EIBA-zine - Issue No. 4 - October 2007

1. Letter from the President

   1. From the EIBA President 2007, Grazia Santangelo 

      Dear Colleagues,
      
      It is a great pleasure to announce that the 33rd EIBA Annual Conference will be held at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Catania, Italy from the 13th to the 15th of December 2007.
      
      The EIBA Annual Conference offers all members a great opportunity for presenting and discussing on-going research in IB. This year’s conference theme will focus on “International Business, Local Development and Science-Technology Relationships” with the aim of reflecting on the role of public research institutions in helping to promote the processes of technological and economic catch up, development and growth, and of local policy in fostering local science-technology linkages with incoming foreign-owned multinationals. The issue will be addressed at the Opening Plenary Session by Maryann Feldman Miller Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at the University of Georgia (USA) and Gaetano Casalaina (Public (Public Affairs Director – Indesit Company).
      
      A second plenary session chaired by Danny Van Den Bulcke (University of Antwerp - Belgium) will be dedicated to “The Eclectic Theory, the Multinational Enterprise and the Global Economy: John Dunning’s Magnum Opus” and will count on the participation of John Dunning (Universities of Reading – UK – and Rutgers – USA), Sariana Lundan (Maastricht University – The Netherlands), Robert Pearce (University of Reading – UK), Stephen Young (Glasgow University – UK) and Alain Verbeke (University of Calgary – Canada) .
      
      This year’s EIBA Fellows session will be organized and chaired by Klaus Macharzina (University of Hohenheim – Germany) and discuss International Corporate Governance together with Shirley Daniel (University of Hawaii – USA), Lars Oxelheim (Lund University – Sweden), Marjan Svetlicic (University of Ljubljana - Slovenia) and Ans Kolk (University of Amsterdam – The Netherlands).
      
      Two Special panel sessions will also be organized by UNCTAD on the WORLD Investment Report : Extractive Industries and TNCs in Infrastructure (including Anne Miroux (IAB/NCTAD), Hafiz Mirza (IAB/UNCTAD), Peter Buckley (University of Leeds – UK) and Axele Giroud (Manchester Business School – UK)) and on Data Issues (including Masataka Fujita (IAB/UNCTAD), John Dunning (Universities of Reading – UK – and Rutgers – USA), Jeremy Clegg (University of Leeds – UK) and Robert Pearce (University of Reading – UK)). A further special panel session will be organized and chaired by Karl P. Sauvant (Executive Director, Columbia Program on International Investment) on Is a backlash against FDI in the making? with the participation of Peter J. Buckley, (University of Leeds – UK), John Dunning (Universities of Reading – UK – and Rutgers – USA) and DeAnne Julius (Chatham House – UK).
      
      Thanks to the great help of the track chairs and the efforts of the reviewers we intend to organize an academically and socially successful EIBA conference. The conference venue will be the XVIII century building of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Catania, which is located in the baroque city centre and at walking distance from many of the hotels advertised on the conference web page. For further details on the conference program, accommodation and other practical information please visit the conference web page:

      http://www.fscpo.unict.it/eiba2007/

      
      I am looking forward to welcoming you in Catania.
      Kindest regards,
      
      Grazia Santangelo
      EIBA President 2007
      

2. Letter from the Chairman

   1. From the EIBA Chairman, Danny Van Den Bulcke 

      Dear Colleagues,

      Although EIBA was launched in 1974 it took 21 years before we had our first Annual Meeting in Italy. EIBA’s Urbino meeting in 1995, organized by Roberto Schiatarella,  was a memorable event. Only 12 years later  we will be back in Italy, more particularly  in Catania, Sicily for what is likely to become another fabulous meeting with Italian flavour. Grazia Santangelo as EIBA’s President, together with Valentina Barbagello,  has been working hard and will be ready for the conference participants in the middle of December.

      EIBA will be gathering for its annual conference in the immediate neighbourhood of the Etna volcano, known as one of the most active in the world. Although we hope that the volcano will put on a show during one of the nights during our presence in Catania, we also hope that the flows will be limited to knowledge instead of lava flows and that the knowledge ‘explosions’  will occur in the  18th century (specially restored ) building of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Catania.  Also the ensuing ‘spill-overs’ are likely to be beneficial for our discussions and understanding of international business issues during our Sicilian meeting and even beyond through publication of many of the papers to be presented in Catania.

      The Board members who were able to come to Catania for the Spring Board meeting last May, have been able to visit the conference site and  premises. They discussed the programme as proposed by Grazia Santangelo, while they were treated with Sicilian oranges and sweets. A number of important items were dealt with during this one day meeting.

      The nominations of the National Representatives was one of the important topics on the agenda it should be mentioned that the Board had received indications that a number of the ‘older’ Board members had proposed a ‘changing of the guard’ and had expressed the wish to be replaced by younger colleagues. Some of them wanted to step down after having organized an EIBA conference in the past or more recently or because they had been elected as EIBA Fellows and would be able to continue to support the organization from there.
      
      A changeover of National Representatives, especially after their predecessors invested so much time and effort to further develop EIBA  as one of the leading academic associations in international business, certainly has great merit, especially when it allows younger members  to build on the expertise and enthusiasm of their predecessors. 

      Other items on the agenda were the doctoral tutorial, future venues, the update of the conference guidelines, the International Business Review, the  new Annual Book Series, the membership and financial situation, the evaluation of the previous conference, etc. Some of those topics are elaborated further in this issue of EIBA-zine.

      

       

3. Doctoral Studies

   1. EIBA's Doctoral Tutorial 2006 

      by Danny Van Den Bulcke

      The Doctoral Tutorial  Faculty in Fribourg was co-chaired by John Cantwell (Rutgers University) and Udo Zander (Stockholm School of Economics). The other members of the Faculty were Jean François Hennart (Tilburg University), Torben Pedersen (Copenhagen Business School), Lucia Piscitello (Milan Polytechnic) and Francesca Sanna Randaccio (University of Rome-La Sapienza).

      Fifty students, a record number, applied for the 20th Doctoral Tutorial. Based on the tutorial format only 12 could be invited to present their thesis proposal during a full day session  that took place before the EIBA Conference got started.

      

      Almost two thirds of the applicants were nationals from European countries. With 12 applications, students from Western Europe represented one fourth of the total , compared to one tenth from Northern Europe. Quite high was the interest from students from so-called emerging countries. Nationals from Russia, China and India (11 in total) were almost as important as Western Europe. If  the  Ph.d. students applying from the ASEAN countries Thailand and Vietnam are added to this latter group (+ 5) those countries represent one third of the total candidates.

      If one looks at the country of study instead of the country of origin a different picture emerges. The UK + Ireland, which counted only one national in the country of origin classification, host 15 Ph.d. students at their universities, almost one third of the total applicants. Western Europe and Northern Europe come in as second and third in this ranking with about one fourth. While most of the Western European doctoral students prepare their Ph.d. in their own country, this is less the case for Northern Europe that succeeds in attracting a higher  proportion of foreign doctoral students.

      A similar split-up for the 12 students that were invited  to come to Fribourg, reveals that the selection based on the quality of the summary proposal that was submitted to the Faculty chairs,  more or less reflects the total population of the applicants. Two thirds of the nominated students were European. Students from Western Europe and Asia took up one quarter  each of the available positions for the Tutorial. On the basis of the country of study, the selected students were divided in three equal parts of one third for West Europe, North Europe and Asia.

      

      In general the classification of the doctoral students for 2006 confirms the analysis that was conducted for the 20 years that the Doctoral Tutorial for the Best Thesis proposal has been organized. The UK + Ireland and Norhern Europe remain the preferred destination for students coming from Asia and Eastern and Central Europe. Also the number of Ph.d. students from emerging economies who had hoped to be invited to present their proposal is increasing, meaning that EIBA’s Tutorial is becoming more and more global. An innovation of the 2006 Tutorial was that 8 students were given the opportunity to present their doctoral project in a separate poster session. It is not clear if this additional event allowed to eliminate the disappointment of the students who could not participate in the main tutorial session.

      The impressions from the winner of the Best Thesis Proposal for 2006 (see infra) indicate that the students appreciate the contributions from the Faculty in enormously.

      
      

   2. Impressions from Best Doctoral Thesis Award Winner 2006 

      by Roger Smeets – Nijmegen School of Management, The Netherlands

      Having been asked to briefly reflect upon the 20th EIBA doctoral tutorial, held on 7 December 2006 in Fribourg, it is tempting to give an explanation of how the tutorial works. However, my predecessor (Katharina Kretschmer, last year’s winner) has already done a great job in doing so, so I will use this opportunity to give a more personal account of the event.
      
       Although I am still quite inexperienced in presenting at conferences, one lesson I have taken at heart very early on is that really nobody ever reads the paper I am presenting. Sure, my supervisor warned me on several occasions that this might happen, but being young and naïve (and also a bit arrogant I suppose) I was convinced that people want to know, or better yet, are awaiting the message that I want to convey. Alas, I have been let down time and again….until the doctoral tutorial.
      
      Indeed, the single greatest benefit of participating in the tutorial without a doubt has been to receive very detailed feedback on my thesis proposal from a highly renowned faculty, which actually read what I had written. Admittedly, it was quite scary to stand there and absorb the critique on my magnum opus, but the comments I (and all of us) received were very sharp and made a great deal of sense. Especially, I would like to thank Professor John Cantwell (who was also co-chairing the tutorial) and Professor Lucia Piscitello who both served as discussants of my paper. I would also like to thank Professor Francesca Sanna-Randaccio for her stimulating and supportive comments.
      
      A second lesson that I have picked up from my limited conference experience is that developing a network and networking skills is crucial. It really is quite unnerving to find yourself lost in the often large and unfamiliar crowds at conferences. Yet again the doctoral tutorial provides an opportunity, as it serves as an excellent platform for networking. The PhD students that I met during the tutorial really lifted my spirit and I want to thank Kamil, Clara, Elena, Irina, Lamia, Valérie, Claes, Lisa,  Simona, Maetinee and Huu Le for the great time we had during and after the tutorial. I suspect that I will meet many of them at future (EIBA) conferences.
      
