Asia Pacific Journal of Management - Call for Papers: Special Issue on "Digital globalization: An Asia-Pacific Perspective"

Guest Editors:

Xiao Zhang, Professor, Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Nanjing University, China, email: zhangxiao@nju.edu.cn (this opens in a new tab)

Luqun Xie, Associate Professor, Department of Innovation and Strategy, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, email: xieluqun0710@sjtu.edu.cn (this opens in a new tab)

Jiatao Li, Chair Professor, Department of Management, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China, email: mnjtli@ust.hk (this opens in a new tab)

Lin Cui, Professor, Department of Strategy and International Business, Research School of Management, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, email: lin.cui@anu.edu.au (this opens in a new tab)

Yu Li, Professor, Department of Business Strategy and International Business, Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China, email: liyu@uibe.edu.cn (this opens in a new tab)

Supervising Editor: Han Jiang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China, email: jianghan@cuhk.edu.cn (this opens in a new tab)

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the pace of globalization has been slowing down. Ignited by the simmering confrontation between China and the United States starting in 2018, this trend has been further exacerbated by subsequent international crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the heating military conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Meanwhile, the growing ideologies of techno-nationalism and protectionism represented by the trade war of two hegemonies have been sweeping across ever more parts of the world (Luo, 2022a), thus substantially undermining the established global networks of economic interdependence and collaboration and rendering the world more fragmented (Luo & Assche, 2023; Vertinsky, Kuang, Zhou, & Cui, 2023; Witt, Lewin, Li, & Gaur, 2023). This global trend casts great challenges on the operations of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and introduce prominent geopolitical risks into their global supply chains and cross-border value networks (Cui, Vertinsky, Wang, & Zhou, 2023; Luo, 2024; Petricevic & Teece, 2019).

To cope with the complexity, a critical force in the modern era that might enable firms to access global resources and market is the emergence of digital technologies. It is long recognized that the borderless and decentralized nature of digitalization inherently facilitates value exchanges and collaboration across global communities and thus enables a world of enhanced connectivity (Luo, 2022a). In this regard, it stands to reason that digitalization offers a critical venue to reconstruct, strengthen, and upgrade the global networks of cross-border interdependence amid the era of de-globalization. Recent academic works also offer claims and evidence in support of this insight. For example, Autio, Mudambi, and Yoo (2021) have argued that digitalization could increase the resilience of business in the global disruptions because it can free the firms from constraints of transportation and collocation. Likewise, Tallman, Luo, and Buckley (2018) claim that digitalized business models and network effects associated with global customer bases could facilitate globalization by helping MNEs quickly expand into the new foreign markets. Brouthers, Chen, Li, and Shaheer (2022) have suggested that digitalization have provided businesses novel ways to enter foreign countries such as capital access, innovation outputs, virtual presence, and the managed ecosystem. In essence, digital technologies and platforms are characterized by openness, generativity, and affordances that may change the nature of value creation/capture and transformed organizations as well as social relationship (Nambisan, Wright, & Feldman, 2019).

However, despite these recent studies striving to unveil the roles of digitalization in promoting the development of globalization and “reglobalization” (i.e., the adjustment and reconstruction of established global value networks) amid the looming trend of deglobalization, most of the research efforts stays at the commentary level and calls for the idiosyncratic research into specific context (Luo, 2022b). Meanwhile, the digital risk such as the data privacy and cybersecurity issues become more salient, calling for attention from both practitioners and academia (Coche, Kolk, & Ocelík, 2024; Luo, 2022c). Thus, it is time to re-examine the role of digital technology in this new era. This task is particularly important for firms either originating from or operating in Asia Pacific areas, a region that recently both witnesses prominent geopolitical collisions and realignment and plays central roles in digitalization and global value chain reconstruction. The literature development largely echoes the critical roles played by Asia Pacific in both global trends, such that roughly half of published work solely or partially relied on Asia Pacific settings. In this regard, it is both pertinent and valuable for us to develop nuanced Asia-Pacific perspectives in terms of how firms, especially MNEs, embrace digitalization in the spirit of effectively adapting their global value networks and navigating the alarming trend of deglobalization. Doing so also inherently aligns with the core mission of Asia Pacific Journal of Management (this opens in a new tab) as a leading academic outlet specifically dedicating on promoting the development of business and organization research in Asia Pacific areas.

Recommended Topics:

Based on the discussion above, the core mission of this special issue (SI) is to try and invite creative submissions that strive to explore the roles played by digitalization in international business. We encourage submissions that draw on a variety of theoretic and disciplinary approaches to the study of digital globalization related with the Asia-Pacific context. Suggested topics include, but are not restricted to:

1. How would major national and supranational initiatives of deglobalization and re-globalization (e.g., the “Belt and Road” initiative of China) affect firms’ strategic decisions of digitalization transformation? How does digitalization facilitate the “Belt and Road” initiative of China?
2. How do firms utilize the digital technology to respond to the institutional complexity? How does digitalization help firms overcome the techno-nationalism? How can digital MNEs in Asia overcome liabilities of foreignness, liability of outsidership and liability of country of origin under de-globalization to achieve competitive advantage when venturing into different foreign markets?
3. How can Asia firms employ the digital technology such as AI and big data to create competitive advantage? How do platform-based MNEs in Asia create and appropriate values?
4. How does digitalization reshape the competitive and cooperative relationship among Asian firms and between Asian firms and firms from other continents?
5. How would the emerging “splinternet” — an increasingly fragmented internet with competing China-led and U.S.- led platforms, affect the development of deglobalization and reglobalization?
6. How do Asia firms manage their digital risk? How do firms build and maintain their digital resilience?
7. How would traditional Asian philosophies and ideologies encourage or impede the adoption of digital technology for Asia firms? What roles would the unique sociocultural factors play a role in the governance of globalized platforms?
8. How does digitalization affect the sustainability of Asia firms? How and to what extent do digital technology helps address the societal issues in Asia? How does digital technology reduce the poverty worsen by the de-globalization in some Asian regions?

