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The third issue of Global Strategy Journal for 2022 is available

  • 1.  The third issue of Global Strategy Journal for 2022 is available

    Posted 09-29-2022 11:14

    Dear friends and colleagues,

     You can read the third issue of Global Strategy Journal for 2022 at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/20425805/2022/12/3. This is the first of two special issues in which we celebrate the first decade of the journal! In them you will find articles by some of the thought leaders in global strategy and related fields analyzing emerging global strategy topics.

     We start this first Decade Celebration Issue with a reflection on the future of global strategy by the current and past coeditors of the journal (Benito, Cuervo-Cazurra, Mudambi, Pedersen, & Tallman).

     We then have two analyses from economic geography discussing location (Bathelt & Li) and locational strategy (Florida & Adler). Bathelt and Li examine the interaction between location and firm strategy, both in terms of locations attracting firms and firms contributing to the development of locations. Florida and Adler discuss how locational strategy offers a perspective for understanding how location decisions fit into broader corporate strategy.

     We conclude this first Celebration issue with an insightful set of studies addressing tensions in geopolitics (Teece), inequality (Ganson, He, & Henisz), power (Buckley), disruptions (Meyer & Li) and between strategizing economizing (Asmussen & Foss). Teece contends that to analyze the new realities of an increasingly divergent, bifurcated world, global strategy scholars need to adopt wider-aperture, systems-theoretic perspectives. Ganson, He, and Henisz discuss how multinationals may contribute to social divisions as well as help to address them. Buckley points to the increasing pressures on multinational companies from states, markets, and society at large. Meyer and Li introduce an international relations perspective to study multinationals and subsidiaries in the face of disruption in the global economy. Asmussen and Foss argue that both strategizing and economizing aspects need to be recognized in global strategy research.

     The second Celebration issue will appear at the end of the year, and you can find the forthcoming articles here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/20425805/0/0

     Please continue sending your best work for consideration for publication.

     Best wishes,

    Gabriel R. G. Benito, Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, and Ram Mudambi

    Co-editors of Global Strategy Journal

     

     Global Strategy Journal, Volume 12, Issue 3. Decade Celebration Special Issue I

     The future of global strategy

    Gabriel R.G. Benito, Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, Ram Mudambi, Torben Pedersen, Steve Tallman

    Global strategy, that is, the analysis of strategy in an international context, has co-evolved with the dramatic changes in the global economy in the 21st century. Research advances have enabled a more sophisticated understanding of how firms develop strategies in an increasingly turbulent global environment in which societal expectations, technological advances, and political decisions are all in a state of continuous change. In this article, we reflect and provide suggestions for how the field may evolve on five key themes of global strategy: cooperation, coordination, governance, politics, and innovation. We also outline suggestions for future research on global issues that are gaining increasing centrality in business decisions: climate change, artificial intelligence, and geopolitics.

    The interplay between location and strategy in a turbulent age

    Harald Bathelt, Pengfei Li

    The spread of protectionist policies and the COVID-19 pandemic force policymakers and managers to fundamentally rethink the relationship between location and strategy. We examine this location-strategy interplay through a structure-agency perspective by investigating how the economic landscape shapes and, simultaneously, is shaped by firm strategies. Increasing spatial disparity and diversity of innovation and wealth in clusters and city-regions create both tremendous challenges and opportunities for multinational enterprises to strategically leverage knowledge over space. Locational choices and actions of multinationals, in turn, affect regional economic development paths and geographies of innovation. We argue for deep dialogue and collaboration between economic geography, international business and strategy to untie the knots in the intricate interplay between location and strategy and solve the grand challenges in our turbulent age.

    Locational strategy: Understanding location in economic geography and corporate strategy

    Richard Florida, Patrick Adler

    Drawing on key concepts from management theory, corporate strategy, and economic geography, we argue that the time has come for "Locational Strategy." Locational strategy is a framework for understanding how the locational decisions of organizations fit into broader corporate strategy. Locational strategy is particularly relevant given rise of knowledge and talent as key factors of productions and the fact that these inputs are so clustered in space. We lay out several principles to guide further work in this area, and briefly anticipate the role for locational strategy in the post-pandemic economy. Such an approach is well suited to the study of the sprawling modern firm, the footloose geography of talent, and the hyper-competitive field of regional economic policy.