      This year’s tutorial had an additional feature as it celebrated its 20th birthday. For this occasion there was a special panel session on 9 December. During this session, part of this and previous years’ faculty presented some facts, figures and personal views on the history of the doctoral tutorial. Also, one of the first tutorial winners (1989), Professor Jorma Larimo, and the winner of 2001, Rekha Krishnan, shared some of their views with us. Rekha also was a finalist for the 2006 Gunnar Hedlund Award, which I think nicely demonstrates the value added of the tutorial – both in its ability to recognize promising research as well as to stimulate its further development. I therefore also want to congratulate and thank Professor Daniel van den Bulcke as the initiator and inspirator of the EIBA doctoral tutorial, for creating such a useful platform where young scholars meet each other and senior faculty to discuss ideas. Because – as stressed by Professor Peter Buckley during this session – it is therein, rather than handing out an award, in which the true value added of the doctoral tutorial lies.
      
      Finally, I also want to thank the rest of the tutorial faculty – Professor Udo Zander (co-chair), Professor Torben Pedersen and Professor Jean-François Hennart – for their inspiring comments and suggestions, and Professor Philippe Gugler and his team for having organized a truly wonderful conference.

       

   3. Twenty Years of EIBA Doctoral Tutorials 

      by Danny Van Den Bulcke

      In a panel session at the Fribourg Conference in December 2006 about ‘Doctoral Studies in International Business’ comments were made about this yearly event, which has become one of the basic features of the EIBA Conferences.

      EIBA’s first Doctoral Tutorial was organized by Danny Van Den Bulcke in Antwerp in 1987. The Faculty of this first consortium consisted of Peter Buckley, John Dunning, Geert Hofstede and Danny Van Den Bulcke. Only six Ph.d. students showed up at the University of Antwerp for this new initiative. Two of them came from Western European countries, while three originated from Southern Europe and one from Northern Europe. The winner of the Best Thesis Proposal in this first doctoral contest was Andreas Zielke from the University of Dortmund.

      

      Panel: Danny Van Den Bulcke, Udo Zander, John Cantwell, Rehka Krishnan and Jean-François Hennart

      The general objectives of the EIBA Doctoral Tutorial are first of all to provide an opportunity for doctoral students in international business (IB) to discuss their research plans with a distinguished international faculty and their Ph.d. student colleagues. Secondly it allows students to actively participate in the EIBA conference, which gives them the possibility to get exposed to recent developments in the theory and practice of  IB, to get acquainted with other IB specialists and researchers, and to become part of an existing network or establish a network of their own in their specific field of interest.

      That the Doctoral Tutorial has grown over the years is illustrated by the 20th anniversary meeting at the University of Fribourg. John Cantwell and Udo Zander had taken over from Danny Van Den Bulcke, who organized and chaired 18 of the previous tutorials. No less than 50 Ph.d. students from all over the world applied in 2006. And because the approach followed in the Tutorial used from the very first year was regarded by both the Faculty and the students as an excellent ‘formula’ to give as much feedback as possible, only between 10 and 12 students could be invited to present their thesis proposal. Exceptionally in Fribourg a poster session was programmed for an additional 8 students.

      Next to Danny Van Den Bulcke, who chaired this special session, five other scholars presented their views about EIBA’s doctoral tutorial. Two of them were previous winners of the Best Thesis Proposal, while three had been or were  members of the Faculty. The first speaker was Jorma Larimo, who was co-winner of the Prize in Berlin in 1988 and who since then not only became a prominent EIBA member, e.g. as national representative of Finland, but also was  the organizer of a doctoral tutorial at Vaasa University, which became part of the Nordic Doctoral Tutorial which is mainly focused on students from Scandinavian countries.

      Rekha Krishnan,  who prepared her Ph.d. at Tilburg University in the Netherlands and is now at Simon Fraser University in Canada, won the Prize for the Best Thesis Proposal in 2001 in Paris. She discussed the usefulness of the tutorial for students from developing countries and formulated suggestions for managing a doctoral project.

      John Cantwell, co- chair of the Faculty of the Doctoral Tutorial in 2005 and 2006, together with Udo Zander, made a comparison of doctoral studies and consortia in Europe and North America , while Jean François Hennart, the record holder as Faculty member, presented his impressions about the specific characteristics of EIBA’s tutorial in the context of doctoral studies in Europe. He stressed that the EIBA tutorial had been the first major initiative in international business and had become a trend setter as it inspired other organizations like AIB-UK  and the Nordic initiative.

      Udo Zander analysed the themes of the doctoral projects as brought forward by the selected students.  It was interesting to see, not only how the subjects of the theses had evolved during a twenty year period, but also how they compared with the topics presented during EIBA and AIB conferences. Hopefully the results of these studies might become available in a future issue of EIBAzine. 

      Danny Van Den Bulcke provided some historical data to allow the audience to better evaluate the contributions of the tutorial. However, for a number of criteria the figures were not available for the whole twenty year period. He stressed from the beginning that a systematic distinction was made between the data about the applicants for the tutorial and the students that were selected to present their proposal during the conference. Only for the latter group was information available for the twenty yearrs under consideration. Although there have been ups and downs in the number of applications over the years, the trend in the number of students who wanted to enroll was clearly upwards.

      The Ph.d. applicants (1997-2006)

      Based on information for the last ten years about the nationality of the doctoral students applied 300 applied , which – regretfully - meant that over the whole period only one out of three could be invited to present the project during the conference. Two thirds of those students were nationals from Continental Europe, as compared to one fifth from Asia and Oceania, while about one twentieth had the natinality of a country in North or South America or Africa and the Middle East. Within Continental Europe one third had the nationality of a West European country, compared to one fifth for East and Central Europe and South Europe.

      While the nationality of the applying students tells us one hing about doctoral studies in IB, the country of stydy shows a somewhat different picture. Continental Europe hosted two thirds of the Ph.d. students, while within this region Western Europe took up half, compared to one third for Northern Europe and about 7% each for East and Central and Southern Europe. With only 2% of the students having the British nationality, 23 % had chosen to study there. It would be interesting to find out if this brain gain for Western Europe and Britain has a more long term effect  in terms of appointments and publications or other criteria.

      The doctoral nominees (1990-2006)

      For the 179 students who were invited to present their proposal at the tutorial data are available for a period of 16 years. About one quarter  had the nationality of a Western European (28%) or Northern European  (23%) country, compared to about one tenth for Southern Europe (12%) and East and Central Europe (10%). Among the nationals from non Continental Europe, Asia and Oceania took up 13% of the total,  while North and South America  reached 8% and Africa and the Middle East 3%.

      While the UK and Ireland counted only 3% in the classification based on nationality, the universities in these countries succeeded in attracting almost one out of 5 of those students (18%). Over the whole period 1990-2006 both Western Europe(30%) and Northern Europe (27%) more or less kept their attractiveness for doctoral IB students in proportion to the nationality criterion.

      The Faculty (1991-2006)

      During the 16 years that track was kept of the Faculty, EIBA was able to rely on 104 Faculty members to work together with the Ph.d. students a whole day at the tutorial, after having read the proposals beforehand. While a number of scholars could be regarded as composing the core of the Faculty there always was rotation by bringing in new members, sometimes based on the specific topics of some of the students. Half of the faculty members were nationals from Western Europe, while 30% were British and 16% were from North America. Three percent each were Austraian and Israli nationals.

      The winners (1987-2006)

      That twenty years of doctoral tutorials organized by EIBA, with the active collaboration of EISM, shows 27 winners, is of course due to the fact that the Faculty could not always agree, which proposal should be awarded the Prize of the Best Thesis Proposal. Seven times two winners were chosen. The majority of the winners came from Western Europe and North America.

      To be completed?
      

   4. From a 'Best Thesis Proposal' to the 'Best Doctoral Thesis' 

      by Danny Van Den Bulcke

      One of the highlights of the EIBA conferences is the special session by the doctoral students who have been selected for the Hedlund Award which grants € 10,000 to the Best Doctoral thesis. Last year the award went to Jon Erik Lervik,  while Denise Dunlap-Hinkler and Rekha Krishnan were the runners up for this important prize, which was launched 10 years ago by the Stockholm School of Economics, IIB, in honour of Gunnar Hedlund. In 2007 the award will be attributed for the 9th time as 2004 and 2005 had been taken together.

      

      Finalists: Rehka Krishnan, Jon Erik Lervik and Denise Dunlap-Hinkler

      Gunnar Hedlund was one of the most gifted and creative international business scholars in Europe, whose early death was most untimely for our profession and for EIBA. Gunnar was very active in our organization and was also a member of the Faculty of the Doctoral Tutorial in its early years.

      During the 9 years (1998-2006) that data are available about those nominated for the  Award,  29 students were selected as the ‘final four’ or ‘final three’ for the Prize of the Best Doctoral Thesis (Hedlund Award). Almost 60 % (17) of those students did their doctoral studies in the US (compared to only one quarter (7) in Western Europe, 14% (4) in the UK and one in Australia. It would seem that to do doctoral studies in the US increases the chances of winning this prestigious Prize. However, it would be necessary to have figures about the number of applicants and their nationality as well as their country of study to confirm this hypothesis. Maybe a more complete picture of the decade during which the Hedlund Prize has been granted will be presented in the upcoming  9th or 10th award winning ceremony in Catania or Tallinn.

      Four of the nominated Ph.d. students for the Hedlund Award had participated in EIBA’s Doctoral Tutorial. Three of those students had been winners of the ‘Award for Best Thesis Proposal’, while a fourth one had been in the selection of the students that were nominated for the Tutorial. Also three of them studied in the UK, although they came from Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands.

      In AIB,  the competitition for the ‘Best Doctoral Thesis’ is known as the ‘Farmer Best  Dissertation Award’, in honour of Richard  N. Farmer a former professor at the University of Indiana, who is regarded as one of the founding fathers of international business studies. Again no complete figures are available as  to the number of applicants and winners during the many years that this prize has been awarded. However, it is quite impressive that no less than three participants in  EIBA’s ‘Best Doctoral Thesis Proposal’ (of which two were former winners) have also won  AIB’s Best Thesis Competition,i.e. Jeffrey Johnson (an American who did his Ph.d. studies at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland), Camilla Noonan (who is Irish and got her Ph.d. from the University of Reading, UK) and this year Rekha Krishnan (who is Indian and prepared her doctorate at Tilburg University in the Netherlands). It might be interesting to add that both Camilla Noonan and Rekha Krishnan were among the runners up of the Hedlund Award, but failed to get the top prize.