Special Issue Timeline:

• Deadline of proposal submission: August 31, 2024
• Deadline of original manuscript submission: March 31, 2025
• First-round Revise and Resubmit notification: Mid-June, 2025
• Second-round decision (either minor or rejection): March, 2026
• Expected online publication: Dec, 2026

Special Issue Workshops:

We intend to organize an online SI briefing session in June 2024 to promote our special issue and to provide opportunities for scholars who are interested in this special issue to communicate with the SI guest editors. A proposal workshop will be held in September 2024 for authors who submit their proposals for feedback. Moreover, we also plan to organize a paper development workshop for authors whose submissions are invited for revision and resubmission at the special issue. This PDW is designed to help the authors revise their submissions in the spirit of improving the quality of final publications in this special issue.

Bios of Guest Editors:

Xiao Zhang is a professor at Business School, Nanjing University, Changjiang Youth Scholar (2021). His research focuses on international business, innovation and digital transformation, and knowledge management. Professor Zhang has published over seventy research papers in international and domestic leading journals, such as Journal of International Business Studies, International Business Review, Journal of Business Research, Technovation, Management Decision, and so on. He has finished one major program of the National Social Science Foundation of China and is presiding one key program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China titled “Strategic Management and Digital Transformation in the Post COVID-19 Era”. He is the editor in chief of Nanjing Business Review.

Luqun Xie is an associate professor in Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University. She obtained her PhD degree in Hongkong University of Science and Technology. Her research focuses on innovation, international business and digitalization. Her work has appeared in leading journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy and so on. She has served on the editorial board of Journal of International Business Studies and is a reviewer for Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy, Management and Organization Review, and so on.

J.T. Li is a chair professor in the department of management in business school at Hongkong University of Science and Technology. He is an expert in global business. Over the past decade, Professor Li has published dozens of research papers on leading journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science and so on. He is an area editor in Journal of International Business Studies and is serving on several editorial boards of leading journals.

Lin Cui is a Professor of Strategy and International Business at the Research School of Management. Lin’s research interests include international business strategies and business innovation/entrepreneurship. His recent research investigates the impacts of institutional environment, business network and governance structure, and firm resources and strategic leadership on firm strategies and performance. Lin’s work has been funded through major competitive research grant schemes and published in renowned academic journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of World Business and Organization Studies among other. Lin is a member of ARC College of Experts, and serves on the editorial boards of leading scholarly journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, and others.

Yu Li is a professor of business strategy and international business at Business School, University of International Business and Economics. Her research has focused on FDI spillover, the role of cluster in firm competitive advantage, and the internationalization of firms from emerging markets. Her research on these topics has been published in leading academic journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. She is an area editor of Quarterly Journal of Management and serves as the ad hoc reviewer of Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and so on.

References:

Autio, E., et al. 2021. Digitalization and globalization in a turbulent world: Centrifugal and centripetal forces. Global Strategy Journal, 11(1): 3-16.

Brouthers, K. D., et al. 2022. Charting new courses to enter foreign markets: Conceptualization, theoretical framework, and research directions on non-traditional entry modes. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(9): 2088-115.

Coche, E., Kolk, A., & Ocelík, V. 2024. Unravelling cross-country regulatory intricacies of data governance: the relevance of legal insights for digitalization and international business. Journal of International Business Policy, 7(1), 112-127.

Cui, V., Vertinsky, I., Wang, Y., & Zhou, D. 2023. Decoupling in international business: The ‘new’vulnerability of globalization and MNEs’ response strategies. Journal of International Business Studies, 54(8), 1562-1576.

Luo, Y. 2022a. New connectivity in the fragmented world. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(5): 962-80.

Luo, Y. 2022b. Illusions of techno-nationalism. Journal of International Business Studies, 1-18.

Luo, Y. 2022c. A general framework of digitization risks in international business. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(2), 344-361.

Luo, Y. 2024. Paradigm shift and theoretical implications for the era of global disorder. Journal of International Business Studies, 55(2), 127-135.

Luo, Y., & Van Assche, A. 2023. The rise of techno-geopolitical uncertainty: Implications of the United States CHIPS and Science Act. Journal of International Business Studies, 54(8), 1423-1440.

Moyo, D. 2019. Are businesses ready for deglobalization. Harvard Business Review, 6.

Nambisan, S., et al. 2019. The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes. Research policy, 48(8): 103773.

Petricevic, O. & Teece, D. J. 2019. The structural reshaping of globalization: Implications for strategic sectors, profiting from innovation, and the multinational enterprise. Journal of International Business Studies, 50: 1487-512.

Tallman, S., et al. 2018. Business models in global competition. Global Strategy Journal, 8(4): 517-35.

Vargas-Hernández, J. G. 2022. Nationalism and Populism as the Driving Forces of Economic Deglobalization, Regionalism, and Localism Processes, Transitioning From Globalized to Localized and Self-Reliant Economies: IGI Global.

Vertinsky, I., Kuang, Y., Zhou, D., & Cui, V. 2023. The political economy and dynamics of bifurcated world governance and the decoupling of value chains: An alternative perspective. Journal of International Business Studies, 54(7), 1351-1377.

Witt, M. A. 2019. De-globalization: Theories, predictions, and opportunities for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(7): 1053-77.

Witt, M. A., Lewin, A. Y., Li, P. P., & Gaur, A. 2023. Decoupling in international business: Evidence, drivers, impact, and implications for IB research. Journal of World Business, 58(1), 101399.