Date & Time: 29 October 2026, 01:00 UTC (View Local Time)
Hosts: Journal of International Business Studies
Point of Contact: Carl Fey (cfey@fas.harvard.edu)
Event Recording Access: Current AIB members will be able to access a recording of this event in the “AIB Video Archive” section of our login portal. New webinar recordings are typically posted within five business days of the original event date.
Event Overview: Most executives have making their firm more innovative as a key goal, but many struggle to reach this goal. When one adds an international dimension, this is an even greater issue. There is lack of clarity about what management practices and organizational structures work best to drive innovation and how national and cultural differences affect this. It is challenging for MNC’s to understand if and how to locate and distribute their R&D activities around the world. Firms also need to consider how geopolitical tensions should influence these decisions and if there are strategies to minimize the effect of these tensions.
New important players in the innovation space like China are emerging, and understanding how to respond to and potentially leverage this are increasingly important topics for MNCs to consider. Likewise, many Chinese firms find themselves newly equipped with state-of-the-art innovation, but they need to consider how best to take this forward and further develop in the international arena. Firms also need to carefully consider who is best to hire to deal with these important initiatives. Many firms are also increasingly leveraging open innovation, but we need to know more about when and how this should best be done and how and where MNCs should leverage this. In short, many important questions related to international aspects of innovation remain and will be explored in this webinar.
Following an introduction to the webinar by moderator Carl Fey from BI Norwegian Business School and Harvard, the webinar will include brief presentations of three papers. After each paper, there will be an opportunity for the audience to ask a few questions. Following the presentations, we will have a panel discussion moderated by Carl Fey. The panel discussion will discuss questions from the moderator as well as questions from the audience.
ARTICLES TO BE DISCUSSED
Kumar, P., Calvano, F. & Schnatterly, K. Governing cross-border innovation: how country-specific director experience enables board-level boundary spanning in MNEs. Journal of International Bussiness Studies (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-026-00900-8
Qu, J., Khapova, S.N. & Tang, Y. Bottom-up innovation under uncertainty: the role of face concerns in shaping overt and covert innovation across cultures. Journal of International Bussiness Studies 57, 338–355 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-025-00834-7
Zhang, C., Xu, Z., Chen, K. et al. R&D location choice under technology sanctions: evidence from Chinese MNEs. Journal of International Bussiness Studies (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-026-00889-0
PANELISTS
Pankaj Kumar is an associate professor of strategic management in the Department of Management at the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business. Kumar joined the Pamplin College in 2018 after receiving his Ph.D. in strategic management and entrepreneurship from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. His research interests lie at the intersection of strategy and organization theory, focusing on innovation, interfirm relationships (alliances and networks), emerging markets, crowdsourcing, and geography. He is also interested in the application of big data and machine learning to strategic management. Both of his dissertation essays have been published in the Academy of Management Journal.
Jinzhao Qu is an associate professor at the International Business School of Hainan University. She received Ph.D. degrees from Renmin University of China and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2023. Her research lies at the intersection of organizational behavior and cross-cultural management, focusing on employee creativity and innovation, and leadership. In particular, she examines how cultural and organizational contexts shape employees’ efforts to develop and advance innovative ideas. Her work has appeared in the Journal of International Business Studies, Applied Psychology, Group & Organization Management, and the Journal of Business and Psychology. She serves as an associate editor of Applied Psychology: An International Review.
Chenjian Zhang is a Senior Lecturer in International Business and Strategy at the University of Western Australia Business School. He has research interests in international business, entrepreneurship and innovation, and organization theory. His work has been published in leading management journals, including Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Asian Pacific Journal of Management, Journal of Small Business Management, and Management and Organization Review. Chenjian serves as Senior Editor at Management and Organization Review and serves as a board member for the International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR). He holds a PhD in Sociology (Economic Sociology) from Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences in Germany and has been visiting scholar at Stanford University and University of Alberta.
MODERATOR
Carl F. Fey is a Professor of Strategy at BI Norwegian Business School, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard, and an Elected Fellow of the Academy of International Business. Previously, he was the Dean of Nottingham University Business School of China. Prof. Fey was a recipient of the 2013 Journal of International Business Studies Decade Award for his work on international knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity. His research helps understand which management practices can help firms increase organizational effectiveness, innovation, and internationalization, taking into account the future of work and cultural/institutional differences between countries.