      
      

4. Future Conferences

   1. From the Mediterranean to the Baltic and Back: or from Catania (2007) to Tallinn (2008) and Valencia (2009) 

      by Danny Van Den Bulcke

      After our conference in Catania, Italy, next December, we will be heading for Tallinn, Estonia, for our 34th Annual Meeting. Until last May it was not really sure where EIBA would gather in 2009. Several locations were considered such as Dublin, Leeds, Porto, Uppsala, Vienna… However, during the Spring Board meeting in Catania last May, Juan Duran, the National Representative for Spain, proposed Valencia on behalf of José Pla Barber from the University of Valencia as the venue for 2009. Although this decision, which was unanimously approved by the Board, still has to be submitted to the General Assembly, it is unlikely that many EIBA members will object to this new Mediterranean destination for our yearly ‘rendez-vous’ two years after Sicily.

      Tallinn-2008

      Together with Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia became independent in 1991. In the same year EIBA held its 17th Annual Conference in Copenhagen. From an EIBA perspective this was about half way in our history, as Tallinn will host the 34th yearly meeting of EIBA next year. Since the Baltic countries joined the European Union their economic expansion has continued. Tallinn, the Estonian capital city, was part of the so-called Hanseatic League with a.o. Riga (Latvia), Gdansk (Poland, known as Danzig, when it was part of Germany) and Hamburg (Germany), which dominated east west trade during almost 400 years and was the world’s first free trade alliance. This was international business ‘avant la lettre’ to use a French expression. Estonia and its neighbours are living through a renaissance that will interest international business scholars and EIBA members.

      Enn Listra, National Representative of Estonia, has been preparing for EIBA-2008. His personal efforts and the fact that he is getting academic support from Vaasa University and Tartu University guarantees a successful meeting. More details about the Tallinn Conference will be provided during the December Conference in Catania.

      Valencia-2009

      Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and according to some sources has surpassed Barcelona as the most vibrant place in the country. This year Valencia hosted the legendary sailing contest  known as the America Cup and apparently there are negotiations about having  Formula 1 motor car races there in the near future. Clearly a city which hosts the fastest sailing ships and fastest cars  in the world and has become  a touristic magnet is the ‘place to be’ for EIBA.
      
      José Pla Barber is Head of the Department of Business Administration of the University of Valencia and Programme Director of the MBA University of Valencia-Ford Spain. He has been Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Reading, the Norwegian School of Management and the Instituto Technologicó de Costa Rica (TEC). He has been Visting Professor in several Latin American countries, such as Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba and Mexico as well as Spanish universities. He has published in many refereed international business and marketing journals as well as refereed Spanish reviews. And of course, over the years he has been a regular participant and contributor to EIBA conferences. All of this should make him and his university ideal hosts for the 2009 conference.

      
      

   2. Catching up with Tallinn and Estonia in 2008 

       “IB and the catching up economies – Challenges and opportunities” is the title approved  by the EIBA Board for the Tallinn Conference. It will be EIBA’s 34th Annual Meeting and the fist time ever that it will take place in the Baltic region.

      The preliminary track list includes:

      1. International Business in Catching Up Economies (Emerging Markets)
         - Business opportunities and obstacles on emerging markets
         - Catching up process as the opportunity for international business
         - The role of China and other Asian countries in international business
         - Changing role of Central and Eastern European countries in international business
         
      2. Internationalisation Process and International Entrepreneurship
         - Contemporary stages and directions of internationalization process
         - Internationalization patterns of SMEs
         - International entrepreneurship and international new ventures
         
      3. Knowledge Management in International Business
         - Learning organisations in international business
         - Internal and external knowledge sources for international companies
         - Development of international knowledge management systems
         
      4. Corporate Strategies in International Business
         - transnationalism and other MNC strategies
         - international mergers, acquisitions and formation of strategic alliances
         - subsidiary roles and performance determinants
         
      5. Technology Development and Innovation
         - Technology development in MNCs and in international SMEs
         - Technology brokering and international diffusion of new technologies
         - Innovation management in international business context
         
      6. Human Resources Management
         - Regional differences in international human resource management
         - Human resource management policies and corporate performance
         - Impact of EU enlargements on human resource management practices
         
      7. International Marketing and Cross Cultural Issues in International Business
         - Complexities of international marketing and distribution
         - Usage of marketing or procurement subsidiaries
         - International supply chain management
         - International mergers and acquisitions as sources for cultural conflict
         - Cultural diversity as an opportunity for international business
         - Cultural issues in the context of enlarged EU
         
      8. Management Control, International Finance and Accounting
         - Contemporary issues in international finance
         - International differences in accounting practices
         - Risk exposure and tax obligation management in international business   
         - Contemporary governance issues in international companies
         - Social responsibilities of MNCs
         - Ownership as a source for management conflicts in international business
         
      9. Contemporary Issues of International Business Theory and Methodology
         - IT and service sector internationalisation
         - Internet-based research methods in international business studies
         - Enlargement of regional cooperation and international business
         
      10. Foreign Investment, Trade and Policy Issues
          - The changing pattern of FDI and trade flows
          - Development level as determinant of FDI and trade flows
          - Policies concerning core and periphery problem in Europe 

      The final list of tracks and  more detailed subjects will be available in December during the Catania conference.

       

5. Looking back at the EIBA Fribourg 2006 Conference

   1. The Fribourg 2006 Conference: An evaluation 

      by Philippe Gugler

      32nd EIBA Annual Conference
      Fribourg, 7-9 December 2006

      Conference theme, programme, papers

      The theme of the 32nd EIBA-Conference was  “Regional and National Drivers of Business Location and Competitiveness”. The theme was chosen to invite reflection on the major challenges faced by industrialised countries in the context of globalisation of productions and markets.

      

      The conference was organized during 3 full days at the new  Faculty building of the bilingual Fribourg University/ Freiburg Universität. On the first day, Thursday December 7, 2006 the EIBA Doctoral Tutorial and the Nordic Doctoral School In International Business were organized, two activities that provided opportunities for young researchers to receive the comments and suggestions about their Ph.d. projects from experienced and reputed academics.

      The Opening plenary session, scheduled on Thursday, December 7, addressed the main conference theme. Speakers of the panel were: the former President of Switzerland and former Minister of Economics, Joseph Deiss, John Dunning, Emeritus Professor University of Reading (UK) and Rutgers (US), and the CEO of Ernst &Young Switzerland, Peter Athanas. This session was chaired by Thomas Cottier, Director of the World Trade Institute in  Bern.

      A second plenary session, chaired by Gaston Gaudard - former rector of the University of Fribourg-, was dedicated to ‘Outstanding Issues Regarding International Business Competitiveness’ and could count on  the participation of Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank and of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS, Basel); of Christian Ketels, Member of the Faculty at the Harvard Business School and of Lars Oxelheim, professor at the University of Lund and member of the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI), Stockholm.

      The closing plenary session was organized by the EIBA Fellows and was held in honour of Prof. Sanjaya Lall. It was chaired by John Dunning  and discussed ‘Multinationals, Technology and Development’ together with Francesca Sanna-Randaccio, John Cantwell (Professor, Rutgers University), Anne Miroux (Chief of the Investment Issues Analysis Branch, UNCTAD) and Karl Sauvant (Executive Director, Columbia Program on International Investment, Columbia University).

      In total  292  were submitted of which 251were accepted after a blind review . The papers were handled by 8 different track chairs. The most successful track was on “Management, Organization and Cultural” issues with 74 papers followed by the track on “International Corporate Strategies”  in which 68 papers were accepted. The track on “R&D and Knowledge Management” and the track on  “Location and Competitiveness Issues” with a total of more ore than 30 accepted papers.  Somewhar less popular were the tracks on “Economic Theory of the MNC” (16 papers), on “International Finance and Accounting” (14 papers), on  “Regulatory and Policy Issues” (13 papers) and on “Ethics & Corporate Governance Issues” (11 papers).

      This year the submission and review process was facilitated by the electronic system used already last year in Oslo. More than 230 colleagues signed up as reviewers, most of them using the electronic system.The total number of  proposed posters was 49 of which finally 42 were included in the programme. Moreover, an extra Doctoral Tutorial Poster session has been organised on Friday, December 8 given the important number of good papers received this year.

      Participants

      The total number of registered participants was 336, 10 of which registered directly at the welcome desk. Most of the participants were Europeans.

      The geographical distribution of the participants is as follows: 

      Australia  7, Austria  17, Belgium  7, Brazil  9, Canada  3, Croatia  1, Czech Republic  4, Denmark  13, Egypt  1, Estonia  3, Fiji  1, Finland  37, France  5, Germany  18, Ghana  1, Greece  3, Hong Kong  1, Hungary  1, Ireland  5, Israel  6, Italy  13, Japan  2, Lithuania  3, Macau  1, Malaysia  1, New Zealand   7, Nigeria  5, Norway  11, Poland  6, Portugal  8, Romania  1, Slovenia  3, South Africa  1, South Korea  1, Spain  12, Sweden  19, Switzerland  19, Taiwan  2, Thailand  1, The Netherlands  12, Turkey  3, UK  47, USA  14, Ukraine  1
      
      Other matters

      Eight publishers participated to the conference:
      Edward Elgar Publishing Ldt, Palgrave MacMillan, Thomson Learning, Pearson Education, Higher Education EMEA, SAGE Publications Ltd,Copenhagen Business School Press, Elsevier B.V., and Routledge, T&F Group.

      
      Philippe Gugler
      Immediate Past President
      

6. The EIBA Fellows

   1. News from the EIBA Fellows 

      by Danny Van Den Bulcke

      “At an EIBA Conference you might bump into a bunch of grey-haired dignitaries, looking solemn and absorbed in serious conversation. Chances are that you are seeing a group of EIBA Fellows, discussing the state of international business in general and of EIBA in particular.
      
      EIBA Fellows are a new species of EIBA members, created by the EIBA Board and General Assembly a few years ago. The initiative was taken by Reijo Luostarinen, one of the former Presidents of EIBA. Becoming an EIBA Fellow is a great honour. It is the recognition of scholarly leadership in the field of international business. At the same time, the election as EIBA Fellow is a recognition of significant contributions  to our association.
      
      But EIBA Fellows are not just there to bask in the sun of their past achievements. They also have the duty to serve EIBA in whatever capacity possible. EIBA Fellows are an intellectual resource for EIBA to draw on and are supposed to enhance the standing of EIBA within the academic discipline, with business, government bodies and other associations. EIBA Fellows constitute a sounding board for the Executive Committee and the Board especially for long term, strategic issues. EIBA Fellows have the advantage of distance from day-today decision making in EIBA and can use their expereience for critical reflection. EIBA Fellows have their (annual) meeting during the EIBA Conference, but they can also be involved in the meantime.”

