CALLS FOR PAPERS

While attention to the social and environmental impacts of international business is not new, the past years have seen renewed interest due to pressing global problems such as climate change, poverty and HIV/Aids, in which firms are called upon to play a positive role, and thus contribute to more sustainable development. This applies most notably to multinational enterprises (MNEs), given their global influence and activities in which they are confronted with a range of issues, stakeholders and institutional contexts, in both home and host countries. For MNEs, this is part of a balancing act of what can be called corporate social responsibility (CSR), in which they consider their various responsibilities: economic, legal, ethical, environmental and social. In the European context, the term triple P, or People, Planet, Profit, has also been coined to likewise point to the need for managers to focus concurrently on the social, environmental & economic dimensions of corporate activity, to help shape the sustainable future of societies worldwide.

It is sometimes suggested that MNEs’ CSR activities are becoming increasingly strategic, in the sense that they affect the core business of the firm and its growth, profitability and survival. In other words, CSR is moving from a public affairs to a core strategic activity. However, even if true, this is likely to be applicable only under certain conditions, depending on issue, stakeholder, country, industry and firm specific factors. The international dimension of these questions is extremely relevant, but has not yet been addressed systematically in international business research. CSR and sustainable development provide fertile areas in which both existing international business theories can be tested, and from which new insights into the dynamics of the interaction between MNEs and their national and international contexts can be induced. This includes for example, the exact workings of the interactions between Ownership or Firm-Specific Advantages, and Locational or Country-Specific Advantages, and whether or under what conditions CSR (components) may create competitive (dis)advantages at different locations.

This special issue aims to publish papers on CSR and sustainable development that are embedded in international business literature, and aim to contribute to our field as indicated above. We welcome innovative papers, both conceptual and empirical, both qualitative and quantitative, on CSR topics.  More information can be found at the IBR website highlighted below. 

Submission guidelines
Questions about the special issue can be directed at the guest editors via e-mail:
akolk@uva.nl (Ans Kolk) or rtulder@rsm.nl (Rob van Tulder).  All paper submissions should conform to International Business Review’s standard guidelines for authors, details of which can be found at the IBR website: www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev.  Manuscripts must be received by 1 June 2008.  Papers for this special issue can only be submitted electronically via online submission site at http://ees.elsevier.com/ibr/ and select this “Special Issue: Sustainable Development” as the article type.  This special issue of International Business Review will be published in Spring 2010.

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Guest Editors:    
Paula Jarzabkowski, Aston Business School and AIM, UK
Susan Mohrman, University of Southern California, USA
Andreas Georg Scherer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

The academic community has long been concerned about the nature of knowledge produced in management and organization theory and its application to practice. Increasingly, these concerns have led to calls for management scholars to develop research designs that can operationalize the relationship between management knowledge and practical action empirically. For example, research councils fund research that incorporates practitioners in the design of the research, not only in the dissemination of its results, while professional doctorates have also grown to satisfy the knowledge production and consumption needs of practising professionals. While much existing empirical research is based on ontological assumptions that academic knowledge precedes practical action, for example examining the extent to which current academic knowledge is relevant to practice, increasingly research is being designed with specific regard for the nature and objectives of co-produced knowledge and the different ways that it is consumed by different audiences. This Special Issue (SI) seeks to address the relationship between academic theory and practical action in novel ways that can address the different assumptions underlying knowledge production and consumption.

The SI arises from the Third Organization Studies Summer Workshop, 7-9 June 2007, Crete, Greece. While we anticipate submissions from Workshop participants, participation in the Workshop is not a condition for submission to the Special Issue. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome that demonstrate rigorous analyses and approaches. A full call for papers can be found at www.egosnet.org/os.  We encourage contributors to go beyond a high level restatement of the issues of various modes of research, and to ensure that their treatments provide examples that jointly address the topics of practice and theory and provide a rich context for discussion and debate.

To be considered for publication, papers must be electronically received by 30 November 2007. Please submit papers as email attachments (Microsoft World files only) to the Editor-in-Chief (OSeditor@alba.edu.gr), indicating in the email the title of the Special Issue. The Special Issue is scheduled for publication in the last quarter of 2009. For further information and the full call for papers, please go to <www.egosnet.org/os>.

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International Journal of Business & Emerging Markets International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (IJBEM), an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal, invites papers for publication consideration. Details about the journal and author guidelines are available at http://www.inderscience.com/ijbem

Those interested in serving as ad hoc reviewer for the journal, please contact Satyendra Singh at ijbem@uwinnipeg.ca

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The theory of path dependency continues to attract great interest in business, strategy and organization studies. A rapidly increasing number of scholars have started to use this theory to explain and study organizational inertia, small events and the consequences of self- reinforcing mechanisms such as externalities, complementarities and economies of scale. Organization Studies (OS) will be publishing a Special Themed Section on “Organizational Path Dependency” in 2009. The guest editors of this section are Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow. This OS forum aims at providing a platform for sharing the most recent results in path research, focusing on both conceptual issues of extending path theory and empirical
studies in path dependency.
 
Researchers studying path dependency are invited to submit a paper for consideration to this special OS section.  Submissions are due no later than December 15, 2007. Please submit your paper to OS indicating that it is a submission to the Special Themed Section: Organizational Path Dependency and send the paper cc to the following e-mail address: pfadkolleg@wiwiss.fu-berlin.de
 
Please follow the directions for manuscript submission described in the Manuscript Submission Guidelines, which appear in each issue of OS and at http://oss.sagepub.com/
 
If you have any queries about this Special Themed Section, please write to one of the guest editors: pfadkolleg@wiwiss.fu-berlin.de

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What makes a “good leader”? Ask 100 people and you’re likely to get at least that many answers. Those of us in academia quickly dismiss the idea the “Great (Wo)Man Theory”, but can we really ignore the notion that some people just seem to be better leaders than others, regardless of the situation? How much of what makes a good leader is in the eyes of the beholder? Would we expect shop floor operators to paint the same pictures as CEOs? Would the difference in perspectives be relevant to defining characteristics of a good leader?

