Academy of International Business, Southeast USA Chapter
November 1–3, 2018
Nashville, TN
Conference Theme
Intellectual Property and the Creative Economy
Submission Deadline: June 15, 2018
AIB-SE is excited to announce its 2018 annual conference with the theme: Intellectual Property and the Creative Economy. Since the award winning research of Kogut and Zander (1993, 2003), there has been growing attention on knowledge and the multinational enterprise. As firms seek to develop firm-specific advantages in order to compete worldwide, there is a growing need for innovation, not only at home, but in foreign subsidiaries. Multinational enterprises (MNEs), therefore, must strategically manage the (1) type(s) of knowledge, (2) location(s) for the creation of knowledge, (3) harvest of knowledge and (4) utilization and transfer of knowledge. In particular, the role of intellectual property protection, in providing additional contexts to ownership norms, expectations and outcomes, are now considered inseparable from any creative economy.
This year, there is a special track devoted to the conference’s theme. Fittingly, this year’s conference takes place in Nashville, TN, in cooperation with Belmont University. Nashville is home to a vibrant entertainment industry. However, it’s creative economy includes more than the country music for which it is known. Nashville has quietly built a formidable infrastructure to support a thriving technology sector, one of the preeminent health care clusters (including, R&D in bio-technologies, and healthcare insurance). Moreover, it is home to over 20 regionally and nationally recognized universities.
AIB-SE (www.aibse.org) is one of the largest and most active regional divisions of the Academy of International Business’s eighteen worldwide chapters. AIB-SE’s annual conference centers on the presentation of the newest ideas in international business to an international audience of academic scholars and business practitioners. The conference is characterized by a strong professional focus, providing participants with a supportive and collegial platform to discuss and develop their ideas, as well as opportunity for mentoring of authors to enhance their papers for publication. Over the past five years, AIB-SE has experienced significant transformation and growth becoming a reputable academic meeting of choice for almost 350 participants from more than 40 countries.
Conference Highlights
1. Professional Development – AIB-SE has traditionally had a strong focus on professional development. As in past years, the 2018 conference will feature consortia for doctoral students and junior faculty, methodological PDWs, interactive and competitive paper sessions, opportunities for undergraduate students, and panels on cutting issues in international business. Details on each of these will be released over the coming months.
2. Publishing Opportunities – (1) All accepted conference papers will be published as abstracts in the 2018 AIB-SE Conference Proceedings. (2) The best papers of the conference will be considered for publication in AIB-SE’s own journal, International Business: Research Teaching and Practice (IBRTP). (3) The Global Value Chains, International Trade, and Markets track will run as a paper workshop for a special issue in International Journal of Emerging Markets on Value Chain Innovations in Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Environments. The track chairs (Anshu Arora and Nicole Hartley) will be joined by two special issue editors (Datis Khajeheian and Amit Arora) to help improve selected papers before submitting to the IJOEM special issue.
3. Conference Awards – Prestigious awards with cash prizes will be given for the conference Best Paper, Best Paper – Conference Theme, Best Paper- Doctoral Student, Best Paper- Master’s /Undergraduate student. Consistent with the developmental focus of AIB-SE, we also recognize the best reviewer and the best student reviewer.
4. Keynote Speaker – We are thrilled that our keynote speaker will be Dr. Marjorie Lyles, who is the Chancellor’s Professor and holds the OneAmerica Chaired Professor of Business Administration at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. In addition, she is an AIB Fellow and Past President of the Strategic Management Society.
PAPER AND PANEL SUBMISSIONS
Paper and panel submissions for AIB-SE 2018 are organized under the following topical tracks. Each paper or panel proposal can only be submitted to one track via the online submission system. Please select the track that is the best fit for your submission from the list below:
1. IB Theory, FDI, and Entry Mode Strategies
This track seeks both conceptual and empirical submissions that advance our understanding of International Business theory from any disciplinary lenses. The submissions may include single- or multi-country studies that shed light on any international business phenomenon—including, but not restricted to: (1) IB theories/paradigms, (2) FDI trends and their implications, and (3) entry strategies into international markets. We welcome a diverse range of topics within each of the above-mentioned themes. Papers highlighting emerging and developing markets are encouraged.
Track Chair:
Wlamir Xavier, Eastern New Mexico University and UNISUL, wlamir.xavier@enmu.edu
2. Global Strategy and Competitiveness of the Multinational Enterprise.
This track invites conceptual and empirical papers that deal with MNC/MNEs global business strategies, and their impact on competitiveness. We encourage papers that examine the relationship between global strategies and how these relate to institutional or economic changes in home and host countries.
Track Chairs:
Chuandi (Charlie) Jiang, Saint Louis University chuandijiang@slu.edu
Kun Michelle Yang, Central Michigan University, yang1km@cmich.edu
3. Governments, NGO’s, Global Institutions and State-Owned Enterprises:
Papers that examine how the regulatory and/or political environments shape, influence and impact international firms, NGOs, and state owned enterprises. Appropriate for this track are papers dealing with institutional and political risk including regulation, policy and trade relations. Papers that offer conceptual and empirical insights on global issues, such as the impact of terrorism, climate change, health, and human rights are welcome as well.