      This could have been written by Klaus Macharzina, Dean of the Fellows of EIBA, or by his predecessor John Dunning who was the first Dean of  the Fellows. In fact it was written by Berend Wierenga, Dean of the EMAC Fellows. The European Marketing Academy (EMAC), which also belongs to the associations for which EIASM takes care of the administration, created EMAC Fellowships at about the same time as EIBA.
      The above text was taken from The EMAC Chronicle, the printed  Newsletter of EMAC (page 21), and on the basis of some unauthorised editoral liberty, the acronym EMAC was replaced by EIBA. Also ‘marketing’ was changed into ‘international business’ and Susan Douglas was replaced by Reijo Luostarinen.

      Initiatives taken by the EIBA Fellows are for instance the annual organization of a special panel on a timely and relevant international business topic, the yearly election of the EIBA Award of Distinguished Honorary Fellow. Last year this honour was bestowed on Karl Sauvant, Executive Director of the Columbia Program for International Investment and previously with UNCTAD and the year before to Jorma Ollila, CEO from Nokia at that time.

      And of course a major initiative was the launching of the Wandel and Goltermann EIBA Fellows Award which was negotiated by Klaus Macharzina. The winner of the first of those Fellowships,  Jahan Peerally from the University of Mauritius got the opportunity to engage into research activities at the  Richard Ivey School of Business of the Univesity of Western Ontario, London, Canada. At the end of her Fellowship she was appointed at HEC in Montréal. Her advice to the potential applicants for the second EIBA Fellows’ Fellowship in this issue of EIBAzine should be most useful. Hopefully the Fellows will be able to continue to finance such an important initiative that opens up so many opportunities for a young scholar as testified by Jahan Peerally.

      This year Jean-François Hennart (Tilburg University) and Marjan Svetlicic (University of Ljubljana) have been elected as New Fellows.

       

      
      

   2. Report from EIBA's Fellows Award Winner - 2005-2006 

      by Jahan Peerally, HEC Montreal

      At the time that I was awarded the EIBA fellows research award, I was a lecturer at the University of Mauritius and also a PhD staff/student in International Business.  The EIBA award was a great opportunity for me to expand my research horizons and experience from my interaction with other academics and researchers, especially from more advanced countries, engaged in the research process.  I must therefore reiterate my most heartfelt gratitude to the Wandel and Goltermann Foundation and the EIBA Fellows for providing me with such an essential research, but most importantly, the learning opportunity.

      The research project submitted to the panel of EIBA Fellows for the award of  Promising Young Researcher in International Business was entitled 'International versus National R&D Collaborations: A Study of Canadian Manufacturing SMEs'.  Following my attachment at the Richard Ivey Business School (UWO), it was decided that the feasibility of this project was challenging since datasets on key factors related to Canadian manufacturing SMEs in general, and in the context of the research, was not readily available.  Similarly, collecting primary data through a survey was deemed too lengthy a process for collecting the necessary data to successfully conduct and complete the research project in the time available.

      In my case, alternative research projects were considered and explored.  Considerable time and resources were expended on background research for the most promising project research centred on the timing of entry by developed country multinationals in emerging markets which are specifically subject to high political uncertainty and risks.  Unfortunately, this research avenue had to be set aside due to lack of key data and certain methodological hurdles.  The research project was finalised based on the datasets that I possessed already on foreign-owned and domestic firms in the Mauritius textile industry.  The research emphasis was shifted to analysing the internationalisation of product innovation capabilities in the context of low-R&D firms, namely textile firms, which are not considered as being located in an industry that generates major technological breakthroughs.  Instead the textile industry is  mainly seen as an industry where firms generate innovations that represent mostly movements along a technological frontier.

      In general, products which are considered as fairly unchanging in nature and embody low levels of innovations are viewed as being largely the result of process innovation as opposed to product innovation activities.  This view is founded on the suggestion that the competitiveness of such products is principally dependent upon shortened production cycles and cost reduction processes both forming the bases for standardization and mass-production.  Hence, there seems to be a general consensus that the technological capabilities of firms which manufacture low-R&D products are a function of their process innovation activities.   The same consensus is deemed applicable to textile firms located in developing countries which are viewed mainly as mass-producing units of low-R&D products.  Following from this premise, the main research enquiry is targeted at determining how significant product innovation activities are to the technological capability development of textile firms which produce textile products such as yarn, dyes, fabrics and garments.

      The research addresses the above query within the context of Mauritius a small industrializing country and explores the dynamism between product innovation activities and the technological capabilities of textile firms categorized as small-medium enterprises and large enterprises and; domestic enterprises and subsidiaries of multinational enterprise.  The study shows that, contrary to what is generally accepted, product innovation capabilities are as crucial as process innovation capabilities in the overall development of low-R&D firms’ technological base. 

      As the recipient of the  first EIBA Fellows award, I would like, as part of this article, share some salient points of guidance to future applicants so that they are able to make the most of their research attachment under the EIBA Fellows research award.

      Thus in preparing the research proposal, one has to remember that the project is undertaken in a different country and research environment.  Being from a developing country, I had automatically assumed that access to datasets were more of a problematic issue where I was from, mainly due to poor IT infrastructure.  Though in more advanced countries datasets may be available, sometimes there are important bureaucratic, financial or confidentiality hurdles to overcome in order to access those.  Bearing in mind that the research attachment period at the university is usually for a year, one has to determine data needs well ahead of time and ensure that such data can be obtained within the time constraints of the attachment.  Of course, determining data needs ahead of time within a country context which is unfamiliar can be complex, thus the nature of the project becomes instrumental in determining those same data needs.  Another factor is to consider attachment at a university where one can have access to proprietary university databases.  This is where the difficult task of choosing between scholars with whom  one wishes to work with and the feasibility of undertaking a research project that requires collecting primary data comes in.  Though not a generalisation, such trade-offs between the nature of the research project, the collaboration one wishes to have and  the access to data have to be considered when drawing up the research proposal.  Alternative versions of the same research proposal based on different data sources (for example by pre-selecting back-up industry samples) should also be considered.

      Finally as the recipient of the EIBA Fellows award 2005-2006, it is my personal experience that apart from the opportunity to do research, I was provided with an opportunity to learn more about the research process in a different environment and how to manage such a process.  Similarly, the skill of marrying the idiosyncrasies of a research project with the optimal academic environment, data requirement whilst also finding the ideal match in terms of collaborators, is one that can only be learnt through experiences.

       

   3. EIBA Fellows Award to a Promising Young Researcher - 2008-2009 

      EIBA Fellows Award to a Promising Young Researcher for 2008-09
      sponsored by the Wandel & Goltermann Foundation

      The EIBA Fellows were established by the European International Business Academy (EIBA) Annual Meeting in Paris in December 2001. Fellowships recognize outstanding achievements in research and education in the field of international business, and the number of Fellows is restricted to no more than 20. The EIBA Fellows consist of a group of senior scholars that represent, between them, a distinctively European contribution to thinking in the field of international business studies. The Fellows are engaged in a number of initiatives in support of EIBA and its objectives.

      The EIBA Fellows are pleased to announce the second EIBA Fellows Research Award for a Promising Young Scholar in International Business. The first Award was made in 2005, for the academic year 2005-06. The winner of the Young Scholar's award will receive Euros 15,000. The purpose of this award is to help to broaden the research programme of promising younger scholars in the international business field, to widen their network of research contacts and open a new research collaboration for them at an early stage of their academic careers, and to enhance the formation of international research exchange arrangements amongst international business scholars. The award is given for the conduct of some specified piece of original research in a new host institution, and not for the completion of any coursework requirements. Currently registered doctoral students who are working on an international business topic, or those that have successfully defended such theses within the last three years (since March 2005), are eligible to apply.  The award represents a contribution towards the living expenses of the recipient, and is to be paid directly to the awardee.

      Applications should be made by doctoral or recent post-doctoral candidates themselves, but they should be supported by a proposed supervisor (in the doctoral case) or local coordinator (in the post-doctoral case) of the intended research that holds a faculty appointment in a host institution that is located outside the country of the home institution with which the candidate is currently affiliated. The host institution cannot be the university at which the candidate is or was registered for a PhD. The host institution should further list the names of all its existing faculty that are likely to be involved in supporting the project locally. The host institution also needs to supply an assurance that they support the application, and if successful, that they will provide the necessary office, computing and library facilities to the candidate to enable the proposed research project to proceed, and the funding of any other such additional project-related support that they (the host institution) deem to be necessary. The supervisor/local coordinator will be responsible for ensuring that all the local research facilities listed are provided, and encouraging a positive interaction between the awardee and local faculty. Currently registered doctoral students should also have the support of their own PhD supervisor on behalf of the home institution at which they are registered for a PhD. Projects should be of up to one year's duration, for a period to be specified and to run during the academic year 2008-09 (or as close to that year as is feasible). The successful candidate will be expected to make reference to the support of the award in all publications that directly result from the visiting year abroad.

      Candidates are asked to submit a research proposal on a form that will be provided upon request, which includes the outline of a project that can be reasonably undertaken within a year. The outline of the proposed project should be contained in a maximum of 5 pages (not including bibliography), and must include the following sections: (i) specific aims; (ii) theoretical and empirical relevance (the body of literature to which the project most relates); (iii) methodology; (iv) hypotheses or expected findings; (v) significance for your longer term objectives, and plans for dissemination; (vi) advantages of the proposed collaboration and host institution for the conduct of this project; and (vii) bibliography. The evaluation process will include an assessment of the value and feasibility of the project itself, as well as the capabilities of the candidate, and the capacity of the supervisor/local coordinator and host institution to support the proposed research. Therefore, applicants need to work together with the proposed supervisor/local coordinator at this early stage to devise a project that will be a good fit from both sides. At the conclusion of the award, the recipient is required to provide the Fellows with a report of the progress made on the project, the key findings, an evaluation of the collaboration and an indication of any unanticipated difficulties that were encountered. Proposals will be considered by a committee of the EIBA Fellows that will be established for this purpose. The committee expects to reach its decision by 1st May 2008. Proposals should be sent by the deadline to the Dean of the EIBA Fellows, Professor Klaus Macharzina <kmach3@aol.com>, from whom an application form can be obtained.

      The closing date for applications is: 31st March 2008

       

7. Awards

   1. IBR Best Paper Award 2006 

      by Pervez Ghauri

      For the first time in the annual conference in Fribourg Switzerland, the best paper award was awarded to M.J. Mol, R.J.M. Tulder and P.R. Beije for their paper, “Antecedents and Performance Consequences of International Outsourcing”, 2005. The award includes a certificate for each author and a cheque of one thousand Euros, a contribution by Elsevier Science Limited. The winners received the award from the Editor of the International Business Review, Professor Pervez Ghauri, in the gala dinner. This will be a permanent feature in future conferences.
      
