Fast Facts

  • Workshop Date: 5 July 2022
  • Registration Deadline: 31 May 2022 (extended)
  • PDW Chairs:
  • Panelists:
    • Rosalie L. Tung, Incoming Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Business Studies
    • Lillian Eby, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Applied Psychology
    • Maryam Kouchaki, Editor-in-Chief, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes
    • Jennifer D. Nahrgang, Associate Editor, Personnel Psychology
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What is the Purpose of This Workshop?

This year’s conference theme ‘Beyond Diversity and Inclusion: Equity and Fairness in International Business (IB) research’ draws attention to the fertile meeting ground between IB and the field of Organizational Behaviour (OB). Although IB is an interdisciplinary field, its theoretical anchor has primarily been economics rather than OB.

The purpose of this professional development workshop is to bring the two fields together into productive dialogue. Much of the extant research on micro-level topics in IB tends to apply established theories from OB to cross-border contexts. IB offers a rich multi-level context for validating and extending existing theories in OB. IB has frequently served as a rigorous testing ground for OB theories in terms of their boundary conditions, moderating factors, and mediating variables. These studies incorporate valuable context-specific variables into existing models and specify the boundary conditions of these models. While this approach enhances our understanding of focal phenomena, the basic explanatory mechanisms and underlying assumptions of the theories tend to remain intact.

Thus, the purpose of this professional development workshop is to take a step further by focusing on theoretical foundations as opposed to theory applications in the meeting of IB and OB. For example, in the area of global leadership research, there are two streams of research – “gL” and “Gl.”  The former stream focuses on leadership (Big L) and treats global (little g) as “just another context”. In doing so, it downplays the distinctive and transformative effect of the global environment on leadership. The latter stream, in turn, focuses on the distinctive environmental conditions of the global environment (Big G), thereby downplaying the rich theoretical offerings and possible unexamined assumptions of mainstream leadership (little l) theory. We believe here lies an opportunity to enrich both streams of research through contextual theorizing. This approach embraces context as an explanatory mechanism, not only as descriptive material. It aims at building distinctive theories of complex phenomena instead of general theories in OB. Contextual theorizing also recognizes the need for multiple levels of analysis that are often present in IB studies. Furthermore, accounting for variations over time and across space is seen as key for producing plausible theoretical accounts. This workshop offers a forum for dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and opportunity to surface underlying assumptions of the theories that we use in researching the intersection of IB and OB.

Who is This Workshop For?

This workshop is targeted at IB scholars at all stages of their career (including PhD students) who already work on OB topics or who have an interest in this area of research. The workshop provides an opportunity to meet the incoming editors of JIBS and leading journals in OB and to discuss the possibilities of publishing multidisciplinary and international research in this area. Please note that this is not a paper development workshop, but a professional development workshop.

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How is This Event Structured?

The 90-minute workshop is structured as follows:

  • The Chairs will open the workshop (10 min)
  • The journal editors will first briefly introduce their journals (30 min)
  • This will be followed by a Q&A session (10 min)
  • Roundtable discussions will follow, during which participants will be grouped with JIBS and OB editors to discuss their research ideas (40 min)

How Can I Register for this Workshop?

Pre-registration for this workshop is required by 31 May 2022 (extended). All participants are expected to have valid AIB membership and to have registered for the AIB 2022 Conference.

What is the Purpose of This Workshop?

This year’s conference theme ‘Beyond Diversity and Inclusion: Equity and Fairness in International Business (IB) research’ draws attention to the fertile meeting ground between IB and the field of Organizational Behaviour (OB). Although IB is an interdisciplinary field, its theoretical anchor has primarily been economics rather than OB.

The purpose of this professional development workshop is to bring the two fields together into productive dialogue. Much of the extant research on micro-level topics in IB tends to apply established theories from OB to cross-border contexts. IB offers a rich multi-level context for validating and extending existing theories in OB. IB has frequently served as a rigorous testing ground for OB theories in terms of their boundary conditions, moderating factors, and mediating variables. These studies incorporate valuable context-specific variables into existing models and specify the boundary conditions of these models. While this approach enhances our understanding of focal phenomena, the basic explanatory mechanisms and underlying assumptions of the theories tend to remain intact.

Thus, the purpose of this professional development workshop is to take a step further by focusing on theoretical foundations as opposed to theory applications in the meeting of IB and OB. For example, in the area of global leadership research, there are two streams of research – “gL” and “Gl.”  The former stream focuses on leadership (Big L) and treats global (little g) as “just another context”. In doing so, it downplays the distinctive and transformative effect of the global environment on leadership. The latter stream, in turn, focuses on the distinctive environmental conditions of the global environment (Big G), thereby downplaying the rich theoretical offerings and possible unexamined assumptions of mainstream leadership (little l) theory. We believe here lies an opportunity to enrich both streams of research through contextual theorizing. This approach embraces context as an explanatory mechanism, not only as descriptive material. It aims at building distinctive theories of complex phenomena instead of general theories in OB. Contextual theorizing also recognizes the need for multiple levels of analysis that are often present in IB studies. Furthermore, accounting for variations over time and across space is seen as key for producing plausible theoretical accounts. This workshop offers a forum for dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and opportunity to surface underlying assumptions of the theories that we use in researching the intersection of IB and OB.

Who is This Workshop For?

This workshop is targeted at IB scholars at all stages of their career (including PhD students) who already work on OB topics or who have an interest in this area of research. The workshop provides an opportunity to meet the incoming editors of JIBS and leading journals in OB and to discuss the possibilities of publishing multidisciplinary and international research in this area. Please note that this is not a paper development workshop, but a professional development workshop.

How is This Event Structured?

The 90-minute workshop is structured as follows:

  • The Chairs will open the workshop (10 min)
  • The journal editors will first briefly introduce their journals (30 min)
  • This will be followed by a Q&A session (10 min)
  • Roundtable discussions will follow, during which participants will be grouped with JIBS and OB editors to discuss their research ideas (40 min)

How Can I Register for this Workshop?

Pre-registration for this workshop is required by 15 May 2022. All participants are expected to have valid AIB membership and to have registered for the AIB 2022 Conference.