Call for Papers: Special Issue of Business & Society. Insights from Institutional Theory

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Business & Society

Social Innovation: Insights from Institutional Theory

Guest editors:

• Silvia Dorado, University of Rhode Island
• Ignasi Marti, EMLYON Business School, OCE Research Center
• Jakomijn van Wijk, Maastricht School of Management 
• Charlene Zietsma, Schulich School of Business, York University

Submission deadline: September 1, 2015

Social innovation refers to the process of developing and implementing novel solutions to social problems, often involving re-negotiations of settled institutions among diverse actors with conflicting logics. As such, social innovation entails institutional change. Social innovations are urgently needed as we confront “wicked problems” (Rittel and Weber, 1973), such as climate change, poverty alleviation, income inequality and persistent societal conflicts. Such problems feature substantial interdependencies among multiple systems and actors, and have redistributive implications for entrenched interests (Rayner, 2006). 

Institutional research has played a significant role in the study of efforts to alleviate social problems (Battilana & Dorado, 2010; Dorado, 2013; Hallett, 2010; Lawrence, Hardy & Phillips, 2002; Maguire, Hardy & Lawrence, 2004; Zietsma & Lawrence, 2010), and is well positioned to contribute to an improved understanding of social innovation. Institutional theory starts at a macro-level, assessing the positions and interdependent actions of the multiple constituents of issue-focused fields (Wooten & Hoffman, 2008; Zietsma & Lawrence, 2010), and considering seriously the idea that rules, norms and beliefs are socially constituted, negotiated orders (Marti, Courpasson & Barbosa, 2013; Strauss, 1978), which can be renegotiated in socially innovative ways (e.g. Van Wijk, Stam, Elfring, Zietsma & den Hond, 2013). The study of institutional work emphasizes the creation, disruption and maintenance of the institutionalized social structures that govern behavior (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006), and thus speaks to how entrenched practices and ideas get held in place, and how they may be replaced with more socially beneficial arrangements. Furthermore, the burgeoning institutional complexity perspective, with its focus on how actors respond to multiple, sometimes competing logics (Greenwood, Raynard, Kodeih, Micelotta & Lounsbury, 2011), applies well to the context of wicked societal problems. 

Taking an institutional perspective on social innovation suggests several topics and a range of interesting questions in line with our theme, listed in the full call for papers, available at:
http://www.iabs.net/Research/BusinessSociety/SpecialIssueCallSocialInnovation.aspx.
A paper development workshop is planned at EMLyon in France from March 27-29, 2016. 

Further information:

Dr. Charlene Zietsma
Associate Professor and Ann Brown Chair in Organization Studies
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies
Schulich School of Business, SSB N317
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON, CANADA
M3J 1P3
(416) 736-2100, Ext. 77919.

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 Journal of Emerging Markets

Innovation, Geography, Institutions and Internationalization in Emerging Markets

Special issue call for papers for the International Journal of Emerging Markets

Firm innovation and internationalization are often intertwined, as well as being tied to geographic factors such as agglomeration economies within a city or region, or the degree to which the local institutional structure supports these activities. Within this special IJoEM issue, we intend to highlight issues related to how factors such as cities, country boundaries, and various distance types (e.g., Cultural, Administrative, Geographic, and Economic; Ghemawat, 2001), along with the more general development of institutions within a society promote and/or inhibit innovation and internationalization. Any contribution that furthers these topics, or related ones, in the context of MNCs in emerging markets is most welcome.

In line with the above topic, this special issue will feature best papers from the Academy of International Business Southeast (AIB-SE) and Latin America (AIB-LAT) chapter meetings to be held in Atlanta, Georgia and Medellin, Colombia in October 2013 and March 2014, respectively. 

Topics for inclusion (among others)

We welcome papers within the broadly defined subject theme area from all the major disciplines in business and management studies, including: strategy, international business, organizational behaviour and cross-cultural management, marketing, operations and decision sciences, finance and accounting, international trade and business economics. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• • The role of institutions in promoting or constraining innovation in emerging markets
• • Factors impacting the geographic clustering of internationalization efforts
• • The impact of distance on innovation and internationalization
• • The effect of internationalization on innovation within a company or geographic region
• • The role of institutions in promoting or constraining inward and outward internationalization
• • Managerial mindsets needed for innovation and internationalization in emerging markets
• • Cross-cultural collaboration in innovation efforts
• • The marketing of innovations in emerging markets

Deadlines, Submission Guidelines and Co-Editor Information

Submissions for the special issue will be taken from the best papers of the AIB-SE and AIB-LAT conferences, along with a general call. Based on the review processes for the respective conferences, top rated papers will be invited to go through additional review to be considered for the special issue. Papers selected for consideration will need to be formally submitted to IJoEM. Specific instructions will be provided to the authors at this time.

General submissions to the special issue are also welcome, and should be submitted through the IJoEM website: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijoem.

The deadline for submissions is November 11, 2013.

