Geo-Regional Competitiveness in East Central Europe, the Baltic Countries, and Russia

Globalization affects people, organizations, nations, and regions. It exerts strong impacts on the driving forces and business landscape, creating and changing strategic opportunities and pressures for economic development, growth, employment, and sustainability. East Central Europe (ECE), the Baltics, and Russia play an increasingly important role in the European region both as emerging markets and competitive players. In contrast to Western European nations and business entities, ECE, the Baltics, and Russia receive more limited and sporadic coverage in business literature. The changing dynamics in the European region and beyond, the unfolding political-economic challenges across the European Union, as well as the rising global power of emerging economic powers such as Brazil, China, India, Russia, and others require knowledge, skills, and methodological platforms inducing strategies and operations in the new and ever changing business landscape. In turn, this facilitates the need for strategic competitive analysis on the national, regional, and company levels. The proposed book strives to contribute to the body of knowledge addressing and connecting these issues into the integrative comparative regional context.

Mission
This book will present a comparative, competitive geo-regional cross-country analysis of ECE, the Baltics, and Russia: implications for international business.

Objectives
o Analyze regional and national business competitiveness of ECE, the Baltics (two emerging European regions) and Russia (a major strategic player in the Commonwealth of Independent States - CIS).
o Contrast and compare ECE, the Baltics, and Russia in geo-regional and national strategic competitive context.
o Explore key strategic strengths, core competencies, weaknesses in a comparative strategic context.
o Identify key business trends, drivers, and dynamics on the national level across ECE, the Baltics, and Russia.
o Examine patterns and trends in regional trade and foreign investment.

Scholarly Value, Potential Contribution/Impact, and Purpose Increasingly powerful forces of globalization sharpen global and geo-regional business competitiveness and political-economic interdependence. They critically impact socio-economic development, job creation, and other strategic priorities at the regional, national, and company levels. The proposed book explores scholarly frontiers and applications in a strategic business study of emerging European regions: ECE, Baltics, and Russia. The book discusses subject issues in a comparative integrative perspective.

Target Audience
This book is designated for scholars, professionals, managers, government agencies, universities, think tanks,  and other individuals, organizations, and institutions interested in a deeper understanding of the geo-regional strategic business dynamics and landscape involving ECE, the Baltics, and Russia. More specifically, the book explores political-economic environment and competitiveness, and provides insights on attractiveness, strategic benefits, costs, and risks of doing business in these regions of Europe in a comparative context.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. GLOBALIZATION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND COMPETITIVENESS: GLOBAL CONCEPTS, TRENDS, DRIVERS, DYNAMICS, AND GEO-REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS o Competitiveness in the context of globalization o Implications of competitiveness in the regional context: ECE, Baltics, Russia

2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS:  REGIONAL VIEW o Regional potential for socio-economic development, core competencies, and competitive advantages and disadvantages in the global and geo-regional context o Regional trends, drivers, and dynamics in socio-economic development and
competitiveness: comparative view (competing/comparator geo-regions)

--> EAST CENTRAL EUROPEAN (ECE) REGION
-->BALTIC REGION
-->RUSSIA

3. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS:  NATIONAL VIEW (list of countries -tentative) Suggested issues to be covered for each country:
National potential for socio-economic development, core competencies, and competitive advantages and disadvantages in the regional context a. Key global business rankings (competitiveness cost of doing business, trade, FDI, risks, etc.) b. Trends, drivers, and dynamics in socio-economic development and competitiveness: comparative view c. Key economic sectors/industries, their dynamics, current state, and future outlook d.
Environment, climate, profile, and patterns in international business (trade, FDI) e. Competitive SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) f. Best corporate practices in competitiveness .
Domestic forms . Foreign-based/international firms g. Cases/other materials illustrating best practices and lessons in business competitiveness and developments h. Main country-specific sources of information and consulting assistance in doing business (domestic government, international organizations, foreign government, non-profit organizations and think tanks, private consultancies)

EAST CENTRAL EUROPE
o Bulgaria
o Czech Republic
o Poland
o Hungary
o Romania
o Ukraine

BALTIC COUNTRIES
o Estonia
o Latvia
o Lithuania

RUSSIA
o Countrywide
o Leading economic regions

Submission Procedure and Format
Contributors are invited to submit on or before April 30, 2013, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission, priorities, structure, and format of his/her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by May 15, 2013 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters (written in English under American Psychological Association style, approximately 8,000 words each) are expected to be submitted by August 30, 2013. All submitted chapters are subject to double blind reviews. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Publisher
This book
(http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/884) is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly Idea Group Reference), "Medical Information Science Reference," and "IGI Publishing"
imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com<http://www.igi-global.com>. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2014.

Important Deadlines:
Chapter proposal submission: on or before April 30, 2013 Chapter proposal acceptance notification: May 15, 2013 Full chapter submission: August 30,
2013 Review Process: August 30 - October 15, 2013 Review Results to Authors:
October 30, 2013 Revised Chapter Submission: November 30, 2013 Final Acceptance Notifications: December 30, 2013 Submission of Final Chapters:
January 15, 2014 Book publication: 2014 Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document):

Dr. Anatoly Zhuplev
Professor. International Business and Entrepreneurship
Hilton Center for Business Loyola Marymount University
1 LMU Drive, MS 8385
Los Angeles, California 90045-2659
U.S.A.

E: azhuplev@lmu.edu<mailto:azhuplev@lmu.edu>    Tel: 310. 338 7414  Fax:
310. 338 3000
http://cba.lmu.edu/facultyresearch/facultylist/zhuplev.htm