Career paths of global managers: Towards future research

The aim of this paper is to identify potentially productive areas where future research on global managers’ careers is warranted. Approaching career as a path, we conceptualize a global career path as an intersection of three domains: an individual, an organizational and a global environment domain. To identify, within each domain, the most important factors influencing a global career, we first conducted a review of the literature on boundaryless careers and global managers. This review allowed us to identify those factors that are most relevant to the changing nature of careers and global assignments. We then reviewed past empirical research on international careers to map how previous studies have addressed those factors, further guiding us to formulate directions for future research on global careers. As well as indicating these specific research implications, we propose a contextualized research approach that facilitates understanding of different career moves over time as well as the overall direction of a global career path.     

International business,innovation and ambidexterity: A micro-foundational perspective

Research on international business and innovation has accumulated a vast body of knowledge which has assisted in comprehending complex international management issues in diverse international settings. Yet, the existing studies have not paid sufficient attention to the multifaceted aspects of innovation and ambidexterity. We join the conversation with international business and innovation by suggesting that investigating the micro-foundations from a multidisciplinary perspective situated in varying international contexts can advance our collective understandings of the phenomena in important ways. This paper has three general objectives. First, we show that innovation and ambidexterity has been a long-standing issue in international management and business studies and provide an overview of the puzzles that underpin and trigger this special issue. Second, we highlight the key insights and contributions of the papers included in this special issue by reviewing their theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches and findings. Finally, we outline a future research agenda that can help advance on international business and innovation research.     

An heretical consumer research perspective on music,culture and heritage

ABSTRACT

This special issue presents both empirical and conceptual papers on music, culture, and heritage as a discursive site of human action and social interaction. The theme of this special issue of music, culture, and heritage are aspects symbolically embedded throughout the market, as well as within cultural and ritualistic practice. The work featured in this special issue captures the essence of the 2015 Heretical Consumer Research Revival conference held 28–30 September in New Orleans, LA (partially funded by Association of Consumer Research). This diverse gathering of critical thinkers and consumer researchers considered various avenues to enrich future directions for consumer culture research. In line with that conference, this special issue is oriented towards generating innovative, radical, and even heretical schools of thought in consumer culture research surrounding markets, music, culture, and heritage in a nonconventional, nonconformist manner.     

2008 World Social Marketing Conference: Introduction to special issue

This article summarizes the articles found in this special issue, which were inspired by the 2008 Social Marketing Conference in Brighton, England. This special issue provides readers with an interesting mix of social marketing topics and methods. Both conceptual and empirical articles are represented. Social marketing practitioners will find some good ideas and new approaches. Social marketing researchers will be presented with some of the latest thinking in social marketing, and perhaps will obtain insights for future research.     

Rethinking Management Theory and Practice for the Indian Context: An International Management Perspective

The Indian economy characterized variously as a slumbering giant, powerful tiger, and the most promising market has witnessed a slowdown, occasional disturbances in the industrial relations space, and attention of the world in the last five years. In this special issue, we raise pertinent questions and present research on multiple dimensions of the dynamic and rapidly changing business environment of India. The suitability of management models and frameworks developed in the North American contexts in emerging markets like India and China is questioned. One example of how the well‐established models in the literature on success of international joint ventures were insufficient to explain the success of three international joint ventures in the insurance space in India is presented as case in point. Finally, the nine papers that materially contribute to the theme of this special issue are introduced. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Corporate entrepreneurship: Current research and future directions

In this paper, we suggest future research on the processes and knowledge-based resources in corporate entrepreneurship (CE), argue for the need to appreciate the heterogeneity of CE in relation to new contexts, and suggest appropriate strategies for such contexts. First, we highlight the key contributions of the papers in this special issue, with a particular focus on how they provide insights into structural and process contingencies, the role of management at multiple levels, and organizational and managerial capabilities. We then discuss the limits to the applicability of theories developed in other contexts to CE. Finally, we suggest some future research, with particular emphasis on the corporate governance mechanisms that foster CE and the requisite managerial roles and skills in instigating and supporting entrepreneurial activities at different levels of the organization.     

Managing cross-border knowledge transfer for innovation: An introduction to the special issue

This introduction to the special issue maps the extant research on managing crossborder knowledge for innovation and classifies it into four clusters: knowledge spillovers and location, international alliances and R&D networks, knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity, and learning organization and capabilities. The eleven articles that compose the special issue are introduced, and a future agenda for international business research is proposed.     