For general submission guidelines, see:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ijoem


For additional information on the AIB-SE Conference, see: http://www.aibse.org/conference/

For additional information on the AIB-LAT Conference, see: http://www.eafit.edu.co/aiblat2014/


Dr. William Newburry (General)
Associate Professor
Florida International University
Dept. of Management & International Business, RB 341B
newburry@fiu.edu
Phone: (305) 348-1103

Dr. John McIntyre (for AIB-SE)
Professor
Executive Director, GT CIBER
Scheller College of Business – Georgia Institute of Technology
john.mcintyre@scheller.gatech.edu
Phone: (404) 894-1463

Dr. Wlamir Xavier (for AIB-LAT)
Assistant Professor of Management
UNISUL & Fundação Getúlio Vargas/EAESP
wlamir.xavier@unisul.br
Phone +55 48 9909-9537

Call for conference papers: 30th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium

30th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium

Rotterdam, the Netherlands

July 3-5, 2014
Sub-theme 18: Once More unto the Breach: Filling Institutional Voids in Emerging Markets

Convenors:

• Ayse Saka-Helmhout, University of Surrey, UK a.saka-helmhout@surrey.ac.uk
• Marleen Dieleman, NUS Business School, Singapore Marleen@nus.edu.sg
• Suzana Rodrigues, Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands srodrigues@rsm.nl

Submission deadline for short papers: January 13, 2014

Emerging markets are frequently characterized by “institutional voids” including underdeveloped capital markets, absence of intermediary firms, adequate regulatory systems or contract enforcing mechanisms to facilitate the functioning of markets (Khanna and Palepu, 1997). The IB literature recognizes that institutions matter, but hitherto mainly as an exogenous factor (Tracey & Phillips, 2011). To date, the IB literature has not systematically addressed how specific actors deal with, shape or remedy institutional voids in their intent to succeed in emerging markets.

At least three relevant actors engage in institutional entrepreneurship in the context of filling voids across borders.

1. Business groups can compensate for missing institutions by offering goods and services within the group such as an internal capital market or business transactions within a trusted network of contracts to mitigate the risks associated with a weak legal contract enforcement (Khanna and Palepu, 2010; Fisman and Khanna, 2004).

2. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) adopt cross-border strategies that ‘continuously evolve through interactions in host countries’ (Meyer and Nguyen, 2005:67). Their void-filling actions are understood as adaptation to host contexts (e.g. Kwok and Tadesse, 2006). They develop relevant cross-border skills to manage weak institutions as they confront underdeveloped institutions that either forestall market transactions or increase their costs (Cuervo-Cazurra and Genc, 2008).

3. In many emerging economies, the state exercises influence over business strategy, through close business–state relationships (Mair et al., 2012) or directly through ownership. States can also shape how home or host country MNEs respond to institutional voids through, for instance, partnerships between foreign investors and local firms with privileged political ties (e.g. Henisz and Zelner, 2005).



With this call, we aim to explore institutional entrepreneurship in the context of institutional voids in emerging markets, with a particular emphasis on actors, such as MNEs, states and business groups that fill voids. We encourage conceptual and empirical contributions that draw on different theoretical streams and disciplines, adopt diverse research methodologies and examine multiple levels of analysis.

Some suggested issues for consideration are:

• · How can the IB literature be advanced through an analysis of how multinationals, firms and other actors cope with foreign markets through void-filling strategies? 
• · How do actors such as states, MNEs and business groups address ‘institutional voids’ at home and abroad? 
• · Under what conditions and through which processes do business groups, MNEs and the state contribute to creating new institutions or modifying existing ones?
• · In which ways does multinationalization via the state present new challenges to theorizing on multinationals and internationalization?
• · Under which conditions do institutional voids in emerging markets encourage non-market strategies?

References

Cuervo Cazurra, A. and Genc, M. (2008). ‘Transforming disadvantages to advantages: Developing-country MNEs in the least developed countries’, Journal of International Business Studies, 39: 957–979.

Fisman, R. and Khanna, T. (2004). ‘Facilitating development: The role of business groups’, World Development, 32: 609–628.

Henisz, W. J. and Zelner, B. A. (2005). ‘Legitimacy, interest group pressures, and change in emergent institutions: The case of foreign investors and host country governments’, Academy of Management Review, 30: 361-382.

Khanna, T. and Palepu, K. G. (1997). ‘Why focused strategies may be wrong for emerging markets’, Harvard Business Review: 41-51.

Khanna, T. and Palepu, K. G. (2010). Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Kwok, C. C. Y. and Tadesse, S. (2006). ‘The MNC as an agent of change for host-country institutions: FDI and corruption’, Journal of International Business Studies, 37: 767-785.

Mair, J., Marti, I. and Ventresca, M (2012). ‘Building inclusive markets in rural Bangladesh: How intermediaries work institutional voids’, Academy of Management Journal, 55: 819-850.

Tracey, P. and Phillips, N. (2011). ‘Entrepreneurship in emerging markets: Strategies for new venture creation in uncertain institutional contexts’, Management International Review, 51: 23-39.