While the number of awards presented during the EIBA Conferences has increased over the years, it also became apparent that the universities, faculties and departments to which the winners belong attach more importance to them. The EIBA Secretariat received several requests from university officials in which more information was asked about the award, because they wanted to mention this in their newsletter or put it on their website. Quite often a photo was requested from the award granting ceremony in which their staff member was honoured, which regretfully was not always available.

A list with some more information about the awards is shown in the table below. More information will be provided on the EIBA website.

1. The Gunnar Hedlund Award granted by
   IIB - Institute of International Business
   Stockholm School of Economics
   Contact: Örjan Sölvell
   Prize: Stipend to partly cover travel expenses for the finalists and a prize of € 10,000 for the winner
    
2. Copenhagen Prize granted by
   Copenhagen Business School
   Contact: Torben Pedersen
   Prize: 3.000 €
    
3. IMR International Marketing Award granted by
   International Marketing Review
   Publisher: Emerald
   Contact: Martyn Lawrence
   Prize: 500 € (proposal for 2008)
    
4. IJoEM Best Paper Award on Emerging Markets International Journal of Emerging Markets granted by
   Publisher: Emerald
   Contact: Martyn Lawrence
   Prize: 500 € (proposal for 2008)
    
5. IBR Best Paper of the Year Award International Business Review granted by
   Publisher: Elsevier
   Contact: Pervez Ghauri, Editor IBR
   Prize: 1.000 €
    
6. EIBA Best Doctoral Thesis Proposal Award granted by
   EIBA
   Contact: John Cantwell and Ivo Zander, EIBA Doctoral Tutorial Co-Chairs
   Prize: 1.000 €
    
7. EIBA Fellows Research Award granted by
   EIBA Fellows
   Contact: Klaus Macharzina, EIBA Fellows Chair
   Prize: 15.000 €
    
8. Distinguished EIBA Honorary Fellow Award granted by
   EIBA Fellows
   Contact: Klaus Macharzina, EIBA Fellows Chair
   Plaque
    
9. Lifetime Achievement Award in IB granted by
   EIBA
   Contact: Danny Van Den Bulcke, EIBA Chairman
   Plaque

Awards granted during the Catania Conference 2007:

1. BEST DOCTORAL THESIS PROPOSAL AWARD
   
   Multinational Subsidiary Evolution: Host Country Impact
   by Sergey FILIPPOV, Maastricht University (UNU-MERIT)
   
   Towards an International Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Enforcement Index
   by Nikolas PAPAGEORGIADIS, Leeds University
    
2. GUNNAR HEDLUND AWARD
   
   The Evolution of International Joint Ventures: Multiple Waves of Structural Change, Performance, and Survival
   by Chris CHANGWHA CHUNG, The University of Western Ontario (now at Florida International University)
    
3. COPENHAGEN PRIZE
   
   Organizational Learning Capability, Innovation and Export Intensity: Evidence from Italian and Spanish Ceramic Tiles Producers
   by Joaquin ALEGRE, University of Valencia, José PLA-BARBER, University of Valencia & Ricardo CHIVA, University Jaume I
   
   
   
   
   The Winners of the Copenhagen Prize 2007
   
4. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EMERGING MARKETS (IJOEM) BEST PAPER AWARD
   
   The Co-Evolution of Charters, Capabilities and Structures in the Internationalization Process
   by Tina AMBOS, Bodo B. SCHLEGELMILCH, Björn AMBOS & Barbara BRENNER, Vienna University Of Economics and Business Administration
   
   
   

   The Winners of Emerald's IJoEM Best Paper Award 2007
   

5. INTERNATIONAL MARKETING REVIEW (IMR) BEST PAPER AWARD
   
   Exploring Product and Cultural Contingencies in Exporter-Intermediary Relationships
   by Carl Arthur SOLBERG, BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo 
   
   
   

   Carl Solberg, Winner of the IMR Best Paper Award 2007
   

6. IBR BEST PAPER OF THE YEAR AWARD
   
   Motives and Partner Selection Criteria in International Strategic Alliances: Perspective of Chinese firms
   IBR, 15(6): 577-600
   by Li DONG & Keith GLAISTER
    
7. DISTINGUISHED EIBA HONORARY FELLOW OF THE YEAR AWARD
   
   DeAnne JULIUS, Chatham House (UK)
   
   

Örjan Sölvell & Danny Van Den Bulcke

Ten years after its inception the Gunnar Hedlund Award has become the leading scholarly award for the best Ph.D dissertation in the field of international business in the world. The ‘Institute of International Business Award in Memory of Gunnar Hedlund’, as the award is formally named, was initiated in 1997, the year when Professor Gunnar Hedlund, former director of the Institute of International Business (IIB) and renowned IB scholar, passed away.

