Call for Papers on a Special Issue
STRUCTURING, MANAGING, AND GOVERNING INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
Submission Deadline: August 12, 2012
Guest Editors:
Farok Contractor, Rutgers University
Jeffrey J. Reuer, Purdue University
Background and Purpose:
Research on international collaborations has blossomed in the last two to
three decades, as the phenomenon itself was spurred on by globalization and
rapid technological advances. Research on collaborative trends and motives
quickly gave way to theoretically-driven and empirically-rigorous
investigations of the determinants of multinational firms' investments and
boundaries as well as the factors that can facilitate or impede effective
international collaborations.
The current popularity of research on international collaborations may seem
to advance the conclusion that this research domain has reached maturity, or
is rapidly reaching maturity. While it is true that considerable progress
has been made on theory of alliances, and there is no shortage of active
scholarship in this domain, it is also clear that there remain many more
questions and research opportunities than areas in which debates have been
settled or consensus exists on how to structure, manage, or govern
international collaborations.
The purpose of this special issue is to provide a venue for scholarship to
probe the under-researched aspects of alliance strategy and management more
deeply, catalyze new research on neglected topics of collaborative strategy,
and encourage novel research methodologies on international collaborations.
Alliance research needs to delve much more deeply into issues of structure
and process, governance and management, to understand the distinctive
features and management challenges of this organizational form. This
research might also draw much more extensively upon other theoretical
traditions, including psychology and political science. We hope that this
special issue will encourage research in directions such as these, provide
an opportunity to take stock of this literature, and bring together some of
the interesting and insightful research currently being carried out on
international collaborations.
Research Questions:
We hope to spur research contributions related to the structuring,
management, and governance of international collaborations. Contributions
are welcome that bring new theory development to these topics, as are
empirical contributions that primarily seek to test and extend theory in
these domains. The following are illustrative, rather than exhaustive, of
the types of research questions that would fit well within the special
issue's domain:
? How do alliance processes (e.g., partner search, negotiations, and
post-formation relationships between allies) relate to alliance structures
and implementation?
? How do firms govern equity collaborations with boards of directors, other
formal governance mechanisms or agreement provisions at their disposal?
? How do firms design agreements, administrative structures and interfaces
in non-equity alliances?
? How do the ways firms structure, manage, and govern international
alliances affect the value they create and capture?
? What determines the share captured by each partner of the incremental
value created by the alliance?
? How do various formal and informal governance mechanisms substitute or
complement each other for international collaborations?
? How do firms establish the micro-level foundations of alliance management
and governance (e.g., managerial incentives, staffing, teamwork, etc.)?
? How do firms design and orchestrate international alliance portfolios?
? How do firms structure and manage international networks?
? How do alliance networks help develop industry standards, or how does the
act of developing industry standards spur alliances and cooperation in a
sector?
? In global offshoring, how do firms choose from arrangements ranging from
fully-owned foreign subsidiaries, to arms-length contracting - with
cooperative relations constituting an intermediate position?
? What new research questions on alliances might be tackled with
underutilized research methods (e.g., simulations, experiments, formal
analysis, multilevel modeling, etc.)?
Submission Instructions:
The deadline for submissions is August 12, 2012. To learn more about the
Global Strategy Journal, including additional information on the submission
process, please visit the Global Strategy Journal website at:
http://gsj.strategicmanagement.net/
The Guest Editors are seeking reviewers for this special issue and are
soliciting nominations as well as volunteers to participate in the reviews.
All submissions will be subject to the regular double-blind peer review
process at GSJ.
More Information:
To nominate a reviewer, volunteer to review, or obtain additional
information, please contact the special issue editors:
Farok Contractor, Rutgers University (
farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu)
Jeffrey Reuer, Purdue University (
jreuer@purdue.edu)
Or, the Managing Editor of the GSJ, Lois Gast (
lgast@wiley.com)
The GSJ is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is one of the many activities of
the Strategic Management Society (SMS). The Society is unique in bringing
together the worlds of reflective practice and thoughtful scholarship. The
Society consists of more than 2,700 members representing over 70 different
countries. Membership, composed of academics, business practitioners, and
consultants, focuses its attention on the development and dissemination of
insights on the strategic management process, as well as fostering contacts
and interchange around the world.
Prof. Farok J. Contractor
Department of Management and Global Business
Rutgers Business School
Rutgers University
1 Washington Park
Newark, New Jersey 07102-1897, USA
WEB PAGE:
http://www.business.rutgers.edu/faculty-research/directory/contractor-farok
farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Recent Book: Global Outsourcing and Offshoring (Cambridge University Press)
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item5562690/?site_locale=en_GB