      The best paper was selected by a committee of three EIBA board members; Professor Ulf Andersson, Uppsala University, Sweden; Professor Torben Pedersen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and Professor Alain Verbeke, University of Calgary, Canada. The committee went through all the papers published in 2005 and first short-listed three possible winners before deciding on the winner. Criteria such as; quality and potential future impact on the field of international business research together with citations and number of downloads were used while selecting the winner. All papers published during the year 2006, will be considered for the next years award to be given in the next conference in Catania.

       

   2. Awards attributed in Fribourg 

      7 prizes were awarded  during the the Gala dinner  in Fribourg on Saturday, December 9, 2006:

      • Distinguished EIBA Honorary Fellow of the Year Award: Karl Sauvant
        
      • Gunnar Hedlund Award:
          Jon Erland Lervik, Lancaster University Management School, United Kingdom “‘Managing Matters -  
          Transfer of Organizational Practices in Multinational Companies”
        
      • Best Thesis Proposal Award:
          Roger Smeets, Radboud University Nijmegent, The Netherlands, “Multinationals and Knowledge
          Spillovers”
        
      • The Copenhagen Prize:
          Christian Schwens & Rüdiger Kabst, University of Giessen, "How early internationalizers learn:  
          Experience of others and paradigms of interpretation"
        
      • IJoEM Best Paper on Emerging Markets Award:
          Christian Bellak & Markus Leibrecht, Vienna University of Economics . “Location Decisions of    
          Multinational Enterprises and the Preconditions for Corporate Income Tax Competition in Europe”
        
      • IMR Best International Marketing Paper Award:
          Susana Cristina Lima Costa e Silva, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, “Empirical test of the trust-
          performance link in international alliances context”
        
      • IBR Best Paper of the Year Award (for the first year):
          Michael Mol, Rob van Tulder, Paul Beije (2005) “Antecedents and performance consequences of 
          international outsourcing" 
         

      

      Susana Cristina Lima Costa e Silva and Danny Van Den Bulcke

       

      Karl Sauvant

      

      Torben Pedersen, Christian Schwens and Rüdiger Kabst

8. The Gilleleje Session in Fribourg

   1. Gilleleje revisited: Insiders and outsiders' evaluation of the 'Europe 1992' project 

      by Tamar Almor – The College of Management, Israel

      Between 1990 and 1992 the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) organized three consecutive summer schools which took place in Gilleleje, located at the Northern coast of Denmark.

      The Danish Summer Research Institute (DSRI) was organized by Lauge Stetting, Art Stonehill, John Dunning and Christian Nielsen, who were able to obtain funding from the (then) EEC in order to allow senior and junior scholars to get together and study the benefits of the "Europe 1992" project.

      

      From left to right: Torben Pedersen, Lars Oxelheim, Trond Randoj, Danny Van den Bulcke, Krzysztof Obloj, Seev Hirsch, John Dunning, Tamar Almar and Christian Bellak

      In Gilleleje, a remote vacation village, about 40 Ph.D. students and about 40 of their supervisors got together for two weeks during three consecutive summers in order to work together on the Ph.D. studies conducted at the time.  Senior scholars who participated included John Dunning, Lauge Stetting, Art Stonehill, Christian Nielsen, Seev Hirsch, Michael Czinkota, John Daniels, Peter Gray, Gunnar Hedlund, Danny Van Den Bulcke, Duane Kujawa, Donald Lessard, Peter Lorange, Reijo Luostarinen, Lars Oxelheim and Terutomo Ozawa to mention just a few.

      The Ph.D. students that attended DSRI included among others Philippe Gugler, Christian Bellak, Torben Pedersen, Nicole Coviello, Hong Liu, Lyn Amine, Pontus Braunerhjelm, Tamar Almor, Peggy Chaudhry, Dorothee Feils, Ivo Zander, Rebecca Marchan, Carol Howard, Michael Moffett, Rajneesh Narula, Bent Petersen, Trond Randøy, Matija Rojec, Krzysztof Obloj and Steen Thompsen. While presenting lists of names may seem to make for boring reading, it is interesting to see that quite a few of the Ph.D. candidates on the list have become well known scholars within the last fifteen years and some of them have become presidents of EIBA.

      The DSRI created an international academic network and provided a great career start for many of the junior scholars who have become well established researchers in their own right. I would even go so far and say that the DSRI was crucial for the development of the next generation of European IB scholars. In addition, the summer schools created a lot of research and international cooperation, which translated into tens of working papers and a number of books.

      At the 31st EIBA conference, Christian Bellak, Seev Hirsch and I initiated the idea for a panel which eventually was organized by Christian Bellak for the 32nd EIBA conference and which examined the contribution of DSRI and the research questions that were raised at the time.

      One of the research topics at DSRI examined “Outsiders’ Response to European Integration - Implications of the European economic integration for insiders and outsiders." At the time it was argued that the competitive position of outsider countries was expected to be affected adversely by the European integration (EC92). Moreover, it was argued that countries with Small Open Economies (SMOPECs) would be affected less favorably than large countries. Indeed, it was found at the time by Hirsch and Almor, that outsider firms responded to EC92 with increased FDI in the European Union, especially in knowledge-intensive industries where fear of exclusion from “Fortress Europe" was high at the time.

      Over the years many of the SMOPEC outsider countries started to look for ways to join the EU and lower trade barriers through arrangements. While fortress Europe has not materialized, the process of creating a European Union has affected businesses and countries tremendously.

      In the panel, several speakers highlighted various aspects of European integration and non-integration fifteen years after project Europe 1992.

      According to Krzysztof Obloj, joining the EU has created a host of changes in Poland, including an exodus of professionals and a collapse of the health system. Moreover, he argued that the mighty bureaucracy of the EU makes it nearly impossible for Poland to become a true member in terms of values and political discourse.

      Trond Randøy on the other hand, showed that while Norway was much in fear in 1992 of its decision to remain an outsider, it created a process of re-thinking its industry strategy and government policy, thereby becoming a successful outsider country in the 21st century.

      As argued by Torben Pedersen, at the time "project Europe 1992" was the response of European countries to a perceived threat from the US, which created the desire to unite and become a unified market. Fifteen years later, the EU finds itself in need of a strong and unified market again, however, this time in order to meet the Asian challenge from China and India. The question remains if the EU will be able to deal with this challenge or will find that the balance of power will shift to Asia which is able to provide a combination of cheap labor and high education.

      Seev Hirsch from Israel wondered if membership in the EU is still relevant, especially for outsider SMOPECs, considering that nationality of MNCs matters less and their contribution to their home countries is less than it used to be. He presented examples of Nokia and Teva; two firms from SMOPECs that are growing considerably faster outside their home countries. However, Lars Oxelheim showed that membership in the EU has driven inward and outward FDI in Sweden.

      Thus, while "project Europe 1992" was created to deal with certain international business issues, the European Union as well as insider and outsider countries find themselves in a different position than was imagined at the outset of Europe 1992. Still, the impact of the Danish Summer Research Institute at Gilleleje, fifteen years ago, seems to be lasting until today and seems to guide many researchers in their topics of interest also fifteen years later.
      

9. Publications

   1. EIBA's Second Volume in the Annual Book Series 

      FDI, LOCATION AND COMPETITIVENESS
      Editors : John H. DUNNING & Philippe GUGLER

      This second volume of the Annual Book Series ‘Progress in International Business is based on selected papers presented at the 32nd EIBA Conference in Fribourg and  addresses some of the critical issues that are demanding the attention of International Business lecturers and researchers. From several angles, The contributions  by top scholars analyse the factors which might explain, and/or influence, the relationship between the competitiveness of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the countries in which they operate. More particularly,  four main issues are dealt with i.e: the recent advances in the determinants and  the strategies of multinational business activities; the determinants of location competitiveness of countries; the competitiveness of emergent and developing countries and the locational responses of both indigenous and foreign-owned firms; and the policy challenges raised by the highly fragmented, and often uncoordinated international regulatory frameworks for FDI. It is hoped the contents of the volume will be of interest to international business scholars, senior executives of multinational enterprises and national policy makers and will contribute to the advancement of  the competitiveness  of firms by engaging in  successful outward investment, and countries in attracting inward foreign direct investment.

      
      CONTENTS
      LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
      SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE
         Ulf Andersson and Torben Pedersen
      INTRODUCTION
         John H. Dunning and Philippe Gugler

      A. RECENT ADVANCES IN THE DETERMINANTS AND STRATEGY OF MULTINATIONAL BUSINESS ACTIVITY

      MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE, IMPERIALISM AND THE KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN STATE
         Mark Casson, Ken Dark and Mohamed Azzim Gulamhussen

      ARE MULTINATIONALS SUPERIOR OR JUST POWERFUL? A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF THE MNC
         Mats Forsgren

      THE LOCATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN EUROPEAN UNION CORE AND PERIPHERY:  THE INFLUENCE OF MULTINATIONAL STRATEGY
         Dimitra Dimitropoulou, Robert Pearce  and Marina Papanastassiou

      B. DETERMINANTS OF LOCATION COMPETITIVENESS OF COUNTRIES

      SPACE, LOCATION AND DISTANCE IN IB ACTIVITIES: A CHANGING SCENARIO
         John H. Dunning
      MICROECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF LOCATION COMPETITIVENESS FOR MNES
         Christian H. M. Ketels

      CORPORATE INCOME TAXATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE COUNTRIES AND TAX COMPETITION FOR FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
         Christian Bellak and Markus Leibrecht

      C. EMERGENT AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES COMPETITIVENESS AND THE LOCATION OF FIRMS

      LOCATION-SPECIFIC ADVANTAGES AND REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: A STUDY OF FINANCIAL SERVICES MNES IN HONG KONG
         Kirstie Tam, James Newton, Roger Strange and Michael J. Enright

      INSTITUTIONAL REFORM, FDI AND THE LOCATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF EUROPEAN TRANSITION ECONOMIES
         John H. Dunning

      PARTIAL ACQUISITION: THE OVERLOOKED ENTRY MODE
         Kristian Jakobsen and Klaus E. Meyer

      D. TOWARDS A MORE COHERENT INTERNATIONAL POLICY FRAMEWORK ON FDI FOSTERING FIRMS' AND LOCATIONS' COMPETITIVENESS

      GENERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT: DEPARTURE FROM THE INVESTMENT AGREEMENT PATCHWORK
         Philippe Gugler and Vladimir Tomsik

      ACHIEVING A BALANCE IN THE RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS OF FIRMS/COUNTRIES
         Stephen Young and Ana Teresa Tavares-Lehmann

      OUTWARD FDI FROM EMERGING MARKETS: SOME POLICY ISSUES
         Karl Sauvant

      
      SUBJECT INDEX

       

10. Personalia / Careers

    1. John Stopford's Letter to the EIBA 

       

       In an attempt to learn more about the early years of EIBA, I have tried to get some comments from the founding fathers and former Preidents of EIBA. In one of the last issues of EIBAzine Jim Leontiades, the 1st President of EIBA  explained how the  European International Business ‘Association’, as it was called at that time, came about and why EIBA went its separate way.
       
