Call for papers

INTERNEXT

International Business in Latin America & Caribbean: Contexts and Implications

 

Guest Editors:

 

 

  • Dr. Mohamed Amal – Full Professor, FURB & UNIVALI/Brazil, amal@furb.br

 

 

As editors of this Special Issue, we invite you to submit your papers to INTERNEXT. INTERNEXT is an indexed Latin America journal sponsored by ESPM – Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing, a non-for-profit organization, São Paulo/Brazil. Broadly, the journal aims to open possibilities to articles about theoretical discussions with a bibliographical content, understanding that critical thinking in the international field is essential as empirical research. Nowadays, INTERNEXT is indexed at Readalyc, Thompson Reuters (under evaluation), Redib, EbscoHost, Spell, Gale Cengage Learning, Doaj, PKP, Latindex, Google Scholar,OpenAire, Miar, Diadorm, Dialnet, and EconLit.  

 

Background

IB in LAC has evolved significantly in the last two decades. IB in LAC's dynamic and trends reflect changes in the global context and significant changes in the regional distribution of FDI and internationalization patterns. However, we believe that individual countries and sub-regional arrangements of LAC countries have evolved and responded differently to the global context's ongoing changes. In our understanding, this occurs due to the speed of economic and political reforms in the different regions and how local firms have responded to uncertainty and risks faced in their own home countries. We believe that the LAC context offers an excellent opportunity to deepen our understanding of the context in IB, particularly in the pandemic, which can drive the region to a new "lost decade," with profound impacts on the international competitiveness and locations and firms. 

After a year immersed in an unprecedented pandemic, the effects of the crisis indicate different scenarios. On the one hand, global value chains reinforce the trend towards greater regionalization (Gereffi, 2020); on the other hand, large corporations seek to identify how to overcome institutional, sanitary, and logistical restrictions more quickly and recover the losses of 2020 (Kano & Oh, 2020). The disruption of the supply flow of raw materials in addition to radical changes in consumer behavior calls into question the strategies that prevailed in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Although some of these changes originated in the pre-COVID period (Witt, 2019), the intensification of the speed of changes and the renewal of the state's role requires further studies to understand the "extended pandemic" and the post-pandemic scenario. Besides, the responses of each country and subnational region create challenges for decision-makers (Batschauer da Cruz, Floriani & Amal ., 2020), who need to reposition their value chains, understand new restrictions, and perceive opportunities in them, given that the regionalization of global value chains can represent new flows of investment in Latin America and the Caribbean (CSIS, 2020). Therefore, understanding the context of IB in the LAC and its implications is, in our perspective, a crucial step towards opening new research avenues in this field.

In this call for papers, we understand that context can be related to macro-perspective and nationwide approach and subnational perspective to address firms strategies and FDI motives of MNCs in the region in the era of a de-globalizing world economy (The Economist, 2019). This comprehension will likely determine a new cycle, still under construction, that requires new research to support decision-makers to convert uncertainty into risk assessment and, afterward, opportunities.

Interest Topics (Aims and Scope)

We are interested in discussing the dynamic of the multi-contexts in the regions and its implications for FDI and MNC's strategies and how SMEs respond to the context. We understand that the COVID-19 is a momentum in the region's history (like in many other regions in the world) and likely to accelerate firms' different processes and strategies. This new context influences strategies and determinants of MNCs operating in the region and, therefore, its attractiveness in terms of Latin American and Caribbean firms' internationalization strategies.  More specifically, we encourage papers to contribute to the topics related to investment flows, strategies, consumption, entrepreneurship, innovation, and finance from the international business perspective, primarily focusing on the specific contexts that make up the quilt patchwork from Latin America the Caribbean.

We welcome theoretical as well as empirical papers. All methodologies are welcome, longitudinal research, case studies, survey, secondary analysis, and experiments. Multidisciplinary research, including strategy, marketing, innovation, geography, is also encouraged to be submitted.

Although not limited to them, the following topics are of interest to this call:

  • How are multinationals in Latin America and the Caribbean setting up their global value chains during and after COVID-19?
  • What elements related to consumer behavior changes in Latin America and the Caribbean act as drivers of investment flows?
  • Given the different sub-national responses to the pandemic, how do institutional contexts trigger different effects in choosing FDI locations?
  • To what extent does accelerated digital transformation during the pandemic period facilitate or inhibit international entrepreneurship expansion?
  • What is the distance that multinationals tolerate when deciding to regionalize global value chains?
  • What is the space for coopetition in organizations' strategies after the pandemic's collective and globalized experience?

 

Selection of papers

Invited articles and those that will apply for the special edition must be in line with the journal's standards, indicated on its website. The entire evaluation process will follow the rules in force at INTERNEXT, subjecting the articles to blind review.

 

Deadline for paper submission: February 28th, 2022

Deadline for notification of admission: April 10th, 2022

Final manuscript decision: July 10th, 2022

Publication: December 31st, 2022

 

References

Batschauer da Cruz, C. B., E Floriani, D., & Amal, M. (2020). The OLI Paradigm as a comprehensive model of FDI determinants: a sub-national approach. International Journal of Emerging Markets, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2019-0517

CSIS. (2020). The Effects of Covid-19 on Latin America's Economy. Center for Strategic & International Studies. https://www.csis.org/analysis/effects-covid-19-latin-americas-economy

Gereffi, G. (2020). What does the COVID-19 pandemic teach us about global value chains? The case of medical supplies. Journal of International Business Policy, 3(3), 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1057/s42214-020-00062-w

Kano, L., & Oh, C. H. (2020). Global value chains in the post‐COVID world: Governance for reliability. Journal of Management Studies, 57(8), 1773–1777.

The Economist. (2019). Slowbalisation: the future of global commerce. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/printedition/2019-01-26

Witt, M. A. (2019). De-globalization: Theories, predictions, and opportunities for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-019-00219-7