Talent management: Current theories and future research directions

Research on Talent Management (TM) has been lagging behind businesses in offering vision and leadership in this field. After sketching a comprehensive outline of knowledge about TM, theoretical as well as practical, we introduce the papers in this special issue and their important contributions. This introductory article contributes to filling the knowledge gap by offering a research agenda at multiple levels and in multiple contexts. We also discuss methodological issues in the study of TM, and conclude by identifying several key trends that are now, and will continue to influence the practice and study of TM in the future.     

Marketing perspectives on digital business models: A framework and overview of the special issue

Strong digital developments are changing markets, and firms may adopt a digital business model to deal with these developments. This special issue focuses on such digital business models. In this editorial, we discuss the relevance of digital business models, propose a conceptual framework, and discuss how digital business models affect firms, firm performance, and markets. We introduce the papers in this issue and show how they each fit within the conceptual framework. We discuss four important areas for future research.     

From Multi-Channel Retailing to Omni-Channel Retailing: Introduction to the Special Issue on Multi-Channel Retailing

The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. The advent of the online channel and new additional digital channels such as mobile channels and social media have changed retail business models, the execution of the retail mix, and shopper behavior. Whereas multi-channel was in vogue in the last decade in retailing, we now observe a move to so-called omni-channel retailing. Omni-channel retailing is taking a broader perspective on channels and how shoppers are influenced and move through channels in their search and buying process. We discuss this development conceptually and subsequently discuss existing research in this multi-channel retailing. We also introduce the articles in this special issue on multi-channel retailing and position these articles in the new omni-channel movement. We end with putting forward a research agenda to further guide future research in this area.     

Chinese Investment in Advanced Economies: Opportunities and Challenges

With an increasing importance of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by multinationals (MNCs) from China in advanced economies, there is a need for deepening our knowledge of these Chinese MNCs not simply regarding their benefits and concerns, but more importantly regarding their dynamic and complex contexts. In this article, we investigate challenges that Chinese investors face in managing multiple embeddedness across heterogeneous contexts and why this multiple contextual embeddedness is particularly evident when Chinese firms acquire Western firms for competitive catch‐up. We contend that the interaction of Chinese investors with various local contexts depends on the extent to which these contexts are not only interrelated, but also overlain by temporal and spatial dimensions of context. Accordingly, contextualizing globalization of Chinese companies temporally and spatially will allow us to better understand their international expansion. More generally, we stress the need to place Chinese OFDI research in its broader context, temporally and spatially, and go beyond the mere institutional or cultural distance variables. Finally, we outline the key contributions from the six articles in this special issue and discuss the future research agenda stimulated by the issues raised in these articles. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Emerging‐Market Firms Venturing into Advanced Economies: The Role of Context

Sociocultural, economic, political, and institutional differences between countries increase uncertainty and complexity in today's highly competitive international business environment. Moreover, the “West‐Leads‐East” to “West‐Meets‐East” shift in the global economy requires firms in both advanced economies and emerging markets to seek sustainable solutions by collaborating across geographic boundaries. Such novel collaborative partnerships may help build a stable, resilient, and sustainable world economy by leveraging the resources and capabilities of firms from both advanced and emerging economies. This article has three general objectives. First, we seek to show that context has been a long‐standing issue in management, organization, and international business research and provide an overview of the puzzles that informed and motivated this special issue. Second, we highlight the key insights and contributions of the articles included in this special issue by reviewing their theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches, and empirical findings. Finally, we outline a future research agenda on emerging‐market firms venturing into advanced economies that can help advance international business and management studies. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Communicative Dynamics and the Polyphony of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Network Society

This paper develops a media theoretical extension of the communicative view on corporate social responsibility by elaborating on the characteristics of network societies, arguing that new media increase the speed and connectivity, and lead to higher plurality and the potential polarization of reality constructions. We discuss the implications for corporate social responsibility of becoming more polyphonic and sketch the contours of “communicative legitimacy.” Finally, we present this special issue and develop some questions for future research.     