       John Stopford was the 5th President of EIBA and organized the Annual Conference at the London Business School where he was one of the leading scholars. Although he retired a few years ago, his letter shows that he is still very active.

       (Danny Van Den Bulcke)
       

        

       Dear Danny,

       You have asked me to add my thoughts to those of Jim Leontiades about the early days of our Association.  You also asked me to write a bit about what I have been doing in recent years.  I suspect the second question has a more personal angle to it, for you too have retired and are curious about what others have done after severing their formal ties to a university.

       One the first question, I have little to add to Jim’s memory of the early years, other than to emphasise the desire of many of the original members to break the ‘American Hegemony’ of the field.  Even though I was a member of the AIB – and later became one of its Vice-presidents – I was acutely aware that much of what was then deemed to be ‘good’ research in JIBS and other leading journals was US-centric.  We stopped short of founding our own journal, but the early years of EIBA were marked by a flowering of empirical work in Europe. 

       The fifth – I think it was the fifth - annual meeting was held in London when it was my turn to be President.  In addition to the many usual papers, there were several notable reports from various working groups that EIASM had sponsored.  The idea was to produce a distinctively European theory of management.  The working party on which I served was enormously good fun.  We had meetings all over Europe, mixing thought with tourism.  I don’t think we really succeeded in making much progress on the specifically ‘European’ aspects, though we all learned a good deal about the challenges of managing in a very complex environment.

       EIBA’s period of being self-consciously European meant that many of us worked on such books as European Approaches to International Management, which Klaus Macharzina and Wolfgang Staehle edited in 1986.  Yet, the membership was never restricted to Europeans.  Rather it became a most interesting group of internationally minded people working on difficult cross-border issues.  Having started with a need to recognise the different context of Europe and so become separate from the older AIB, EIBA seems to me to have become more relaxed in its relationships.  Many scholars are now members of both and I think we gain from such a cosmopolitan set of relationships.

       As for your second, more personal question, I have been extraordinarily lucky to be able to explore new avenues, building on what I learned from all those decades labouring in the IB field.  IB is special in that it combines perspectives from multiple disciplines affecting both business and government to inform our efforts to construct better theory.  I have long tried to live up to the old adage that there is nothing so practical as a good theory.  Now I have to deliver on that promise both as consultant and as coach. 

       Much of my current portfolio of activities was in place well before I retired.  I was helped in that effort by the fact that my classroom was my laboratory: my clients came to speak; my students went out and did projects with them, and I wrote about both.  I remain active as a consultant to multinationals and governments and still give talks to many different types of audience.  Yet, I wanted to add a new skill and went back to school to train as an executive coach.  I had two reasons.  One was that I had long been advisor to many boards and individual board members of multinationals and was curious to find out whether my instincts had been on the right lines.  The other was that my company, The Learning Partnership, was getting more involved in executive development at senior levels where many firms are beginning to tie coaching to more formal learning.  I felt that, as Chairman, I ought to know what that part of the market wanted.  Now I coach a few CEOs and have great joy doing so.

       Coaching has spurred me to look further into the question of how we can do a better job of delivering executive education.  We need to find ways to do two things together: to teach techniques that can be applied to work; and to build perspective and inspire people to be curious about the world around them as they prepare themselves for greater responsibilities.  Experiments with new combinations of subjects, new technologies of delivery and new types of exercises in partnership with the firms themselves are exciting.  I am convinced it is possible to make executive education a requirement in firms as part of their strategy process, rather than keeping it as a nice-to-have option when times are good.   The complexity and diversity of Europe makes it, I find, the ideal place to live while on this quest.

       So, you see Danny, there is a great deal to do after retirement.  My quest keeps me young – and still travelling - and having fun.

       John Stopford

        

    2. John H. Dunning, EIBA Lifetime's Achievement Award - Part II 

       by Danny Van Den Bulcke

       On behalf of the EIBA members, the EIBA Fellows decided to award  to John Dunning EIBA’s first and only ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his influential contributions to International Business. The award was presented during the Ljubljana Conference in December 2004.
       
       The description of the following stages of John Dunning’s career are based on his own article in the Journal of International Business Studies, 2004, No 4,  with the title: ‘Perspectives on International Business Research: A Professional Autobiography Fifty Years Researching and Teaching International Business’. The following  is a shortened and slightly adapted version of the JIBS paper which was written in the first person.

       Nicole Coopman and John Dunning
       EIBA Conference Oslo 2005

       The decennia from the 1950s to the 1970s were discussed in the 2006 October Issue of EIBAzine. The 1980s and 1990s are presented in this  issue as the second part of John Dunning’s long career. It is hoped that he will accept to write out his experiences during the first decennium of the new millennium and update the conclusions of his JIBS article - which are not included in the following  adaptation of his original paper –  as a third part for the next issue of EIBAzine.

       John Dunning has been an important contributor to EIBA conferences for almost as many years as EIBA exists. Yet, it would  seem that he was even more active in EIBA during the last few years, e.g. as Dean of the Fellows of EIBA as well as member and organizer of plenary sessions and special panels. He also was a Faculty member of the EIBA Tutorial and the Hedlund Award for the Best Doctoral Thesis during most of the years of the existenxce of these activities.
       
       
       THE 1980s: A MORE INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE

       For much of the 1980s, John Dunning’s  contribution to IB scholarship continued to take the economic perspective and use the analytical tools of the economist. His closest collaborators in jointly authored publications were also economists. He remained Head of the Department of Economics at Reading until 1987, but only towards the end of his  tenure, did the teaching of management related topics (apart from finance and accounting) enter into the curriculum. It was not until 1981 that he attended the first annual meetingof the Academy of International Business (AIB) in Montreal. As a result of this meeting and many others which followed, he  gradually came to appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of international business. Indeed, as Jack Behrman has pointed out, the distinctive feature of IB as an area of study rests precisely on an appreciation of how different cultures, political systems, and exchange rate policies affect our understanding of the cross border decision taking of firms and the environment in which they operate.

       In 1986, with Art Stonehill, he helped organize the annual conference of the AIB in London—the first time it had been convened outside the U.S.  For this meeting the disciplinary compass of the programme was extended to include sessions on international business history, economic geography and political science. Since then, he tried to broaden the lens of IB scholars to embrace these and other related subjects not normally taught in business schools.

       In a book published in 1988, he tried to convey some of the multi-disciplinary richness of IB as an area of study; and, while accepting the unidisciplinary bias of our training and scholarly perspective, pleaded that it  should be better recognised that we are part of a complex mosaic of understanding of how, why, where, and by what means corporations cross national boundaries and their impact on the economies in which they operate. In the last decade, or more, he stressed the need for a closer and  broad-based interdisciplinary approach in furthering scholarly research in IB.

       John Dunning ‘s research interests in the 1980s were largely devoted to exploring two new areas of IB activity and in initiating an exercise in data gathering. First, his work for the UNCTC focused on the determinants of MNE activity in the service sector—a previously neglected area of interest in the literature. In particular, he was given the enviable task of exploring the role of MNEs in the international tourist industry, which naturally required him to do some field research in some of the more exotic locations in the world! He  also became interested in the reasons why and where MNEs established regional offices. Second, in 1984, he was commissioned by the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry to undertake a study on the role of Japanese manufacturing affiliates in the U.K. At the time, there were only 26 of these, but more were expected to enter Europe in the following decade, and the U.K. government was anxious to attract as many of these as possible. He found that with a few exceptions, which were primarily of a culture-specific nature, the perceptions of the managers of the Japanese affiliates, and those of their suppliers, customers and competitors in the U.K., on the impact of this new form of inbound MNE activity were exactly the same as those identified in his study on U.S. FDI in the U.K. 30 years earlier.

       His  foray into data gathering and interpretation arose from his  dissatisfaction with the published statistics in FDI anMNE activity. Earlier in the 1970s, he analyzed, together with Robert Pearce, the industrial, geographical and growth patterns of over 800 of the largest industrial corporations listed by Fortune (Dunning and Pearce, 1975, 1981). Also , jointly with John Stopford and Klaus Haberich, and with the cooperation of the firms in question, he edited the first edition of The World Directory of Multinational Enterprises, which contained detailed company profiles of each of some 430 major MNEs. At the same time, with  John Cantwell he embarked on an ambitious project for the Geneva based Institute for Research, and Information on Multinationals (IRM) to assemble and present as much statistical data as possible on the level, structure and growth of inbound and outbound FDI in some 80 countries. Subsequent and enlarged editions of this directory were produced and published by UNCTAD in a series of World Investment Directories.

       Three other inter-related events of the mid 1980s are worth mentioning, which, to some extent at least, reoriented Professor Dunning’s career path in the years that followed. The first was a request by the UNCTC to prepare a syllabus on the role of TNCs in economic development, that would form the basis of intensive courses for teachers of international and development economics in the Asian and Pacific region and later on in Lesotho. The fact that there was no contemporary comprehensive text on the economic role of MNEs in the global economy, prompted him  to write up his  notes into a fully fledged monograph. It was made possible to continue this line of research was made possible in 1986 when, as a direct result of an article he had earlier penned in Lloyds Bank Review — at the time, one of the U.K.’s most popular and respected applied economics journals —caught the attention of the then Chairman of Imperial Chemicals Industry (ICI), John (later Sir John) Harvey Jones. The  ICI Chairman believed that there was an inadequate appreciation and understanding by governments of the implications of the growing interdependence of the world economy and of how inward and outward MNE activity might aid the restructuring and competitiveness of national economies, and he offered to finance a four year Research Professorship in International Business at the University of Reading that allowed John Dunning  to concentrate his research efforts in this particular area.