    A wider‐aperture lens for global strategic management: The multinational enterprise in a bifurcated global economy

    David J. Teece

    The growth of China and President Xi's policies have transformed the global economy in ways that global strategy and international business (IB) scholars have yet to reflect fully in their research. The global economy is increasingly bifurcated between a China-centered authoritarian system and a market-oriented democratic system, generating complications and perils largely unknown since the end of the Cold War. The global business environment now bears faint resemblance to existing models in IB. To properly analyze the new reality, global strategy and IB scholars need to adopt a wider-aperture, systems-theoretic view that will require the cross-fertilization of ideas and collaboration with other disciplines such as international political economy. This engagement will allow the development of more broadly based frameworks, theories, and models that can assist decision makers in the private and public sectors.

    "Us" and "them": Corporate strategic activism, horizontal inequalities, and society's capacity to address its grand challenges

    Brian Ganson, Tony L. He, Witold J. Henisz

    Divisions into an "us" and a "them" across racial, ethnic, economic, geographic, and other demographic divides impede society's capacity to address grand challenges. Firms have an impact on such divisions-whether positively or negatively, intentionally or not-through the dual mechanisms of rents and relationships. Firms may contribute to horizontal inequalities that underlie intergroup conflict through the distribution of the benefits, costs, and risks of firm activities. Through their relational strategies, firms also shape the willingness and ability of different groups to work together for positive change. Firm behaviors emerging from their daily operations can thus change society's capacity to address its grand challenges, necessitating corporate activism that encompasses market and nonmarket strategies, as well as a broader understanding of the strategy-setting process itself.

     

    Navigating three vectors of power: Global strategy in a world of intense competition, aggressive nation states, and antagonistic civil society

    Peter J. Buckley

    Global strategy must negotiate three vectors of external power: State policies (that often conflict across national boundaries), the demands of civil society, and market pressures. The global strategies of corporations must reflect their two enduring and non-replicable advantages-innovation and flexibility. These qualities are essential in the face of increased government regulation together with intensification of non-market strategies as well as improving responses to the increased exigencies of international competition. A radical reappraisal of global strategies is therefore necessary. The global strategies of corporations here are analyzed using the "governance triangle" that examines governance through coordination (the role of the state), governance through competition (the market), and governance through argumentation (civil society). Future global strategies must contend with this web of constraint.

    The MNE and its subsidiaries at times of global disruptions: An international relations perspective

    Klaus E. Meyer, Chengguang Li

    The global economy has recently entered a period of disruptions, increasing barriers to cross-border business and potentially inhibiting the merits and legitimacy of integrated global strategies. We explore how three major disruptions in the global economy (reduced people mobility, divergent national regulatory institutions, and anti-globalization populism) affect the strategies of multinational enterprises, and, in particular, the role of their foreign subsidiaries. These external disruptions call for a reassessment of theories regarding the nature of global strategy and the interaction between businesses and their political environment. Specifically, we argue that the international relations perspectives of realism, liberalism, and constructivism help explain the nature of the disruptions, and hence can inform strategy scholarship in explaining and examining strategic responses to such external disruptions.

    Strategizing and economizing in global strategy

    Christian Geisler Asmussen, Nicolai J. Foss

    The strategic management and international business fields have followed, in some respects, quite similar intellectual trajectories, as reflected in the push for a field of "global strategy." However, a key distinction in the strategy literature-namely, Williamson's distinction between "strategizing" and "economizing"-has not been explicitly recognized in the international business/global strategy fields. We argue that progress can be made in global strategy by recognizing this distinction and exploring the interaction between "strategizing" and "economizing." To lend credence to this claim, we offer a simple model of the entry decision which highlights both economizing and strategizing aspects of this decision. We also offer recommendations on economizing-strategizing research in global strategy

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    Alvaro CUERVO-CAZURRA
    Professor, International Business and Strategy, Northeastern University
    Co-editor, Global Strategy Journal
    a.cuervocazurra@neu.edu. www.cuervo-cazurra.com.
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