Call for Papers
Focused Issue of
Management International Review
LEVERAGING INDIA: STRATEGIES FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS
Farok Contractor, Charles Dhanaraj, and Vikas Kumar
Guest Editors
About MIR – Management International Review
Management International Review publishes research-based articles that reflect significant advances in
the key areas of International Management. Its target audience includes scholars in International Business
Administration. MIR is a double-blind refereed journal that aims at the advancement and dissemination of
applied research in the fields of International Management. The scope of the journal comprises International
Business, Cross-cultural Management, and Comparative Management. The journal publishes research that
builds or extends International Management Theory so that it can contribute to International Management
Practice.
About the Focused Issue
India's rise in the global economy has not only generated business interest among corporate executives
worldwide but has also created significant interest among management, international business and strategy
scholars. A recent publication, titled 'The India Way' (Capelli et al. 2010) by the Harvard Business
Press showcases how India's top business leaders are revolutionizing management practice. There is great
merit in learning from some of these rather unique management practices for Western multinationals that
intend to do business in India or with India. Understanding the subtleties of Indian businesses becomes
imperative for global players as they continue to expand their global footprint in the future.
This special issue aims to advance our understanding of innovation, internationalization and entrepreneurship
in India and how outsiders, particularly Western firms, can leverage India's potential for their own
global competitiveness. We welcome papers from a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives that
advance our understanding of the following three main themes:
1. Leveraging India's Innovation Potential: India in the recent past has transformed itself from being
a location for conducting relatively low skilled company activities to one that is an attractive place
to establish high end R&D facilities. IBM and Microsoft are among the many MNEs recognizing
India's potential in serving as an innovation hub and leveraging their Indian operations for global
competitiveness (Contractor et al. 2010). The following illustrative questions will be addressed:
• What are the strategies of Western firms to benefit from growing innovation in India?
• How is multinational R&D in India enabling them to re-engineer their global strategy?
• What is the role of domestic Indian firms vis-à-vis Western multinationals in enhancing the
innovation potential of India?
2. Learning from the Internationalization of Indian Firms: Indian firms have been active players
in global business for a long time (Lall 1983), have gained global dominance in certain key industries
(Khanna & Palepu 2006) and more importantly are unique in certain characteristics even when
compared to multinational enterprises from other emerging economies. These differences demonstrate
the heterogeneity that exists even within emerging economy firms (Ramamurti 2009), and point to
the potential for theoretical and empirical extensions of International Business theories with studies
focused on India. This theme will address the potential learning for firms based in developed markets
as well as in other emerging markets from the unique internationalization path of Indian multinationals.
The following illustrative questions will be addressed:
• What are the sources of uniqueness of the international strategies adopted by Indian firms?
• What can Western firms learn from the internationalization strategies of Indian firms?
• What types of Western firms have internationalization strategies similar to that of Indian firms?
3. Learning and Leveraging Entrepreneurship in India: India is arguably the most vibrant democracy
in the emerging world today, which breeds a unique sense of entrepreneurship among its people and
institutions. Unravelling the special characteristics of the Indian entrepreneur and as well as of entrepreneurship
in India in general will have significant potential to enrich the field of entrepreneurship.
The following illustrative questions that we seek to address through this special issue are:
• How can Western firms leverage Indian entrepreneurs to enhance their global competitiveness?
• What are the unique internationalization models of the new ventures in India that can be
generalized?
• To what extent can learning from Indian entrepreneurs be replicated in home country markets by
Western firms?
Submission Information
• All papers will be subject to MIR's blind review process
• Authors should follow MIR guidelines, http://www.mir-online.de/Guideline-for-Authors.html.
• Contributions should be submitted in English language, in a Microsoft word or compatible format via
e-mail attachment to Business.IndiaMIR@sydney.edu.au
• Questions can be addressed to any of the co-editors on:
Farok Contractor (email: fjcontractor@embarqmail.com), Charles Dhanaraj (email: dhanaraj@iupui.edu)
or Vikas Kumar (email: vikas.kumar@sydney.edu.au)
• Submission deadline: January 31, 2013
About the Guest Editors
Dr. Farok Contractor is Professor in the Management and Global Business department at Rutgers Business
School. His research has focused on foreign direct investment, in particular the negotiated, inter-firm aspects
of International Business such as alliances including joint ventures, licensing and negotiations between
investors and governments.
Dr. Charles Dhanaraj is an Associate Professor of Management and Schmenner Faculty Fellow in
International Business at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. He also serves as a senior
research fellow at the Center for Leadership, Innovation, and Change at Indian School of Business, India.
His research revolves around three inter-related themes: Globalization, Innovation, and Collaboration.
Dr. Vikas Kumar is an Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy in the Discipline of
International Business at the University of Sydney Business School. His research interests are in the areas
of Internationalization, Emerging Market Firms, Emerging Markets, Business Groups, and Outsourcing/
Offshoring.
References
Capelli, P., Singh, H., Singh, J., & Useem, M. (2010). The India Way. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Contractor, F. J., Kumar, V., Kundu, S. K., & Pedersen, T. (2010). Reconceptualizing the firm in a
world of outsourcing and offshoring: The organizational and geographical relocation of high-value
company functions. Journal of Management Studies, 47(8), 1417–1433.
Khanna, T., & Palepu, K. (2006). Emerging giants: Building world-class companies in developing
countries. Harvard Business Review, 84(10), 60.
Lall, S. (1983). The new multinationals: The spread of third world enterprises. New York: Wiley.
Ramamurti, R. (2009). What have we learned about emerging market MNEs? In R. Ramamurti &
J. Singh (Eds.), Emerging multinationals from emerging markets. Cambridge: University Press.