Track Chairs:
Rachida Aissaoui, Ohio University, aissaoui@ohio.edu
Alexander A. Assouad, Belmont University, alexander.assouad@belmont.edu
4. International Marketing
This track invites papers that address marketing issues in cross-national and cross-cultural environments. We welcome contributions focusing on traditional aspects of international marketing, like international marketing strategy, market selection/segmentation and marketing mix management. We also welcome contributions focusing on global branding, country-of-origin effects, consumer-related orientations and attitudes like animosity, global identity, global consumption orientation, consumer ethnocentrism, and others provided there is a strong international marketing positioning of the paper.
Track Chairs:
George Nakos, Clayton State University GeorgeNakos@clayton.edu
Carri Tolmie, Elon University, ctolmie2@elon.edu
5. International Accounting, Economics, and Finance
Accounting, Economics or Finance contributions (e.g. M&As, valuation, capital flows, international investments, international portfolio management, exchange rates, transfer pricing, international trade, international political economy, international economic development, international taxation, international audit, convergence of financial accounting standards or global performance evaluation challenges, etc.) are welcome. Papers dealing with applied or theoretical economics papers and/or economics research methods, including developing theory using the tools of economics, accounting and finance are invited for this track. Papers examining accounting, finance and economics research questions such as international portfolio management, international trade and development are also appropriate for this track.
Track Chairs:
Daniel Indro, Penn State University, dci1@psu.edu
April Knill, Florida State University, aknill@business.fsu.edu
6. Entrepreneurship, SMEs, and Born Globals
This track seeks submissions that advance our understanding of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), international entrepreneurship or comparative cross cultural entrepreneurship, family firms, business groups, and the unique format of the Born Global. Of interest are the papers that explore crucial insights into “born global” firms as they grow and mature over time, how some firms internationalize early than others, and how entrepreneurship, family owned, business groups, SMEs and born globals add value to international business scholarship.
Track Chairs:
Amit Arora, Savannah State University, aroraam@savannahstate.edu
Kaveh Moghaddam, University of Houston-Victoria, moghaddamk@uhv.edu
7. Organization and Human Resources of the MNE
This track seeks to explore ways in which MNEs operate across diverse international contexts, and how they configure themselves internally and externally. Novel forms of organization that cross geographic locations such as virtual teams, internal knowledge networks, diversity management and offshore divisional headquarters are welcome in this track. Moreover, we seek contributions that challenge conventional theories and knowledge on HRM in an international context, covering for instance Employee Relations, Expatriation, Team Management, Global Talent Management and Performance Management. Contributions may be empirical or conceptual, comparative or apply single country analysis.
Track Chairs:
Edward Akoto, Henderson State University, akotoe@hsu.edu
Luis Camacho, SUNY Empire State College, luis.camacho@esc.edu
8. Culture, Culture Theory, Culture Measurement, and Cultural Distance
This track seeks submissions where the primary contribution is advancement of culture theory, culture measures, comparative frameworks, and specific constructs or theoretical development in the area of understanding the role of culture in international or global business environments. We welcome both empirical and conceptual papers. This track is open to both micro and macro perspectives, to different levels of analysis, and to different levels and conceptualizations of culture (e.g., national culture, organizational culture, professional culture, global communities) within the context of international business.
Track Chairs:
Reccia Charles, St Georges University, rcharles1@sgu.edu
Nazly Nardi, Nova Southeastern University, nnardi@gmail.com
9. International Business Education
This track seeks to contribute to effective and innovative IB/IM teaching and learning at the classroom and curricular level. These empirical or case-based submissions may include, but are not limited to, topics such as managing classroom diversity, student research, simulations, case-studies, role plays, other technology enhanced learning activities, essential IB coursework and competencies at distinct educational levels, study abroad programs, and accreditation processes.
Track Chairs:
Anne Marie Zwerg-Villegas, Universidad de La Sabana, anne.zwerg@unisabana.edu.co
Roberto Garcia, Indiana University, prgarcia@indiana.edu
10. Undergraduate/Graduate Students
All undergraduate and master’s level submissions regardless of the topical area should be submitted to this special track for non-doctoral student work. This track is a great option for faculty who would like to expose their students who are interested in academic or research careers to the dynamics of a scholarly conference.
Track Chair:
Charles Bryant, Florida Institute of Technology, bryantc@fit.edu
11. Global Value Chains, International Trade, and Markets
This track seeks submissions focused on supply chains as value chains, international trade, and interrelationships amongst logistics, supply chain management and global trade. We welcome submissions that offer important conceptual and empirical insights into the nature and processes of value chains, channel development and management, geographical collaborations, and global supply (value) chains. Of interest are the papers that examine the impact of cross-cultural issues, characteristics, and challenges with regard to value chains; institutional, political and regulatory factors on supply chain management issues; and the effects of institutional change on IB and supply chain processes.
