Structuring, Managing, and Governing International Collaborations

Background and Purpose:
Research on international collaborations has blossomed in the last two to three decades, as the phenomenon itself was spurred on by globalization and rapid technological advances. Research on collaborative trends and motives quickly gave way to theoretically-driven and empirically-rigorous investigations of the determinants of multinational firms' investments and boundaries as well as the factors that can facilitate or impede effective international collaborations.

The current popularity of research on international collaborations may seem to advance the conclusion that this research domain has reached maturity, or is rapidly reaching maturity. While it is true that considerable progress has been made on theory of alliances, and there is no shortage of active scholarship in this domain, it is also clear that there remain many more questions and research opportunities than areas in which debates have been settled or consensus exists on how to structure, manage, or govern international collaborations.

The purpose of this special issue is to provide a venue for scholarship to probe the under-researched aspects of alliance strategy and management more deeply, catalyze new research on neglected topics of collaborative strategy, and encourage novel research methodologies on international collaborations.
Alliance research needs to delve much more deeply into issues of structure and process, governance and management, to understand the distinctive features and management challenges of this organizational form. This research might also draw much more extensively upon other theoretical traditions, including psychology and political science. We hope that this special issue will encourage research in directions such as these, provide an opportunity to take stock of this literature, and bring together some of the interesting and insightful research currently being carried out on international collaborations.

Research Questions:
We hope to spur research contributions related to the structuring, management, and governance of international collaborations. Contributions are welcome that bring new theory development to these topics, as are empirical contributions that primarily seek to test and extend theory in these domains. The following are illustrative, rather than exhaustive, of the types of research questions that would fit well within the special issue's domain:

? How do alliance processes (e.g., partner search, negotiations, and post-formation relationships between allies) relate to alliance structures and implementation?
? How do firms govern equity collaborations with boards of directors, other formal governance mechanisms or agreement provisions at their disposal?
? How do firms design agreements, administrative structures and interfaces in non-equity alliances?
? How do the ways firms structure, manage, and govern international alliances affect the value they create and capture?
? What determines the share captured by each partner of the incremental value created by the alliance?
? How do various formal and informal governance mechanisms substitute or complement each other for international collaborations?
? How do firms establish the micro-level foundations of alliance management and governance (e.g., managerial incentives, staffing, teamwork, etc.)?
? How do firms design and orchestrate international alliance portfolios?
? How do firms structure and manage international networks?
? How do alliance networks help develop industry standards, or how does the act of developing industry standards spur alliances and cooperation in a sector?
? In global offshoring, how do firms choose from arrangements ranging from fully-owned foreign subsidiaries, to arms-length contracting - with cooperative relations constituting an intermediate position?
? What new research questions on alliances might be tackled with underutilized research methods (e.g., simulations, experiments, formal analysis, multilevel modeling, etc.)?

Submission Instructions:
The deadline for submissions is August 12, 2012. To learn more about the Global Strategy Journal, including additional information on the submission process, please visit the Global Strategy Journal website at: http://gsj.strategicmanagement.net/

The Guest Editors are seeking reviewers for this special issue and are soliciting nominations as well as volunteers to participate in the reviews. All submissions will be subject to the regular double-blind peer review process at GSJ.

More Information:
To nominate a reviewer, volunteer to review, or obtain additional information, please contact the special issue editors:
Farok Contractor, Rutgers University  (farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu)
Jeffrey Reuer, Purdue University (jreuer@purdue.edu)

Or, the Managing Editor of the GSJ, Lois Gast (lgast@wiley.com).

The GSJ is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is one of the many activities of the Strategic Management Society (SMS). The Society is unique in bringing together the worlds of reflective practice and thoughtful scholarship. The Society consists of more than 2,700 members representing over 70 different countries. Membership, composed of academics, business practitioners, and consultants, focuses its attention on the development and dissemination of insights on the strategic management process, as well as fostering contacts and interchange around the world.