The shear number of books, courses, university departments and business schools specializing in leadership development suggests that we know what being a good leader is all about. Is it about financial acumen? Sharp decision-making under fire? The ability to relate and inspire others? Exemplary ethics and morality? More likely than not, there are a multitude of competencies and characteristics that distinguish good leaders from poor ones and the significance of each of these—or combinations of them—may be contingent on a just as large pool of contextual characteristics, including all involved parties.

Much of what we propose we know about leadership competencies is derived from archival studies of the leaders in companies that succeeded a crisis. Or didn’t. The preponderance of this research is often anecdotal as well. The objective of this symposium is to open up for discussion of the topic of leadership competencies, qualities, characteristics—or whichever word seems to fit best. What do we really know, and on what basis do we base that knowledge? What should we know that we don’t? What methods are best suited to researching the field of leadership competencies?

The European Academy of Management calls for proposals for symposiums. We intend to propose and organize a symposium around leadership, addressing issues and questions mentioned above. If you are interested participating in the symposium and/or you have published any studies relevant to the topic that we can site in the application, please contact Frances Jørgensen at The Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark: fraj@asb.dk as quickly as possible.

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We cordially invite submissions of individual papers and organized symposia for the Industry Studies Annual Conference sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to be held on May 1-2, 2008, at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. The field of industry studies focuses on topics related to firms and the markets in which they compete and draws on a wide range of disciplines -- including the social sciences, management, work and employment relations, engineering, and other related research and policy areas. Industry Studies research is grounded in direct observation of firms and workplaces and a deep understanding of the institutions that shape the competitive environment. We welcome submissions of all kinds that incorporate this approach.

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts for papers and symposia may be submitted on-line via the conference website: http://web.mit.edu/is08/. The deadline for abstract submissions is October 31, 2007.
Proposals for Individual Papers: The on-line submission procedure for individual papers will request the following information: Title of paper title, key words, author(s)’ name and complete contact information, and paper abstract (250 word maximum). The abstract should include the central research question(s), methods, and key findings; and it should highlight the observational basis of the research (e.g., field-based interviews, site visits, participant observation, surveys, archival data collection).

Proposals for Organized Symposia: The on-line submission procedure for organized symposia will request the following information: Symposium title, key words, names and complete contact information for the chair, paper authors (up to 3 papers per session), and discussant (if needed); and an abstract that describes the overall theme and format of the symposium (250 word maximum). Each proposed paper in the symposium should include the title and abstract. The abstract (250 word maximum) should include the central research question(s), methods, and key findings; and it should highlight the observational basis of the research (e.g., field-based interviews, site visits, participant observation, surveys, archival data collection).

Notification of acceptance of submissions will be made by December 30, 2007. Travel subsidies will be available for authors who are invited to participate. Authors will be asked to submit their papers and presentations to the website by April 15, 2008, and they also will be invited for publication in the Sloan Industry Studies Working Paper Series.

The conference is open to all Industry Studies Affiliates, including faculty members associated with Sloan Industry Centers and all other scholars who have joined the Sloan Industry Studies Program independently as members of that listserv or other affiliated listservs. Graduate students are also welcome to attend.

Please feel free to contact the Conference Program Co-Chairs, Rosemary Batt <rb41@cornell.edu> and Eileen Appelbaum <eappelba@rci.rutgers.edu> with related questions.

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Send your cases to:  Jyoti_Bachani@redlands.edu

Deadline January 20, 2008

The Western Casewriters Association meeting held in conjunction with the Western Academy of Management conference, is a unique opportunity to engage with other case-writers in a small group format to exchange feedback and polish-up your case, learn about using cases in the class room, get a peer-reviewed conference on your vita and enjoy the presentations from leading case authors and case educators. It is an excellent professional development opportunity because it is a "developmental" conference designed to provide feedback from experienced case researchers in order to move the projects toward eventual publication in a top-level journal such as the Case Research Journal. The format is round-table discussions. You will be grouped with three or four other people who have written cases and will spend time with an experienced facilitator providing feedback on each others' cases. The feedback, although rigorous, is very friendly. Or, you may attend the conference just to learn more about case-research and see presentations on how to teach with cases.

Who should Attend the WCA meeting in 2008?

• Academic researchers looking for a peer-reviewed platform to develop their research stream. If accepted, this will count as a peer-reviewed conference on your vita.
• Educators looking to improve their classroom performance by incorporating cases into their curricula.
• People who want to visit San Francisco Bay area and to be able to deduct their travel expenses from their income tax.
  

In exchange, you will receive:

• Abstract proceedings of all peer-reviewed cases
• Invaluable feedback about your research project
  

The 2008 WCA meeting will be held in Oakland, California on Thursday, March 27th, 2008. Cases should deal with issues important to their disciplines. They are generally framed around problems facing some decision maker in the organization. The cases may be based on field research or secondary sources but must be entirely factual. WCA will publish a refereed proceedings. Please volunteer to review cases by e-mailing Jyoti Bachani.

Submit the case and instructor’s manual via e-mail to Jyoti_Bachani@Redlands.edu. For questions please contact Presidents: Jim Spee at james_spee@redlands.edu or Teri Tompkins at teri.tompkins@pepperdine.edu. 

Specific instructions for submission can be found at:
http://bulldog2.redlands.edu/FAC/Jyoti_Bachani/WCA/