Apologies for cross-posting.
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Call for Papers for a Special Issue of
Journal of International Management
Global Innovation Networks – Organizations and People
Submission Deadline: March 1st, 2016. AUTHORS WHO THINK THEY CANNOT MEET THE DEADLINE SHOULD CONTACT: tj.hannigan@temple.edu.
Editors
Marcelo Cano-Kollmann, Ohio University
T. J. Hannigan, Temple University
Ram Mudambi, Temple University
International Business, Economic Geography and Innovation (iBEGIN) Research Program
The distribution of economic value creating activities across space has intrigued scholars since at
least the nineteenth century. The modern study of this phenomenon has its roots in the classic work
of Marshall (1920). Over the course of the last century, it has been studied from different
perspectives, leading to the formation of several research communities and each with an associated
body of literature. Economic geographers and regional scientists mainly study the characteristics of
places while international business scholars focus on the organization of economic activities. In
other words, economic geographers' and regional scientists' main focus of interest is the location,
while for international business scholars, it is the (multinational) firm. Over the last few decades,
innovation has received increasing amounts of attention from both research communities who
recognize it as one of the key drivers of the modern knowledge economy.
In the main, these three location-based literatures have moved along in parallel with one another, but
their actual analytical connections remained very limited, and their treatment of location, geography
and the spatial organization of the firm remains very partial and fragmented. The main goal of the
International Business, Economic Geography and Innovation (iBEGIN) research program is to work
at the nexus of these three research communities and literatures and build knowledge conduits
among them. This research aims to encourage cross- and inter-disciplinary dialog with the view of
building a holistic view of the spatial organization of economic activity.
There are three megatrends underlie much of the change that we have witnessed over the last few
decades and that will continue to shape the world economy (Mudambi, 2015). The first megatrend is
the shift from trade-in-goods to trade-in-activities. Beginning several decades ago, but accelerating
rapidly over the last decade, products and services are increasingly emerging from global value
chains (GVCs) that are geographically dispersed around the globe. These GVCs are orchestrated, in
the main, by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and increasingly disaggregated and fine-sliced into
narrow, highly specific activities that are undertaken in economic clusters. These narrow activities
produce intermediates (and not complete goods or services) and these compose the vast majority of
all international trade today.
The second megatrend is the rise of knowledge-intensive intangibles. Value is rapidly migrating out
of tangible goods and services that are becoming commoditized and into the soft intangibles that
encase them. These intangibles arise from specialized, upstream knowledge (R&D, patents,
inimitable organizational routines, software, training) and downstream knowledge (brands,
trademarks, customer service) activities. This migration of value has dramatically magnified the
importance of innovation, concomitantly shortening technology lifecycles.
The third megatrend is the rise of emerging markets. The number of locations where the highly
specific GVC activities can be performed has ballooned over the last two decades. A long list of
clusters locations in Asia and South America and even some parts of Africa have become integral
parts of GVCs. These locations are tightly woven into global economy and give rise to perceptions of
"flatness" perceived by many lay observers.
The disaggregation of global value chains, global innovation systems and emerging market catch-up
processes are salient examples of topics at the heart of the iBEGIN research agenda. All papers that
address the iBEGIN nexus, both theoretical and empirical, are welcome.
Submission deadline: March 1, 2016.
Please submit by email attachment to:
tj.hannigan@temple.edu
Submission format: Please visit the Journal of International Management website for detailed "Instructions for Authors".
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-international-management/
References
Marshall, A. 1920. Industry and trade. London, Macmillan.
Mudambi, R. 2015. Local enterprise, global value. Research Focus – Business & Management, 1: 25-27
Marcelo Cano-Kollmann, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Strategy and International Business
College of Business, Ohio University
536 Copeland Hall
Phone 919-943-3003
Email: canokoll@ohio.edu