subject of the e-mail “Submission to Innovation Conference”. (If you do not receive a confirmation of your submission within 24 hours, please re-submit your document). Acceptance for presentation at the conference will be sent to authors by December 8.

The best papers presented at the conference will be invited for submission to the symposium of the Journal of Business Ethics. This process will include a double-blind review process by 2-3 anonymous referees. The invitation for submission to the symposium does not guarantee publication of the article.

Papers that were not presented at the conference cannot be submitted for publication in the symposium. Please use the guidelines for authors of the Journal of Business Ethics (http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/applied+ethics/journal/10551 ) to format your paper.

Guests Editors' bio

Stefano Brusoni is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich). He coordinates the TIMGROUP - the new Chair of Technology and Innovation Management at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics (D-MTEC). He is Associate Editor of Information, Economics and Policy and member of the Review Board of Organization Science. His publications have appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Research Policy and Industrial and Corporate Change.

Antonino Vaccaro is Academic Director of the Center for Business in Society at IESE Business School where he also serves as a faculty member in the department of business ethics. He has served as guest editor for Ethics and Information Technology and for the Journal of Business Ethics in a special issue about Network Ethics and in the special issue of the EBEN AC 2011. His publications have appeared in journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Research Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Ethics and Information Technology and IEEE-HICSS-Transactions, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, The Information Society, etc.

References

• Adolphson, D. 2004. A New Perspective on Ethics, Ecology, and Economics, Journal of Business Ethics 54(3), 201-213.
• Flanagan, N., Howe, D and Nissenbaum, H. 2008. Embodying Values in Technology: Theory and Practice. In Information Technology and Moral Philosophy, Jeroen van den Hoven and John Weckert (eds.). Cambridge University Press.
• Floridi, L. 2005. The Philosophy of Presence: From Epistemic Failure to Successful Observability, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 14(6) 656-667.
• Floridi, L. 2009. Information Ethics: A very short introduction (Oxford, Oxford University Press).
• Fraj-Andrés, E., Martinez-Salinas, E. and Matute-Vallejo, J. 2009. ‘A Multidimensional Approach to the Influence of Environmental Marketing and Orientation on the Firm’s Organizational Performance’, Journal of Business Ethics, 88(2), 263–286.
• Gorman, M. E. 1998. Transforming Nature: Ethics, Invention and Design. Springer.
• Guiltinan, J. 2009. Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence, Journal of Business Ethics, 89, 19–28.
• Madsen, P. 2005. Responsible Design and the Management of Ethics, DMI Review 16(3): 37-41.
• Mitcham, C. 1995. Ethics Into Design. In Discovering Design, Eds. R. Buchanan and V. Margolis, 173-179. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Montgomery, A.W., Dacin, P. and Dacin, T. 2012. Collective Social Entrepreneurship: Collaboratively Shaping Social Good, Journal of Business Ethics, 111(3), 375-388.
• Nissenbaum, H. 2004. Privacy as Contextual Integrity. Washington Law Review, 79(1): 119-158.
• Nissenbaum, N. 2009. Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy and the Integrity of Social Life (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press).
• Pollach, I. 2005. A Typology of Communicative Strategies in Online Privacy Policies: Ethics, Power and Informed Consent, Journal of Business Ethics, 62, 221–235.
• Santos, F. 2012. A positive Theory of Social Entrepreneurship, Journal of Business Ethics, 111(3), 335-351.
• Thomke, S. 2003. Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press.
• Vaccaro, A. and P. Madsen, 2009. ‘Transparency: The new ICT-driven Ethics?’ Ethics and Information Technology, 11(2), 113-122.
• Vaccaro, A. 2012. To Pay or not to Pay? Dynamic Transparency and the Fight against the Mafia’s Extortionists, Journal of Business Ethics, 106(1), 23-35.

