Call - AIB-UKI 2021 Conference –Networks and Internationalisation Track

CFP: AIB-UKI 2021 Conference –Networks and Internationalisation Track

From the Uppsala School to the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group, Global Value Chain and Global Production Network approaches, networks have been a growing conceptual tool for the understanding of International Business. However, as Cuypers et al (2020) recently observed in a JIBS special issue, the concept has predominantly been used only metaphorically, despite the great capacity for formal network analysis to be deployed empirically. The internationalisation process, in particularly, is a promising arena for the empirical application of network concepts as international operations are necessarily structured in distinct but interrelated locations and activities with discernible empirical traces. The value of empirical investigation of these relationships is heightened by the growing economic and geopolitical significance of the embeddedness of international business in global value chains.

 To this end, this track takes up the calls of Cuypers et al (2020) and Kano et al.  (2020) for empirical applications of network analysis to the internationalisation process. We welcome contributions drawing from the theories and methods of social network analysis, network science, complex networks and related empirical approaches. We are particularly interested in dynamic approaches that consider the internationalisation process. Topics may include, but are not restricted to:

• Global value chains: Integration and dispersion across firms, subsidiaries and locations; centres of value creation and capture
• Global production networks: power and roles in production networks;  
• Inter-subsidiary networks in international business: resource transfer; autonomy and influence
• Inter-firm networks in international business: alliance structures and performance; resource transfer
• Inter-location networks in international business: structures and embeddedness; locational connectivity; regional network structures
   

Cuypers, I.R.P., Ertug, G., Cantwell, J. et al. Making connections: Social networks in international business. J Int Bus Stud 51, 714–736 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00319-9

Kano, L., Tsang, E.W.K. & Yeung, H.Wc. Global value chains: A review of the multi-disciplinary literature. J Int Bus Stud 51, 577–622 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00304-2

For further information contact:

Bruce Cronin: B.Cronin@greenwich.ac.uk

Sara Gorgoni: S.Gorgoni@greenwich.ac.uk

University of Greenwich Networks and Urban Systems Centre

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper submission opens: 24 December 2020
Submission deadline main conference: 1 February 2021
Submission deadline doctoral colloquium: 19 February 2021
Submission deadline Adam Smith Best Doctoral Dissertation Award: 19 February 2021 
Registration of presenter(s) deadline: 26 March, 2021 

Doctoral Colloquium: 14 April 2021
Main Conference: 15-16 April 2021

Please see below the links for the conference site and the submission site:

 https://www.aib-uki.org/conference.html

 https://www.conference-service.com/AIB-UKI-2021/welcome.html

Conference Chair: Spiros Batas