Track Chairs:
Anshu Arora, Savannah State University, aroraa@savannahstate.edu
Nicole Hartley, University of Queensland, n.hartley@business.uq.edu.au
12. Special Track: Innovation in the MNE
This track invited conceptual and empirical papers on knowledge, creativity, and innovation in the multinational enterprises (MNEs). As we noted above, MNE studies that involve the type(s) of knowledge; location(s) for the creation of knowledge; harvest of knowledge and utilization and transfer of knowledge are especially welcome. Also, this track welcomes research on intellectual property protection in the MNE.
Track Chair:
Amanda Phalin, University of Florida, amanda.phalin@warrington.ufl.edu
13. Special Track: Gender in International Business Research
Organized in cooperation with WAIB, this track invites conceptual and empirical papers on topics specifically related gender in the international business context. Some examples of topics of interest include: how gender inspires conflicts and creative synergies in an international business context, cultural differences in gender roles/identities for cross-cultural management/management in the international context, gender imbalances in international management, gender and status, gender and leadership, gender and expatriate assignments, gender and international business law, gender in conjunction with other identities, gender and economic development and/or gender in developing countries, culture and women’s entrepreneurship.
Track Chair:
Malika Richards, Penn State – Berks, mur12@psu.edu
Marieta Velikova, Belmont University, marieta.velikova@belmont.edu
CONFERENCE SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
All submissions will be handled through the AIB-SE online submission system. All manuscripts and proposals must be submitted by June 15, 2018. For up-to-date information about the conference, please see the conference website at http://www.aibse.org. Questions regarding this call for papers should be addressed to the appropriate track chair(s) or to the Program Chair.
1) Competitive Sessions – Submissions of fully developed papers are appropriate for consideration for competitive sessions. Competitive papers must be fewer than 10,000 words inclusive of all materials, including appendices and references.
2) Interactive Sessions –Shorter manuscripts or work-in-progress pieces that could benefit from informal feedback from other participants are appropriate for submission to interactive sessions. These sessions are held in roundtable discussion format that allows for interaction with other researchers with similar interests. Interactive papers should be 2,500 to no more than 5,000 words.
Please note that submitting a manuscript as a competitive paper does not necessarily mean it will end up in a competitive session. The best papers in each track will be placed into competitive sessions. Lesser-developed papers will be placed in interactive sessions. The number of competitive papers we can accept for the conference is limited. Therefore, fully- developed papers, on occasion, may be placed in interactives session due to space constraints.
3) Special Topic/Panel Sessions – We invite special topic/panel sessions, which can be in a variety of formats. Proposals for special sessions should describe the topic, session format, and its importance to international business research or education and identify all individuals (with their qualifications) who will formally participate. Panel proposals should be limited to no more than 5,000 words. Selection of special topics/ panel sessions will be limited and according to the quality of the panel, and currency of the topic. The panel sessions are also used for new topics that are important in the current IB environment where in-depth research is yet to be conducted. Proposals for PDWs in teaching or research may also be submitted under this format.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
All submissions must conform to the following guidelines:
• The document must be stripped of all identifying information: Do not include a cover page. The ‘File Properties’ for the documents should be cleaned to remove identifying information.
• Each manuscript should be accompanied by an abstract, not to exceed 200 words.
• Submissions must be formatted as follows: Letter sized page (8.5″x11″ or 216×279 mm), with one-inch (2.5 cm) margins, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font.
• The manuscript should preferably be saved in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format to ensure that reviewers see it in the intended way. However, Microsoft Word files will also be accepted.
• Please ensure all files are checked for viruses using updated anti-virus software before submission.
After Submission
Authors will be sent an automatic e-mail confirmation message upon successful uploading of their paper on the website acknowledging receipt of their submission. If you do not receive an acknowledgment within 24 hours of submitting your manuscript or proposal, please inform the conference chairs, Dr. Stan Westjohn & Dr. Stewart R. Miller. All manuscript submissions will be subject to a blind review process and will be evaluated based on interest to AIB-SE members, relevance to IB research, teaching and/or practice, analytical and conceptual rigor, quantitative and qualitative methods (if applicable), innovativeness, and significance of conclusions. Panel proposals will be evaluated based on interest to AIB members, relevance to IB research, teaching and/or practice, quality, innovativeness, fit with conference theme, and diversity of participants. The a more detailed Call for Papers is available at the 2018 AIB – SE annual conference website.
ORGANIZERS
Stanford Westjohn, Ph.D.
2018 Conference Chair
University of Alabama sawestjohn@cba.ua.edu
Stewart R. Miller, Ph.D.
2018 Program Chair
Univ. of Texas – San Antonio
stewart.miller@utsa.edu
Alexander Assouad, Ph.D.
2018 Local Host Chair
Belmont University
alexander.assouad@belmont.edu