       In 1986 he was asked to consider a Seth Boyden Visiting Professorship of International Business at Rutgers University, USA, for a period of 12-18 months, which allowed him to solve a dilemma about his retirement and  pension from the University of Reading in 1992. The timing of the visit to the U.S. was also propitious, because in 1986 he was elected President of the AIB for the two years 1987-8.

       At the end of 1986,  he resigned the Headship of the Department of Economics after serving in that capacity for 23 years. During that time the Department had not only become the largest in the University (in terms of numbers of students and faculty), but one of the most respected in institutional and applied economics and one of the top research and graduate teaching centers in the economics of FDI and MNE activity.  Mainly due to the efforts of Mark Casson, John Cantwell, Geoffrey Jones and Bob Pearce, it further expanded in the 1990s, and became one of the largest and most prestigious of its kind in Europe.

       
       THE 1990S: THE RUTGERS YEARS

       According to John Dunning serendipity has always played an important role in his academic career. His  appointment at the University of Reading, when there were several equally strong contenders for the post; the invitation in 1972 to serve on the UN Group of Eminent Persons, (sparked off,  by a 10 minute presentation he  gave at a conference at Dusseldorf at which Philip de Seynes was present); the lunchtime meeting with John Harvey Jones in 1986; and a friendly conversation with Farok Contractor in the same year. He feels that these events all led to important watersheds in his career.

       He left England for  Rutgers University in New Jersey in January 1987,  to teach an MBA and two Ph.D. courses in international business although at the time there was no specialist concentration in this subject. Dean, David Blake, was determined to encourage this as part of a wider effort to internationalize the curriculum and research agenda.

       In the Spring of 1989, the Dean  of the Graduate School of Management offered him  one of the chairs at Rutgers. However, as he did not want to emigrate to the U.S., but  he ptoposed  to spend every other calendar year at Rutgers, initially for a period of five years. The Dean agreed to this suggestion, and so began an eleven-year fruitful association with the Faculty of Management at the Newark Campus of the University. John Dunning  quickly got the Ph.D. program under way, and by the time he  resigned from Rutgers in 2000, 16 of  his  students had already obtained their doctorates.

       By early 1992 he had completed the manuscript of Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy. It was published by the U.K. arm of Addison-Wesley in January 1993. He  then proceeded to direct his  research to another of the earlier interests of ICI—that is, the interaction between MNEs and governments in upgrading the productivity and promoting the structural transformation of the indigenous resources and capabilities within the latter’s domain. More generally, the early 1990s witnessed a reappraisal of the significance and tasks of national and subnational governments, as economies were becoming more knowledge-based and internationalized. In particular, governments were then being increasingly perceived as market-facilitating entities in an innovation-led globalizing economy. This being so, economists and others were giving increasing attention to the ways in which
       national and/or regional administrations might upgrade their location-specific assets to attract and retain more global business.

       Funded by a grant from the Carnegie Bosch Institute, he organized a workshop at Georgetown University in Washington in 1994 at which the topic of Governments, Globalization and International Business was discussed by a group of senior political scientists, strategic analysts and economists. Among the scholars participating were Richard Lipsey, Michael Porter, Susan Strange, Stephen Kobrin, Sanjaya Lall, John Stopford and Bruce McKern; and a volume based upon the workshop was published by Oxford University Press in 1997. A subsequent volume, which was an outcome of a conference held at Rutgers University in 1998, and attended by economists, regional geographers and business strategists on Regions, Globalization and the Knowledge Based Economy, was published under Dunning’s  editorship in 2000.

       As the 1990s progressed John H. Dunning , like other scholars,  became increasingly conscious that some of the extant explanations for the presence and growth of MNE activity were no longer persuasive. In particular, the then-occurring merger and acquisition (M & A) boom, which primarily involved firms located in the Triad of North America, Western Europe and Japan, was causing scholars to reappraise the motives for FDI. Earlier in his 1993 book, he  had introduced the concept of strategic asset-seeking FDI—namely, MNE activity designed not to exploit the existing competitive advantages of the investing firms, but rather to protect such advantages or acquire new ones. This idea was subsequently taken up by a number of scholars later in the decade, and there was a good deal of empirical research—including  e.g. Dunning (1997), on the extent to which firms perceive their competitive advantages are enhanced as a direct result of their foreign owned activities, and, in particular, the contribution of their affiliates. At the same time, it was also becoming clear that global economic and political events were compelling corporations to engage in an increasing range of cooperative relationships, both along and between value chains. What implications did this have for the theories about the causes and consequences of international production, and particularly that of the resource based theory of the (international) firm? This idea of “alliance capitalism,” first put forward by Michael Gerlach (1992) to explain the Japanese brand of capitalism, became a major inspiration for his work in the 1990s (see particularly Dunning, 1997), and continuesto interest him today.
        
       Throughout the 1990s, John Dunning  continued to play an active consultancy role in UNCTAD and other international organizations, notably OECD and the European Commission. His  duties at UNCTAD included the general editorship of a 20 volume series on Transnational Corporations and Economic Development. The idea of this venture was to reproduce some of the seminal contributions to our understanding of the different aspects of MNE activity over the past three decades or so with especial reference to its consequences for developing countries. More recently, his  task at UNCTAD has been to give general advice on the contents and form of the annual World Investment Reports.

       In 1992, he officially retired from the University of Reading, but continued his biannual visits to Rutgers. Between 1992 and 2002, Rutgers’ Ph.D. students produced three books and over 50 single or jointly authored articles or chapters in books. In broad terms, such publications had three major themes: (i) MNEs, governments and structural transformation, (ii) the internationalization of services and (iii) strategic alliances and cross-border knowledge transfers.

       The geographical radius of John Dunning’s international travel also widened in the 1990s; as he also spent as much time in Asia and the Pacific — notably Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Republic of China, and Australia — as he  did on the European Continent. Most of these visits to the East were associated with his  advisory work for UNCTAD and other UN agencies and to present papers at conferences and symposia, or to lecture and advise Faculty and students at universities. At the same time, the focus of his  research and consultancy continued to remain in Europe and North America. In the mid-1990s, for example, he co-ordinated a large-scale research project for his  London-based consultancy — EAG — on the consequences of the completion of the European Internal Market on both extra and intra EC FDI. This work was later published by the European Commission (1998).  He finally revisited and updated his  first book, American Investment in British Manufacturing Industry. The wheel of his scholarly endeavours had, indeed, turned full circle.

       Towards the end of the 1990s, his research interests underwent a major shift. In his  quasi-retirement he  was looking for a way to combine his  accumulated professional expertise with his Christian beliefs. John Dunning was brought up in a Baptist family — both his  father and uncle were Baptist ministers — and the moral principles and behavioral patterns taught  by his parents, and his faith, have stood him – based on his own saying - in good stead throughout his  life.When he realised that the emergence of globalcapitalism, though fostered primarily by technological, economic and political imperatives, was posing huge moral challenges, if it was to be both socially acceptable and geographically inclusive.

       In December 1998, he  organized a plenary session at the annual conference of the European International Business Academy (EIBA) in Jerusalem at which he offered a Christian perspective of the challenges of global capitalism, alongside Jewish and Muslim speakers who set out their own views. The interest that this special session generated among his colleagues, together with the rising criticism of globalization and global capitalism in the mid- to late- 1990s, prompted him  to think more seriously about the moral ecology of the economic and social systems now emerging in the world economy.
       

11. EIBA among EIASM's Associations

    1. EIBA among EIASM's Associations 

       by Danny Van Den Bulcke

       Most members of EIBA are aware of the fact that the secretarial work is ‘outsourced’ to the European Institute of Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM). The Executive Secretary of EIBA, Nicole Coopman, belongs to EIASM, just like her predecessor, Gerry Van Dyck – who followed EIBA from its early years until the middle of the 1990s – and Marion Hebbelynck, who is in charge of the doctoral tutorials. The staff of EIASM takes care of six other European  academic associations which are active in the domain of business and management, i.e. EAA (European Accounting Association), EARIE (European Association for Research in Industrial Economics), EFA (European Finance Association), EMAC (European Marketing Academy), EURAM (European Academy of Management),  EUROMA (European Operations Management Association) and EDAMBA (European Doctoral Programmes Association in Management and Business Administration) .

       In November 2005 EIASM for the first time held a meeting about the rationalization of conference organization to which the presidents or chairpersons of the seven associations were invited. The purpose of the meeting was to stress the importance of collaboration and networking between associations. One of EIASM’s aims is to bring the different networks closer and create a ‘network of networks’. The collaboration among the academic associations was situated at three different levels: the sharing of services and administration, the sharing of best practices by mutual learning and content generation by interdisciplinary activities and possible participation in EIASM’s scientific committee.

       In March 2006 and May 2007, a second and third follow up meeting took place in Brussels.  Like before a number of common issues were discussed such as: the annual conferences (organisation, quality level, fees, format, no shows, copyright, sponsorship), the membership (development, retention, fee collection), the house journal (relationships with publishers, quality of papers, ranking/positioning), etc. The topics that were dealt with in this third meeting consisted of the presentation of EIASM’s product portfolio and its services to the associations, the administrative role of EIASM, the collaborations and exchanges among the associations and the academic activities beyond administrative support.

       While these deliberations cannot be reported in detail here, it might be interesting for EIBA members to situate our organization in comparison with the European ‘sister’ associations for some basic criteria. The enclosed table, where EIBA is mentioned right in the middle, shows a.o. that our academy was one of the first associations established in 1974 and that in terms of membership we are one of the smallest ones, based on figures for 2006 and the beginning of 2007. While EIBA, given the limitations of its interdisciplinary character is doing relatively well, these facts and figures should not be interpreted as if we cannot learn from other academic associations, even when they have many more members and benefit from important sponsorships which are out of reach for us.

       

        

12. Call for Papers

    1. About the AIB Conference 2008 in Milan  

       Over the years several EIBA members have been and are active in the Academy of International Business. Udo Zander was Vice President of AIB and was Programme Chair of the Conference in Monterey, California a few years ago. This time John Cantwell, who was EIBA President in 1992, will be in charge of the Milan Conference as Vice President of AIB and Programme Chair. This will only be the 5th time that AIB will meet in Europe: London (1986), Brussels (1992), Vienna (1994) and Stockholm (1998). John wrote this special announcement and invitation to the AIB Milan conference for the EIBA members. (Danny Van Den Bulcke)

       by John Cantwell

       EIBA members will be pleased to learn that next year, in 2008, the AIB conference will be held in Europe for the fifth time (following in the footsteps of London, Brussels, Vienna and Stockholm), and it will take place in Italy for the first time. It will be in Milan, where the local organisers are from Bocconi University - and the meeting itself will be held in Bocconi. The conference will be from June 30th to July 1st, so the timing in the summer should make it feasible to attend both the AIB and EIBA conferences in Europe in the same year.

