Calls for papers

 

European Journal of International Management

 

Special Issue on: "The Foreign Investment Decision Process in Times of Digital Transformation: A tribute to Yair Aharoni"

Guest Editors:
Prof. Tamar Almor, The College of Management Academic Studies, Israel
Prof. Barbara Jankowska, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poland
Prof. Pantea Foroudi, Middlesex University, UK
Prof. Svetla Trifonova Marinova, Aalborg University Business School, Denmark

This special issue aims to commemorate the lifelong academic contributions of Professor Yair Aharoni.

Yair was one of the founders of international business (IB) research. He was a humble man and an outstanding scholar. He was a prominent Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB) and member of the European International Business Academy (EIBA) and Israel Prize recipient. Yair Aharoni's extensive scientific oeuvre includes a large array of papers, books, and chapters. His thinking was innovative, reflective, and insightful outlining unexplored paths for future research. Although Yair's academic work was mostly published in the 20th century, it is still shaping IB behavioural research and has relevance for emerging streams of research such as value co-creation and internationalisation in the digital era.

We invite papers that reflect on the impact and conceptual significance of Yair's 1966 publication "The Foreign Investment Decision Process" and his contribution to knowledge analysing the globalisation of the service industry. We welcome a wide range of submissions that examine Yair Aharoni's work in the context of the current digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).

A business transformation is taking place which is based on the fusion of digital technologies with conventional manufacturing and the growing role of services in the economy (Acquila-Natale and Chaparro-Peláez, 2020; Banalieva and Dhanaraj, 2019; González-Porras et al., 2019; Hennart, 2019; Bauer et al., 2015; Herman et al., 2015; Manyika et al., 2016, Smit et al., 2016; Schuh et al., 2014; Roblek et al., 2016). Industry 4.0 rests on nine technological advances - big data and analytics, autonomous robots, simulation, horizontal and vertical system integration, the industrial internet of things, cybersecurity, cloud, additive manufacturing 3D, and augmented reality.

The digital revolution is reshaping business landscapes and models, modifying and changing business processes within companies, as well as the decision-making processes within firms. Establishment and management of a new generation of global value chain networks (Zheng and Wu, 2017; Horváth, and Szabó, 2019; Lew and Liu, 2016) include complex, sophisticated, and challenging foreign investment decisions of companies (Doz, 2016; Gertsen and Zølner, 2014; Gurkov and Morley, 2017; Halaszovich, 2020; Kiel et al., 2017; Müller et al., 2018). This area decision-making was in the spotlight of Yair Aharoni's research to whom we dedicate this special issue. Yair's doctoral thesis "The Foreign Investment Decision Process" from 1966 was the first to present a behavioural decision-making model and explain the foreign investment decision as a multifaceted social process that is influenced by social relations within and outside the firm. His work paved the way for subsequent research regarding the foreign direct investment decision-making process.

As a result of Industry 4.0, many countries are shifting from economies based on goods to economies based on knowledge and ideas. Lower trade barriers and fragmented production processes allow service companies to internationalize. MNEs are important drivers of the globalisation of knowledge and the consequent increase of internationalization of services. As Aharoni (2000) argues "these firms have not only become powerful repositories of knowledge, but mainly an effective agent of the creation of new knowledge and the transfer of existing one" (p. 102). The role of services for economies was discussed by Yair Aharoni in various books that he edited, including Aharoni, Y. (ed.) Coalitions and Competition: The Globalization of Professional Business Services, Routledge, 1993, Aharoni (Ed.) Changing Roles of State Intervention in Services in an Era of Open International Markets (ed.), SUNY Press, 1997, and Aharoni, Y and Lilach Nachum (Eds.) Globalisation of Services. Some Implications for Theory and Practice, Routledge, 2000, as well as in The Organization of Global Service MNEs, International Studies of Management and Organization, 1996, Vol.26, No.2, pp.6-23. His arguments regarding these processes are still valid and inspiring.

