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 The Journal of International Business Studies

The Journal of Economics Geography

Global Strategy Journal     

International Business, Economic Geography and Innovation

iBEGIN 2018

The relationship between local and global connectivity

October 26-27, 2018

Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Alain Verbeke, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Business Studies

Harald Bathelt, Editor, Journal of Economic Geography

Ram Mudambi, Co-Editor, Global Strategy Journal

While the multinational enterprises (MNEs) have long been central actors in global economy, their knowledge creation remained centralized at within their home countries even toward the end of the 20^th century (Patel & Pavitt, 1991). However, by the turn of the century, research documented an antithesis: MNE innovation activities were undergoing rapid and widespread globalization (Frost, 2001, Cantwell & Mudambi, 2005). This process accelerated as MNEs began to take advantage of large pools of cost-effective knowledge resources in gigantic emerging market economies like China and India (Awate, Larsen & Mudambi, 2012; Zhao, Anand & Mitchell, 2005). This process has continued in spite of the weak protection of intellectual property in many emerging markets (Zhao, 2006). The most recent evidence suggests a potential synthesis: while innovation networks appear to display both local and global knowledge connectivity, the volume and breadth of the former appears to be many times larger than the latter (Scalera, Perri & Hannigan, 2018); most MNEs display an unbalanced geography (Coeurderoy & Verbeke, 2016). The synthesis points to a new research agenda encompassing the three disciplines of international business, economic geography and innovation.