GSJ 2013 - Special Issue THE JOINT IMPACT OF GLOBAL STRATEGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Call for Papers for a Special Issue
THE JOINT IMPACT OF GLOBAL STRATEGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
Submission Deadline: April 1, 2013
Guest Editors:
Jasper J. Hotho, Copenhagen Business School
Mark Easterby-Smith, Lancaster University
GSJ Supervising Editor: Marjorie A. Lyles, Indiana University
Background and Purpose:
A significant part of research on global strategy, international business (IB) and international
management focuses explicitly on issues of knowledge, innovations and learning. These issues cover
a range of topics such as how internationalizing firms gain knowledge about foreign market
environments and learn to operate across nations, to the challenges associated with transferring
knowledge across borders and the learning processes surrounding international joint ventures.
Indeed, both the raison d’être of the multinational enterprise and its (geographical) boundaries are
commonly presented as functions of knowledge and learning processes.
In theorizing about such issues, global strategy scholars often turn to the literatures on organizational
learning, knowledge, and innovation. These streams of literature infuse our theories on multinational
organizations by providing core concepts and definitions for organizational learning. In addition,
advances in the learning literature also impact the global strategy research agenda. Developments in
organizational learning and innovative approaches to knowledge research, such as on organizational
ambidexterity, absorptive capacity or the social facets of knowledge integration, spur new research
efforts that enrich our insights into the complex workings of multinational organizations.
Despite extensive work on issues of knowing and learning in the global strategy field, the impact of
global strategy research on the organizational learning literature has been limited. This is surprising,
as research on multinational organizations has considerable potential to advance learning research.
For instance, not only are multinational organizations excellent sites for studying some of the more
complex learning and knowledge processes, but the variability in the contexts in which
multinationals operate also provides opportunities for the identification of relevant contingency
factors, or for reflection on the universality of organizational learning processes. Thus, global
strategy research offers distinct advantages to validate and extend existing learning theories, as well
as to develop new, contextualized perspectives on the creation, retention and dispersion of
knowledge.With this special issue we set out to change the view of global strategy research as passively
‘borrowing’ advances made in organizational learning research. We intend to highlight that global
strategy research can, in distinctive ways, actively enrich and contribute to our understanding of
organizational knowing and learning. With this GSJ issue, we therefore aim to provide a venue for
exemplary studies on global strategy that impact and advance the broader fields of organizational
learning and knowledge management. The envisioned contributions in this special issue may, for
instance, highlight new antecedents and important contingency factors, explore relations between
learning at different levels, or critically assess and examine the universality of theories of learning
and knowledge.
Research Questions:
We seek studies that contribute to the literatures on organizational learning and knowledge
management through effective and innovative use of global strategy research contexts. However we
recognize as well that research on organizational learning, knowledge and innovation also
significantly affects global strategy theory. We want to include those articles as well that address
organizational learning and its contribution to the theory of MNCs, global strategy, and
internationalization.
We explicitly invite contributions on a wide range of topics related to organizational knowing and
learning, including, but certainly not limited to, knowledge creation and knowledge transfer, valuing
knowledge assets, absorptive capacity and knowledge integration, situated and practice-based
learning, organizational unlearning and forgetting, and the development of dynamic capabilities.
In line with GSJ’s editorial policy, we welcome contributions that draw on a wide variety of
approaches, whether quantitative or qualitative. We also encourage submissions that address and
cross different levels of analysis, such as the individual, team, organizational, or institutional
contexts. Finally, we equally welcome conceptual contributions that make constructive use of
insights from IB and global strategy theory to inform organizational learning.
The following are illustrative, rather than exhaustive, of the types of research questions what would
fit well within the scope of this special issue:
1. How are dynamic capabilities and their impact on competitiveness and performance affected
by wider societal structures?
2. Are there links between the practices of global strategy and the processes of learning?
3. What are the effects of culture on knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer, and what is the
relative influence of different formal and informal integration mechanisms on these
relationships?
4. What is the relative importance of organizational unlearning and forgetting versus knowledge
accumulation for the internationalization process of firms?5. What internal and external factors shape the interactions within and across communities of
practice, and how does this affect situated learning within organizational units?
6. How do organizational and institutional structures interact to affect knowledge transfer and
adoption?
Submission Instructions:
The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2013. All submissions will be subject to the regular doubleblind peer review process at GSJ. To learn more about Global Strategy Journal, including additional
information on the submission process, please visit the Global Strategy Journal website at:
http://gsj.strategicmanagement.net/
More Information:
To obtain additional information or volunteer to review, please contact the special issue editors:
? Jasper Hotho, Copenhagen Business School (jjh.smg-AT-cbs.dk)
? Marjorie A. Lyles, Indiana University (mlyles-AT-iupui.edu)
? Mark Easterby-Smith, Lancaster University (m.easterby-smith-AT-lancaster.ac.uk)
Or contact the Managing Editor of the GSJ, Lois Gast (lgast-AT-wiley.com).
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