Gunnar Hedlund studied at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), where he received the BSc degree in 1972 and obtained his Ph.D four years later, at the age of 27. When in 1975, the new institute IIB was founded; he was hired right away and became its director in 1980. He would develop the Centre into a leading position among the most recognized international business research centers in the world. Gunnar was an outstanding scholar, who was continuously looking for new perspectives. He had a unique ability to cross over disciplines and opening up new research avenues. His most quoted works: ‘The Hypermodern MNC. A Heterarchy’ (Human Resource Management, 1986) and ‘A Model of Knowledge Management and the N-Form Organization’ (Strategic Management Journal, 1994) have become classic readings within organization studies and international business.

The Gunnar Hedlund Award, launched in 1997, by the Boards of SSE-IIB and EIBA, was based on the idea that it should act as a vehicle to stimulate good scholarly work by Ph.D candidates from around the world in the field of IB, while at the same time commemorating Gunnar’s work. The amount of the prize, i.e. € 10,000 is quite substantial.

During the first ten years of the existence of the Hedlund Award, 151 Ph.D students have sent in their dissertations. Out of these candidacies 33 finalists (3 to 4 per year) were invited to the annual EIBA conference to defend their thesis in a special session. The finalists are chosen on the basis of a ten page summaries, which are submitted to a blind refereeing process by the faculty members of IIB. Finally, the winner is chosen on the basis of the full open theses of the finalists by an international jury.

More than a quarter of the total submissions originated from the US, compared to about one fifth from the UK and almost one tenth from Sweden. The dominance of the US even increases to 45 per cent of the total finalists, with the UK coming in as second with 18 per cent. If one includes Canada, North America can claim 54 per cent of the finalists, compared to 24 per cent for Continental Europe. No less than six of the nine winners (the prize was not granted in 2004) during the first decade of the Hedlund Award studied in North America, as five came from the US and one from Canada. The only European winners came from Germany (2001), the UK (2003) and Norway (2006). It has to be stressed that these figures register the country of study, and not the nationality of the finalists or winners. For instance, two of the North American winners were Asian.

With regard to the themes that were developed in the submitted theses, FDI and foreign market entry, headquarter-subsidiary organization and control, and SME internationalization and born globals were most represented with more than 10 submissions out of the 26 categories that were distinguished in this classification. With nearly ten entries: MNC and external network relationships, internationalization of services, and international alliances and joint ventures made up a second group of subjects dealt with in the dissertations that were sent in for the Hedlund Award.

(Danny Van Den Bulcke, based on information provided by Örjan Sôlvell)

Chris Changwa Chung
University of Western Ontario
Winner Hedlund Award 2007

I’d like to share my thoughts of and experiences at the Gunnar Hedlund Best Dissertation competition (held in Catania, Italy in December, 2007) and the European International Business Academy (EIBA) conference. The first Hedlund Award was given at the 24th annual EIBA conference in 1998 by the competition jury chairman, Örjan Sölvell. The idea behind the award is to stimulate good scholarly work by Ph.D. candidates around the world in the field of International Business, and—as the name suggests—commemorating Gunnar Hedlund’s important work.

To enter the competition, I submitted a full copy of my dissertation along with a 10 page unsigned abstract in July of 2007. Three-to-four finalists are nominated each year for the Hedlund prize. I felt a mix of excitement and tremendous stress, since I knew I was sending my dissertation to renowned scholars whom I had always admired. I didn’t know who the jurors were for the 2007 competition, but the list of previous jurors was intimidating enough: John Dunning, Daniel van den Bulcke, Julian Birkinshaw, Peter Buckley, Eleanor Westney, Don Lessard, Nakiye Boyacigller, and jury chairman Örjan Sölvell.