Call for conference papers: Tel-Aviv SMS Conference

Tel-Aviv SMS Conference March 9-11, 2014

Submissionwebsite open (Sept. 1, 2013 deadline)

Strategic Management Society Special Conference

Startup and Restart Strategies

Tel-Aviv, Israel, March 9-11, 2014

Submission deadline: September 1, 2013

Submission site now open

Keynote Speakers:

• Kathleen Eisenhardt, Stanford University
• Will Mitchell, University of Toronto
• Edward Zajac, Northwestern University

Conference Advisory Board:

• Jay Barney, University of Utaj
• Joel Baum, University of Toronto
• Michael Hitt, Texas A&M University
• Daniel Levinthal, University of Pennsylvania
• Zur Shapira, New York University

Conference Program Co-Chairs:

• Gary Dushnitsky, London Business School
• Niron Hashai, Hebrew University
• Dovev Lavie, Technion
• Ithai Stern, Northwestern University

      

Conference Track Chairs:

• Julian Birkinshaw, London Business School
• Alfonso Gambardella, Bocconi University
• Lori Rosenkopf, University of Pennsylvania
• Myles Shaver, University of Minnesota

Doctoral Workshop Coordinator: Robert Salomon, New York University

At the heels of the recent financial crisis, nations and corporations seek policies and strategies that drive innovation, entrepreneurship and growth.

Policy makers, business practitioners and academics attempt to uncover the strategies and best practices that can revitalize the economy. Old strategies are revisited while new strategies are evaluated in an effort to restart the economy and leave the crisis behind. Startup firms are formed with the aim of introducing innovative solutions while established firms attempt to leverage their market access. In this pursuit for entrepreneurial drivers, nations and corporations seek to cooperate and coordinate their policies and strategies in order to recover and reengage in business development. Startup and restart strategies are needed to cope with these challenges and opportunities. How can corporations facilitate innovation and harness an entrepreneurial spirit? How can startup firms in various parts of the world achieve leadership positions in international markets? How can startup firms organize their operations and establish supportive infrastructures of investors, business partners, suppliers and customers that enable them to enhance efficiency and performance? What common challenges do developing countries face in nurturing multinational corporations? What business practices support innovation and enhance firms’

positions in international markets? What roles do interfirm cooperation and coordination serve in the economic development of corporations and nations?

These important questions have captured the attention of strategy scholars and business practitioners interested in capitalizing on the opportunities that await countries and corporations beyond the economic recovery.

This special SMS conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, will bring together academics, practitioners, and consultants in an effort to contemplate how entrepreneurs, corporations and nations can leverage cooperation and coordination in order to revitalize their operations, initiate growth, and bring innovation to international markets. The conference theme "Startup and Restart Strategies" underscores both the challenges and opportunities that startup firms and corporations face when seeking to foster innovation, commercialization and global market reach following a period of economic setback. The conference seeks to explore ideas and deliver cutting-edge knowledge in areas of organization, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and international business that shed light on this phenomenon. The Tel Aviv special SMS conference calls for relevant conceptual and empirical contributions from various parts of the world that can facilitate conversation and scholarly debate, and inform academic thought and practice.

The conference combines four competitive tracks with plenary keynote sessions, a practice track, a doctoral workshop, and academic development workshops that together promote the theme of startup and restart strategies. The competitive tracks align broadly with the domains of the Competitive Strategy, Corporate Strategy, Global Strategy, Knowledge and Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy, and Cooperative Strategies interest groups of SMS. We welcome submissions of paper proposals, panel proposals, academic development workshops, and doctoral workshop applications, using the following links: 

Conference announcement:

http://ie.technion.ac.il/Home/Users/dlavie/SMS_Special_Conf_A4_PR.pdf

Conference video: http://ie.technion.ac.il/Home/Users/dlavie/SMSlogo.mp4

• Download call for proposals:

http://telaviv.strategicmanagement.net/pdf/SC_TelAviv_Call_for_Proposals.pdf

• Guidelines for paper and panel proposals:

http://telaviv.strategicmanagement.net/submissions/guidelines.php

• Guidelines for submitting proposals for academic development workshops:

http://telaviv.strategicmanagement.net/academic_workshop/overview.php

• Doctoral & thesis development workshop:

http://telaviv.strategicmanagement.net/doctoral_workshop/index.php

• For more information visit the conference website:

http://telaviv.strategicmanagement.net/