Risk in international business and its mitigation

While risk mitigation and management preparedness of MNEs have escalated to the top of the corporate agenda, international business literature is lacking pertinent conceptual and empirical studies. As an opener to this special issue, we offer several perspectives on country risk and its mitigation. We discuss conceptual and empirical challenges in researching risk in international business. We conclude with a commentary on the six papers included in this special issue on international business risk.     

Guest editorial: perspectives on sustainable consumption

The typical guest editorial within a special issue of a journal will explain the theme of the special issue, introduce the different contributions that follow, outline the contributions that each makes and identify the common threads that connect them. By contrast, this editorial article seeks to provide an overview which explores the broader context for the challenges that are presented by the pursuit of ‘sustainable consumption’ as a field of scholarship, a form of behaviour and a public policy goal. It explores some of the complexities involved in understanding sustainable consumption, and the ways in which conventional approaches to understanding consumption and consumer behaviour may be insufficient to understand and promote sustainable consumption.     

Leadership in a global context: New directions in research and theory development

The goal of this special issue is to present a set of articles that, collectively, explores the interrelationships between national culture, leadership, and organizational behavior. Our hope is that these articles will summarize where the field currently stands, as well as suggest new directions for future research and theory development on this important topic. To achieve this, we include 14 articles from authors representing 13 countries. The methodologies used here include meta-analyses, case studies, and interview studies, although the majority represents conceptual model building based on critical analyses of existing theories and research. Management implications are discussed.     

Positive Organizational Ethics: Cultivating and Sustaining Moral Performance

We present this special issue on positive organizational ethics (POE) to highlight those pursuing positive subjective experiences, positive attributes of individuals and groups, and positive practices that contribute to ethical and virtuous behavior in organizations. Although prior research has offered some insight in this area, there is still much to be learned about how to cultivate and sustain ethical strength in different types of organizations and how goodness can emerge from and in spite of human failings. After describing the positive movement, we position POE as a discrete area of inquiry within the broader positive behavioral sciences, at the intersection of positive behavioral studies and business ethics. After defining our terms and purpose for creating the POE domain, we introduce the articles in this special issue. The introduction concludes with suggested topics for future research.     

Institutions,entrepreneurship and co-evolution in international business

A recent and promising trend in international business and international management research has been to consider institutions not only as taken-for-granted constraints that need to be accommodated, but also the outcomes of agency; purposive action by individuals, firms, coalitions and other actors. We elaborate the development of research in this vein, and advocate a more nuanced view of the nexus between agency and institutions of different kinds and residing at various levels of analysis, and the associated co-evolutionary processes. Recent developments from cognate fields – particularly, institutional entrepreneurship and institutional work – offer a theoretical foundation for further insights into the nexus of institutions, agency and co-evolution. We discuss the papers that appear in this special issue and how they further develop and expand our understanding of institutions, agency and co-evolution, and conclude with questions and directions for future research.     

International entrepreneurship in universities: Context,emergence and actors

This special issue presents an opportunity to explore the international aspects of academic and university based international entrepreneurship. Over the last decades much research attention has been focused on university spin-off firms (USOs) on issues such as, creation, risk, strategies and performance (see Druilhe and Garnsey, 2004; Link and Scott, 2005; Lockett and Wright, 2005; Walter et al, 2006; Wright et al., 2006). There has been a dearth of studies that have examined the international dimensions and aspects of university-based spin-off firms. The six articles presented in this special issue point towards interesting future research agendas at the interface between academic and international entrepreneurship. Three core themes emerge from this special issue: Context, Emergence and Actors. In sum, this special issue pinpoints: firstly, specific features of universities and research organizations as contexts for international technology entrepreneurship; secondly, the process of organizational emergence and entrepreneurial cognition; and thirdly, insight into learning processes of USOs and the role of non-academic actors. Our article concludes by identifying future avenues of research.     

The art of writing literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know?

A literature review article provides a comprehensive overview of literature related to a theme/theory/method and synthesizes prior studies to strengthen the foundation of knowledge. In the growing International Business (IB) research field, systematic literature reviews have great value, yet there are not many reviews published describing how researchers can design and develop classic review articles. In explaining the purpose, methodology, and structure of a systematic review, we provide guidelines for developing most insightful and useful review articles. By outlining steps and thumb rules to keep in mind, we present an overview of different types of review articles and explain how future researchers could potentially find them useful. In addition, we introduce nine articles finally selected for this special issue of systematic literature review-Looking back to look forward International Business research in the days to come.