Not knowing the identities of this year’s five jury members gave me butterflies—what sort of feedback would I receive from scholars at that level? I had always admired and respected their work, so their words meant a lot to me. That made sending an email with my thesis attached a big deal for me. Remembering words of encouragement by my thesis advisor, Paul Beamish, I closed my eyes, took a deep yoga inhalation, and clicked the “send” button; the following morning I sent the hard copies. It had long been my dream to be selected as a finalist, and perhaps as the award-winner, so I had been preparing for that moment from the beginning of my Ph.D. study. I am not exaggerating when I say that sending my submission was an intense and dramatic highlight in my just-starting academic career.

Preparing and sending copies of my dissertation was hard enough, but nothing compared to the adrenaline-draining time of waiting for the jury’s decision. The stress was somewhat relieved when I was named the winner of the Barry Richman Best Dissertation Award at the 2007 Academy of Management meetings, but I still did a lot of pacing while waiting for notification of my selection as one of four finalists in the Gunnar Hedlund contest. I remember when I got a personal email from Eleanor Westney acknowledging her receipt of my dissertation. It felt as though I had just gotten a response to a fan letter sent to a rock star!

Regarding the EIBA conference, Catania, Italy, a major center of Sicilian baroque architecture wast a wonderful choice of location. I had a lot of expectations about the beauty of this city, and I was not disappointed. Everything I gazed at expressed beauty and history, and the residents showed genuine warmth and pride in their cultural history. I spent time visiting 18th century architectural jewels: Palazzo degli Elefanti (City Hall), Palazzo dei Chierici, and Duomo di Sant’Agata. I’ll never forget the magical moment of opening my hotel room balcony door and looking down at the Elephant Fountain in Piazza Duomo. The moment I opened that door, a dove flew off the balcony. It was just like a scene from one of those romantic films my wife loves to watch.

After absorbing Catania’s beauty, I registered at the conference and did what all academics do at such meetings: network, debate, and listen. Fortunately, I was able to have my nervousness sidetracked by conference business, but at one point the anxiety came back in a rush as the time for the Hedlund plenary session approached. That anxiety was put at ease when I met the other finalists: Alex Eapen, Seiko Arai, and Sabina Tacheva’s husband, Bo Nielsen. Their genuine enthusiasm, openness, and friendliness made me realize that these people were to become my friends, colleagues, and supporters. Moreover, all three were familiar to me from previous meetings. I had met Alex Eapen at the junior faculty consortium during the 2006 Academy of International Business conference in Beijing. At that same conference I had shared the podium with Seiko Arai while presenting our closely related papers. Bo Nielsen and I had shared our common research interest in international joint ventures at other conferences, and Sabina Tacheva was one of the four finalists for the 2007 Barry Richman award. Sabina couldn’t attend this year’s EIBA meeting because she had given birth to a baby girl two weeks previous—congratulations, Sabina! As the dutiful husband, Bo would give a presentation on her behalf. Three of us were on the same page in terms of baby news: Alex became a father in October, and my wife had given birth to our first child (a boy) in March. We joked that recent parenthood was a major qualification for Hedlund finalists.

The big “button-pressing moment” came after the four of us gave our individual presentations. In past years, awards were presented at the gala dinner, but this time the announcement was made at the Hedlund plenary session. I may have been the only one hearing a drum roll in my mind as the big moment arrived, but I doubt it. John Dunning pressed the button and WOW!—there was my name on the huge screen behind us, as well as on screens in other rooms that received a broadcast feed of the plenary session. John Dunning and Örjan Sölvell presented me with a medal, a certificate, and a check for €10,000.

I’ll keep using the rock star analogy here—it was as if the stars who had inspired me to become a musician had given me the “new artist award” for my debut single. I noticed Daniel van den Bulcke taking pictures of that moment. That was especially memorable because I usually observe doctoral students and staff members taking pictures, and there was Danny taking conference pictures himself. He’s perfect for the job, the kind of person who genuinely enjoys making people around him feel happy and welcomed.

What a wonderful experience! I would like to express my sincere thanks to the EIBA community for inviting me to attend the 2007 Catania conference. I also want to convey my sincere appreciation to the Institute of International Business, Stockholm School of Economics for presenting me with its Hedlund award. This is a fond memory that I’m sure will never fade.