       I will be the Program Chair for the conference, and you will find further information from the conference website at:

       http://aib.msu.edu/events/2008/

       The conference website will be open for online submissions (all submissions of papers and panel proposals must be made online) from December 1st, 2007. The submission deadline is January 15th, 2008. Some of our track chairs that are also EIBA members include Torben Pedersen, Mats Forsgren, Rebecca Piekkari, Lucia Piscitello and Simon Collinson. The theme for the conference will be: Knowledge Development and Exchange in International Business Networks. Some further explanation of this theme follows. I hope to see you all there!

       Until quite recently, research on international business was mainly about the multinational corporation (MNC), as a firm. An early focus in the international business field was on why previously purely national firms established subsidiaries abroad, and thus became MNCs. Subsequently, this led international business researchers to concentrate on the theoretical question 'why does the MNC exist?'. To answer this question more readily, a clear and sharp distinction was drawn between the apparently purely hierarchical coordination of economic activity within the firm (by the MNC, across national boundaries), and the apparently purely non-hierarchical coordination of activity between firms or between firms and other actors, at arm's length through market relationships. More recently, attention shifted to the role of the MNC as a continuous creator of knowledge, both at home and in its foreign operations. Partly as a result of this work on international networks for knowledge creation or innovation, it has become apparent that such international business networks frequently need to be comprised and to connect both internal MNC networks (usually, across national borders) and various kinds of inter-firm networks (often within some local or regional geographical area).

       A key theme of the conference is to shed further light on both intra-firm and inter-firm networks for knowledge development and exchange, and the sometimes complex and potentially conflictual relationships between such intra-MNC and inter-firm knowledge networks. This theme relates to quite a wide variety of issues. One issue is the emergence and gradual spread of a wider range of local internal subsidiary creativity, and how this affects the relative roles of knowledge exchange within the MNC's own international network, and exchange with other actors in the subsidiary's local network. In the case of the MNC's own international network this may include managing the challenges posed by the cross-country coordination of knowledge creation and exchange, as well as those raised by an increased potential for inter-subsidiary competition for mandates. Another issue is the rise of so-called vertical specialization in some industries, with its implied shift towards inter-firm network relationships, and whether this has been associated with a decline in the unitary pyramid-like structure of organizational hierarchy in the coordination of activity in the MNC. A further related issue is the role of entrepreneurial flagship firms in initiating and crafting market-based inter-firm networks (of subcontractors, suppliers and distributors), and not just in planning and coordinating economic activity within the auspices of the firm itself considered in isolation.

       A further set of issues refer to the changing nature of knowledge creation and exchange as such. These include the increasing complexity and interdisciplinarity (cross-field character) of systems for knowledge creation, and the implications for the more intensive business-to-business cross-licensing of knowledge as a necessary complement of internal knowledge creation within the MNC. With respect to the MNC's own activity there is an interest in the increasing role of knowledge-seeking and competence-creating knowledge search or exploration activities as a goal in internationalization processes. These issues are surely not confined to MNCs in manufacturing industry, but include (among others) those in knowledge-intensive services such as banking. Contributions that address these issues are especially encouraged as submissions for the conference.

        

    2. Journal of Management Studies: Special Issue 

       Special Issue Call for Papers
       Offshoring & Outsourcing: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High-Value Company Functions
        

       Submission Deadline: June 15, 2008

       Most companies have traditionally performed the bulk of their high-value functions within their home nation in which the parent firm is located. It was believed that the competitive advantage of a firm resided in its "core" activities, and that these should be kept in-house in order to foster future capabilities and to protect key knowledge from leakage to competitors. Examples of core or "high value" functions include Research and Development (R&D), critical IT designs, and proprietary processes. Companies are now considering the relocation of even more types of high-value activities to (a) foreign locations ("Offshoring") and/or (b) to external service providers or alliance partners ("Outsourcing"). A JMS Special Issue seeks to identify the factors that determine the mix, or spread, of global high-value operations over in-house versus external vendors - and in geographical terms, the proportion of home nation activities, versus those undertaken in foreign countries.

       Types of Papers for the Special Issue
       Both empirical as well as theory-building papers will be considered. As this topic lies at the intersection of several scholarly domains, papers can draw from several fields, such as Organization Theory, Strategy, International Business, and Technology & Innovation Management. However, aspects of the phenomenon can also encompass other areas such as Entrepreneurship, Operations Research and Organizational Behaviour.

       Guest Editors
       Farok J. Contractor (farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu) Rutgers University
       Vikas Kumar (vikas.kumar@unibocconi.it) Bocconi University
       Sumit K. Kundu (kundus@fiu.edu) Florida International University
       Torben Pedersen (tp.smg@cbs.dk) Copenhagen Business School

       Guidelines and Timeline
       All manuscripts should be prepared according to JMS guidelines for authors (See www.blackwellpublishing.com/jms ). Submissions will be double-blind reviewed following the journal’s normal review processes and criteria.
       Please submit manuscripts in electronic form to jms.smg@cbs.dk

       Deadline for papers for JMS Special Issue: June 15 2008
       Final decision on acceptances for JMS Special Issue: August 15 2009

       For the full call for papers, visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/jms

       Conference at SDA Bocconi, April 23 – 24, 2008
       A conference on this theme will be held at SDA Bocconi, Milan, on April 23 and 24, 2008. For further information please contact ConferenceApril2008@Business.Rutgers.edu
       or visit http://business.rutgers.edu/default.aspx?id=1482

       The JMS Special Issue and the conference are not related. Attendance at the conference is neither required in order to submit papers for the Special Issue, nor will any additional consideration be given to conference participants.

       Submissions to the JMS Special Issue will be treated entirely independently, in accordance with JMS guidelines and will be subject to the normal blind refereeing process.

        

    3. 5th Annual JIBS Paper Development Workshop 

       Fifth Annual JIBS Paper Development Workshop
       Academy of International Business Annual Meetings, Milan, Italy
       Monday, June 30, 2008

       
       The Fifth Annual JIBS Paper Development Workshop (PDW) will be held in Milan, Italy, from 7:30 am to 1:00 pm on Monday, June 30, 2008, as part of the pre-conference program for the AIB annual meetings. The PDW organizer is Laszlo Tihanyi (Texas A&M). The Workshop is being sponsored by the Texas A&M and South Carolina CIBERs and the Academy of International Business.

       The purpose of the workshop is to provide participants with detailed feedback on their work prior to submission to the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) and other journals that publish high-quality international business research. Almost 40 JIBS editors and members of the Consulting Editors Board (CEB) and Editorial Review Board (ERB) have already agreed to participate --  the largest group of JIBS editors ever assembled for a Paper Development Workshop.

       We are inviting original papers from junior faculty members who have not previously published in JIBS. While papers from advanced doctoral students are also welcome, the workshop is primarily designed for junior faculty. In particular, we hope to attract papers from junior scholars who are:

       • Located in universities in emerging/transition economies, or in universities that that offer limited support for international research, or where international business studies has limited support; or
       • Trained in other disciplines (e.g., political science, organizational behavior), but would like to reorient themselves so they can conduct and publish international business research.

       Because of the location of the 2008 AIB Meeting, we particularly want to attract submissions from scholars in the European Union and surrounding countries that are underrepresented in JIBS and AIB.

       The PDW will be structured to provide feedback to authors of two types of papers: Advanced Papers and Paper Ideas. The program will start at 7:30 am with an introductory session for everyone led by the JIBS editorial team (http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/editors/editors.html#eden-l). The participants will then split into two groups. Authors of Advanced Papers will be paired with ERB and CEB guest editors for two rounds of one-on-one discussions where the guest editor will provide the author with comments on improving his/her paper.  At the same time, authors with Paper Ideas will attend a panel led by JIBS editors on successful publication strategies. After a break, all participants will split into multiple small-group sessions consisting of JIBS editors, guest editors and authors. In each session, authors of Paper Ideas will each briefly present their idea and receive feedback from their group. The workshop will conclude with a wrap-up session for everyone, led by the JIBS editors, and followed by a lunch for all the participants. The PDW will conclude at 1 p.m.

       We expect to include 30 Advanced Papers and 20 Paper Ideas in the workshop. Both types of papers should be submitted electronically to Deanna Johnston, JIBS Editorial Assistant (jibsae@mays.tamu.edu) with “PDW submission” in the subject line.  The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2008.  Advanced Papers must be less than 10,000 words in length, and follow the JIBS Style Guide (http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/style_guide.html).  Please include three keywords that best describe your paper.  Paper Ideas should be about two pages in length and include a theoretical framework, propositions and proposed research design. Participants will be notified about the acceptance of their submission no later than March 1, 2008.  Authors will need to confirm their participation and submit final papers by March 31, 2008. All papers will be posted online for downloading no later than three weeks before the PDW.

       Please note:

       • The JIBS PDW is not open to registrants for other pre-conference AIB programs running simultaneously with the workshop, including the AIB Doctoral and Junior Faculty Consortia. This restriction applies to both authors and guest editors. 
       • All participants must be present for the whole PDW (7:30 am-1:00 pm) on Monday June 30.  If you are flying from North America, you will need to leave June 28 in order to arrive in Milan on June 29 so you can attend the Workshop on June 30. Please make your hotel accommodations and flight arrangements with these dates in mind.
       • Because the PDW ends at 1:00 pm, participants will have the afternoon open for other activities (sightseeing, meeting with co-authors). The regular AIB conference activities begin late afternoon.

       We believe the Fifth Annual JIBS Paper Development Workshop will provide intensive and useful feedback for authors, and facilitate networking between authors and the JIBS editors and guest editors. We hope to see you there!

       Please address any questions to:

       Laszlo Tihanyi
       JIBS PDW Organizer
       Associate Professor
       Dept of Management
       TAMU 4221
       Texas A&M University
       College Station, TX 77843-4221
       ltihanyi@tamu.edu

       Lorraine Eden
       Editor-in-Chief
       Journal of International Business Studies
       Department of Management
       TAMU 4221
       Texas A&M University
       College Station, TX 77843-4221
       editor-in-chief@jibs.net