References:
Acquila-Natale, E., and Chaparro-Peláez, J. (2020) The long road to omni-channel retailing: an assessment of channel integration levels across fashion and apparel retailers. European Journal of International Management, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 999-1023.
Aharoni (Ed.) (1997) Changing Roles of State Intervention in Services in an Era of Open International Markets (ed.), SUNY Press.
Aharoni, Y. (1966) The Foreign investment decision process. the Harvard University Press, Boston.
Aharoni, Y. (1996) The Organization of Global Service MNES, International Studies of Management and Organization, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 6-23.
Aharoni, Y. (2000) Globalization and the Small, Open Economy. In T. Almor and N. Hashai (Eds.) FDI, International Trade and the Economics of Peacemaking. The College of Management, Rishon Lezion, Israel.
Aharoni, Y. (ed.) (1993) Coalitions and Competition: The Globalization of Professional Business Services, Routledge, London.
Aharoni, Y. and Lilach Nachum (Eds.) (2000) Globalisation of Services. Some Implications for Theory and Practice, Routledge, London.
Aharoni, Y., Tihanyi, L., and Connelly, B. L. (2011) Managerial decision-making in international business: A forty-five-year retrospective. Journal of World Business, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 135-142.
Banalieva, E.R., and Dhanaraj, C. (2019) Internalization Theory for the Digital Economy, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 50 No. 8, pp. 1372–1387.
Bauer, W., Hämmerle, M., Schlund, S., and Vocke, C. (2015) Transforming to a Hyper-connected Society and Economy – Towards an "Industry 4.0.", Procedia Manufacturing, Vol. 3, pp. 417-424.
Gertsen, M. C., and Zølner, M. (2014) Being a 'modern Indian' in an offshore centre in Bangalore: cross-cultural contextualisation of organisational identification. European Journal of International Management, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 179-204.
González-Porras, J., Ruiz-Alba, J., and Guzmán-Parra, V. (2019) International management of customer orientation. European Journal of International Management. https://doi.org/10.1504/EJIM.2020.10022183 Gurkov, I., and Morley, M. J. (2017) Divinity rules: towards a revised typology of multinational corporate parenting styles. European Journal of International Management, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 490-510.
Halaszovich, T. F. (2020) When foreignness becomes a liability: the effects of flawed institutional environments on foreign versus domestic firm performance in emerging markets. European Journal of International Management, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 118-143.
Hennart, J. (2019) Digitalized Service Multinationals and International Business Theory, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 50, No. 8, pp. 1388–1400.
Hermann, M., Pentek, T., and Otto, B. (2015) Design Principles for Industrie 4.0 Scenarios: a Literature Review, Working Paper No. 01, Technische Universita¨t Dortmund Fakulta¨t Maschinenbau, Audi Stiftungslehrstuhl Supply Net Order Management, http://www.iim.mb.tu-dortmund.de/cms/de/forschung/Arbeitsberichte/Design-Principles-for-Industrie-4_0-Scenarios.pdf (September 10, 2020).
Horváth, D., and Szabó, R. Z. (2019) Driving Forces and Barriers of Industry 4.0: Do Multinational and Small and Medium-sized Companies Have Equal Opportunities? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 146 (Sep), pp. 119-132.
Kiel, D., Arnold, C., and Voigt, K.-I. (2017) The Influence of the Industrial Internet of Things on Business Models of Established Manufacturing Companies – a business level perspective, Technovation, Vol. 68, pp. 4-19.
Lew, Y. K., and Liu, Y. (2016) The contribution of inward FDI to Chinese regional innovation: the moderating effect of absorptive capacity on knowledge spillover. European Journal of International Management, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 284-313.
Manyika, J., Lund, S., Bughin, J., Woetzel, J., Stamenov, K., and Dhingra, D. (2016) Digital Globalization: The New Era of Global Flows, McKinseyGlobal Institute.
Müller, J.M., Buliga, O., and Voigt, K.-I. (2018) Fortune Favors the Prepared: How SMEs Approach Business Model Innovations in Industry 4.0, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 132, pp. 2–17.
Roblek, V., Mes?ko, M., and Krapez?, A. (2016) A Complex View of Industry 4.0, SAGE Open, April–June 2016, pp. 1–11.
Smit, J., Kreutzer, S., Moeller, C., Carlberg, M. (2016) Policy Department A: Economic and Scientific Policy, Industry 4.0, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/570007/IPOL_STU (2016) 570007_EN.pdf (July 5, 2017).
Zheng, M., and Wu, K. (2017) Smart Spare Parts Management Systems in Semiconductor Manufacturing, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 117 No. 4, pp. 754–763.

Subject Coverage
We encourage contributions that will link the topic of foreign investment decision-making with aspects of the digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution. In this way, we hope to build on the foundation provided by Aharoni and extend it to issues relevant today. Bearing in mind the strategic relevance of globalisation, FDI and internationalisation of services, studies explaining how managers decide why, where, and how to engage in foreign direct investment are still current. This SI calls for a better understanding of how managers develop and direct the decision-making process on FDI bridging a company's goals with the dynamic embeddedness of digital contextual challenges.
Submissions may include research at multiple levels of analysis – the individual, the organisation, the industry, or business network. Authors may choose to combine the aspects highlighted by Yair Aharoni with a variety of theoretical and disciplinary approaches to the foreign investment decision process, internationalisation of services, and digital transformation. The suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• How can digital transformation influence foreign direct investment motives among manufacturing and service companies?
• How does digitalisation affect decisions on foreign investment modes of manufacturing and service companies?
• How do Industry 4.0 technologies impact decisions on location of foreign investment by manufacturing and service companies?
• How can digitalisation affect the performance of MNEs and their foreign subsidiaries?
• What is unique about foreign direct investment in the service sector?
• How does the business model of digital service companies affect their internationalisation decision-making process?
• Does the decision-making process on foreign investment mode differ among manufacturing and service companies?
• What is specific about the FDI location choices of manufacturing and service companies?
• What are the main determinants of foreign investment location decisions of service companies?
• How do knowledge-intensive companies and high-tech companies make their FDI decisions?
• Are FDI decisions by born global and early internationalising firms differ from those of large MNEs?

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Important Dates

Manuscripts due by: 1 February, 2022